I'd bet the farm an awful lot of those were Western Palms and some early yellow-rumps. I saw that 50 years ago on SGI every cool front. And remember, it's not the temp, it's the dew point that says, "GO!"Jim in Galveston On Oct 9, 2026 11:34 AM, Peter Yaukey <peter.yaukey...> wrote:
Bob and FL Birders: Yesterday I had a late Purple Martin in Mobile while pausing to do a skywatch enroute to New Orleans, which also immediately made me wonder if it could have been Isaias- displaced trans-Gulf from the Yucatan, where eBird shows there are still good numbers this late. You may be aware there is a recent paper that reported that Golden-w Warblers in Tennessee on their nesting grounds retreated all the way to the Gulf Coast to avoid a tornadic weather system that was approaching from the west. They returned days later. The researchers detected it serendipitously because they had geolocators on them (their return was quick enough that they would have not had a clue otherwise). The observation of the warblers moving east along the Gulf Breeze peninsula yesterday is fascinating, as is storm retreat in general. In New Orleans, I have seen gradual movements of Mississippi Kites southward while I was out looking for waifs after storms, making me suspect that I was seeing kites returning to places fartther south from which they had retreated inland for the storm passage. An alternative hypothesis to consider for the warblers yesterday, might be corrective migratory morning flight into the wind. South Point in New Orleans has a similar geographical context, being on the south side of a large body of water (Lake Pontchartrain), and the large flights there move NE up the lakefront, characteristically on days with NE winds immediately after fronts, with the birds flying into the wind. The best explanation there appears to be that the birds are orienting into the wind to correct for wind drift the night before, and accumulate along the shoreline into a concentrated flow. So, eastward movement along the GB peninsula could be birds likewise flying correctively into the NE (ENE) wind, accumulating along the bayshore. I explored this possibility last fall on a few days, and did have a flight of 3000 robins moving NE at the extreme east end of the peninsula following one Nov front. I believe eBird also reports an eastbound flight of 1000 Palms in a similar location on the peninsula a few Octobers ago (can be found by searching maxima counts for the county). Your home's position on the far west end of the peninsula might make this invisible to you, because you would be at the very start of the flow concentration process (likewise, the New Orleans flights are not evident farther west on the shore where the accumulation is just beginning). The spot in Mobile where I did yesterday's skywatch was Arlington Park, on the west side of Mobile Bay, near the Downtown Airport (exit 24). I had picked it on the supposition that a corrective movement into the NE wind would bring birds to the western bayshore where they would funnel north. On Tuesday (first morning after front) I only had 15 min to skywatch, but had over 800 small passerines (660 Indigos) fly past heading north in that time. Thursday was much slower (c. 40 birds in 30 min), as often happens in New Orleans (rapid drop off a few days after front). Perhaps the 100-200 birds that JM reported yesterday included both corrective migratory movements, and hurricane retreat! As you say, Questins Questions Questions! Good birding and stay safe today. I myself am hunkering down in Ferry Pass. Peter Yaukey
On Thu, Oct 8, 2026 at 9:34 PM 'Lucy and Bob Duncan' via NFLbirds <nflbirds...> wrote:
Hi all, This morning Jeff Madsen, an experienced birder who lives about 10 miles east of the tip of our 20 mile long peninsula of Gulf Breze watched about 100 - 200 warblers fly EAST against a moderate ENE wind. Normally, birds in Fall migration are seen moving west in a circum-Gulf movement or a later trans-Gulf migration. The exception would be those headed for the West Indies. I rather doubt that a movement that large would be West Indian-bound birds this late in the season. Is it possible these birds "sensed" future worsening conditions to the west of their intended movement and it caused them to avoid further movement west? The hurricane at that point in time was still in the S. Gulf. That's mind boggling! This phenomenon occurred years ago when a hurricane was headed for landfall to our west but was still well to the south of the coast. Lucy and I witnessed a steady progression of Black Terns from our home as they flew east most of the day against a stiff east wind. That's what's great about birding. Questions, questions, questions. Bob DuncanGulf Breeze, Fl
