CT BIG DAY - May 16, 2019 - 189 species

What a strange spring we've had so far. It was quite cold and wet for a while there. The bird migration has come in a few distinct waves, with little movement between those waves. Some years, migration moves through at a steady pace, with birds seemingly trickling through on a daily bases. It was boom-or-bust for the first two weeks of May. We were hoping that we would hit one of these waves that would hold a mix of early and late migrants, but we clearly caught more early birds than late ones. Each year is different. Our 189 total seems to be about our average these days. As always, we had a blast being crazy for 24 hours; those few moments before midnight on "the day" are always exhilarating.

A bit burnt out for a full analysis this year, but we had our usual array of surprise hits and disappointing misses.

"Best" birds: Yellow Rail (continuing), Sandhill Crane, Wilson's Snipe, Evening Grosbeak, Common Goldeneye - all five of these are new for this team's CT Big Day efforts.

Biggest misses: Eastern Wood-Pewee, Alder Flycatcher, Blackpoll Warbler - you can see what I mean about missing some of the later migrants/arrivals.

 - NB

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Warblers in Flight: A Photographic Collection

Last winter's gull review

Iceland in April