[obol] Neotropical migrants affected by unseasonable high pressure system 15 May

[David Bailey]

Oregon Birders,

Both Roy Lowe and Phillip Pickering reported significant fallouts of 
exhausted Neotropical migrant birds at coastal headlands on the morning 
of Friday 16 May. I had not read these messages until recently, but on 
that Friday evening I found myself on a walk at Baker Beach in Lane Co. 
to escape the heat of the trailer I stay in during my work week.

Baker Beach is at the south side of Haceta Head. At the north end of the 
beach, close to the headland, I found a male HERMIT WARBLER corpse in 
the fresh wrack line. We rarely find warblers in the wrack line, so I 
was intrigued. I then found a WILSON'S WARBLER male and then another. I 
decided to survey the entire beach and ended up with:
HERMIT WARBLER--1, male
WILSON'S WARBLER--5,  two males and three unk.

A day later I found another WILSON'S WARBLER in the same wrack line at 
Overlook in Douglas Co.

So, what happened? I think that the unseasonable East winds blew 
north-bound migrants out to sea during their flight Thursday night and 
Friday morning (15-16 May). As the East wind intensified over the night 
and into the morning the birds found themselves over the Ocean at 
daybreak. They then had to fly against the wind to make landfall and 
refuel to replenish their fat reserves. This proved to me overly taxing 
to some and many died in the undertaking. It would be interesting to 
hear of other fallouts from this odd weather event in the Pacific 
Northwest to get a better picture of the extent of this phenomenon. I 
think it deserves a Special Attention box in American Birds or rather 
its current pseudonym.

David

David C. Bailey
Seaside and Florence, Oregon