Insight: In before the door closes

Male Black-throated Green Warbler: a few arrived in the area within the last couple of days, just before the wind shifted back around to the north. Photo by Kenn Kaufman.

April 20th: We've just had a couple of days and nights of southerly and southwesterly winds, and this evening the wind shifted back around to the northwest.  It looks as if it will stay that way for at least a few days.  But as a result of this recent weather pattern, we have a decent variety of birds around in northwest Ohio. 

This most recent push brought in very large numbers of Yellow-rumped Warblers and White-throated Sparrows, and lesser numbers of other typically early migrants, but it also brought a handful of species more typical of the end of April and beginning of May.  Lakeshore migrant traps like Magee Marsh and like the Black Swamp Bird Observatory main banding station a little to the east reported a few individuals of many species of migrants -- I heard reports of at least 20 warbler species being found within the last couple of days. 

This is a good reflection of the importance of noting numbers of individuals.  If we just reported a species list, it would give a very misleading impression of what's going on.  For example, we might list Yellow-rumped, Black-throated Green, and Yellow warblers.  But if we note that we saw 100 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 3 Black-throated Green Warblers, and one Yellow Warbler, it gives a better idea of what is happening with the migration.