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Monday, March 29, 2010

Field Trip News and Pending Warm Wave

Several new field trip reports are up on that page; I note that Karl Lukens et. al. did not find the Eurasian Wigeon at Cape May Point State Park on Saturday.

There's been much discussion in these parts about the coming weather. Record high temperatures are possible in upstate NY and parts of the northeast and
New England this weekend. What this will mean exactly is debatable, but it pretty much guarantees arrivals of Louisiana Waterthrush and Yellow-throated Warblers by Sunday, for starters. Add Blue-gray Gnatcatcher to the prospects list. I believe Bank is the only missing swallow species this spring, that's another candidate. And how about Yellow-billed Cuckoo?

If that last species stopped you - it should have - we've been a bit remiss, or maybe cautious, in not mentioning a Yellow-billed Cuckoo reported coming in off the water at the Ferry Terminal jetty on Thursday. This is a nuts-early record for the complete migrant, which winters mainly in northern South America and doesn't normally first appear here until the end of April, but the bird flew point blank past the observer. And the plot thickens because a dead Yellow-billed Cuckoo was reported in Masssachusetts three days later! This bird, if right, is much rarer than say the Black-headed Gulls we've been fussing about.

Anyhow, migration weather means checking Higbee Beach, and I'll be leading the first CMBO Higbee walk of spring this Friday at 7:30 a.m.

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