People have been sharing their enjoyable sightings on MN-Bird, but it might be valuable for this "online community" to pool observations of the 2003 migration in general (and of course any objective measures).
My own impression around Minneapolis is that it is disastrous, by the far the worst in my 28 Springs here. I make brief stops most mornings at Roberts sanctuary or other "migrant traps" in town, and today was typical in having just a handful of passage migrants. There are not the usual plethora of Tennessee Warblers on the streets, and when I've been out in the evening I don't hear any birds flying over. The Minnesota RVNWR was dead yesterday morning; other people have seen some species at Wood Lake, and last week I saw a Black-throated Blue there, but pathetically few species and numbers. Yeah, my faculties must be slipping, but not that dramatically! The big question is, is it just the vagaries of migration, or an environmental catastrophe? It's hardly inconceivable that West Nile Virus on top of habitat destruction here and in the tropics has made the steady decline in populations become precipitous. But yesterday at Murphy-Hanrehan, it seemed some of the breeders were in good numbers (Blue-Winged Warblers and Ovenbirds, and for some observers in part of the park, Hooded Warblers), so maybe it's just an odd pattern of migration, though others (Chestnut-sided Warblers and Wood Thrushes) seemed lacking. The species that strike me as doing well are all southern -- gnatcatchers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Cooper's Hawk, etc. -- which might be predictable given the climate warming. Since I have been lazy and have not kept detailed records over the years, I don't have quantitative evidence to back this up. Other people's records or impressions would be of interest. Steve Greenfield Minneapolis
