Migration April 2017, Look Who is Coming to You!

 Prairie Warbler

Scarlet Tanager

 Summer Tanager

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Eastern Kingbird

Northern Parula, male

 Northern Waterthrush

Blue-headed Vireo

On their way to you now are all these beautiful migrant birds. We just saw many of them come into Sanibel, FL. By end of April and early May they will have arrived on their breeding grounds. To find out who breeds near you and how to ID them, see our new The New Stokes Field Guides to Birds: Eastern and Western Regions, which contain all new photos and information.

Migrants on Sanibel, Summer Tanager and more

A different look at today's migrants on Sanibel, FL. The best action was on Pond Apple Trail. The male Summer Tanager looked down on us. The Northern Waterthrush was in the "Commerce Pond" the first water area as you walk from the Chamber of Commerce parking lot, showing a view another waterthrush may see as it faced it. What's with those eyebrows anyway? The female Northern Parula sat looking upward, her yellow throat glowing. An Ovenbird was so skulking in the underbrush to the right of the pond in deep shadow, I gave it a "diffuse glow" from photoshop to capture the feeling. And a female Northern Cardinal was determined to build her nest in the woods.

Fallout, Sanibel Lighthouse

Every birder dreams of fallout. Today dreams came true at Sanibel Lighthouse park where neotropical migrant birds were pouring in, in historic numbers. A big weather front came through the Gulf of Mexico, migrants came behind it, then got slammed with the strong NW winds which grounded them. The fallout went on all day and will likely continue tomorrow as there are still strong winds.

Here are some of the photos I took, giving a small taste of the amazing and colorful parade of birds. You could see many species just in one tree. Summer Tanagers, like this male, were everywhere.

14 warbler species, including this Magnolia Warbler zipped around.

Many Eastern Kingbirds flew in.

Scarlet Tanagers flocked in the trees.

The most abundant species was Indigo Bunting. There must have been hundreds of them. Everywhere you looked there were spots of blue.

Baltimore Orioles ate the fruits of the fig trees, as did many migrants.

Orchard Orioles filled the trees with the Baltimores.

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks came in numbers.

This secretive Yellow-billed Cuckoo hid in a tree, delighting the many birders who were there.

Tennessee Warblers were in multiples.

This Black-and-white Warbler worked over a tree trunk.

HIdden in the underbrush, a Northern Waterthrush hung out by one of the water pools made by the rains.

Multiple Dickcissels were seen. We had Warblers, Kingbirds, Vireos, Tanagers, Orioles, Buntings, Grosbeaks, Thrushes, including Gray-cheeked and Wood Thrushes and a Veery. It was an amazing, amazing day, and it's still going on. Word has it that much of the west coast of Florida experienced this fallout today. Get out tomorrow.