The past couple of weeks have been exciting ones for the fall landbird migration.\u00a0 In today\u2019s column, I will describe a recent field trip to make a couple of points about the nature of the autumnal migration.<\/p>\n
October 3 was a rainy, windy day.\u00a0 Realizing the promise of productive coastal birding, Luke Seitz, one of the top birders in the state, decided to check out coastal sites in southern Maine.\u00a0 What a day he had!\u00a0 \u00a0Along with the more expected warblers and sparrows, here are exceptional sightings made by Luke at Cape Neddick and Fort Foster:\u00a0 11 Yellow-billed Cuckoos, seven White-eyed Vireos, one Yellow-throated Vireos, a Worm-eating Warbler, two Blue-winged Warblers, four Hooded Warblers, two Connecticut Warblers, one Yellow-breasted Chat, a Summer Tanager and a Blue Grosbeak.\u00a0 You can see some of Luke\u2019s photographs of these birds at 6jvjm5h<\/a><\/p>\n The phenomenon that Luke experienced is called a fallout.\u00a0 Inclement weather forces migrating birds to abort their evening\u2019s journey and seek shelter.\u00a0 It\u2019s likely that many of these birds were flying westward off the shore to find cover.\u00a0 Of course, Luke knew that the weather conditions were favorable for a coastal fallout of migrants and his hunch was proven correct.\u00a0 So, windy, rainy days can often be the best times to go birding in the fall.<\/p>\n So why were the birds listed above exceptional sightings for Maine?\u00a0 Yellow-billed Cuckoos are uncommon nesting birds in southern Maine so seeing 11 in one day is remarkable.\u00a0 Yellow-throated Vireos and Yellow-breasted Chats are uncommon breeders in southern Maine.\u00a0 Both of these species are much more abundant south of Maine, all the way down to Florida on the eastern Seaboard.\u00a0 Blue-winged Warblers are uncommon breeders in southern Maine and are most common in the mid-Atlantic states to the mid-West.<\/p>\n The remaining species do not nest in Maine.\u00a0\u00a0 The northern limit of the breeding range is southern New England for White-eyed Vireos and Worm-eating Warblers.\u00a0 Hooded Warblers reach southeastern New York and New Jersey.\u00a0 Summer Tanagers and Blue Grosbeaks reach their northern breeding limits in southern Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n Furthermore, all of these species winter south of North America.\u00a0 Most migrate to Caribbean Islands or Central America for the winter.\u00a0 Some Summer Tanagers go all the way to South America.<\/p>\n What in the world are these migrants doing in Maine in October?\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t they be well on their way south to tropical areas?<\/p>\n The explanation is a phenomenon that ornithologists call reverse migration (or reverse orientation).\u00a0 Young geese, swans and other large birds migrate in flocks.\u00a0 Young birds can learn the migratory route from experienced older birds that have made the trip before.<\/p>\n However, perching birds do not migrate in cohesive flocks.\u00a0 These birds have their migratory route genetically programmed.\u00a0 In most cases, a juvenile bird is able to find its way to a wintering area where it has never been.\u00a0 A neat trick!<\/p>\n In some cases, however, birds become disoriented by 180 degrees and hence embark on a north-bound trip in the fall when they should be heading south.\u00a0 Most birds that undertake these reverse migrations are inexperienced, juvenile birds.\u00a0 So for those of us in northern areas, reverse migration in the fall affords us the best chance to see migratory perching birds that are normally found well to our south.<\/p>\n Some extralimital birds seen in Maine may have arrived here by an orientation error different from a 180 degree angle.\u00a0 For instance, a Smith\u2019s Longspur (the second record for Maine) was found in Norridgewock in late September.\u00a0 Smith\u2019s Longspurs breed in the arctic tundra of Alaska and Canada and winter in Oklahoma and adjacent states.\u00a0 The Norridgewock bird had to have taken a southern migration route about 45 degrees to the southeast of its proper route to find itself in Maine.<\/p>\n [Originally published on October 16, 2011]<\/p>\n\n The past couple of weeks have been exciting ones for the fall landbird migration.\u00a0 In today\u2019s column, I will describe a recent field trip to make a couple of points about the nature of the autumnal migration. October 3 was a rainy, windy day.\u00a0 Realizing the promise of productive coastal birding, Luke Seitz, one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[429],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":439,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions\/439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}