> and the northerly flow from the Canadian boreal forest all the way to NY/NJ, means > that birds will be funneled down into the Cape May area by the truckload.
However, that assumes there's a truckload of boreal birds available to be funneled down. Over the summer I heard various reports of below average to abysmal breeding conditions in parts of the boreal (and subarctic), and as the fall migration progresses I'm increasingly inclined to believe there is some truth to them. Over the past couple of weeks, the volume of migrants at McGill Bird Observatory has been about 40% of what we experienced last year at the same time ... admittedly 2008 was a record season, but even so, I'd estimate that our recent numbers are only around 65-70% of our 5-year average. That brings me to this question - while this discussion group is new and interest in nocturnal flight monitoring is clearly growing substantially these days, no doubt some of you have been monitoring patterns for at least a few years ... if so, to what extent can you compare between years, and are you finding that the volume so far this fall seems at all different from previous years at the same time? Marcel Gahbauer McGill Bird Observatory Montreal QC www.migrationresearch.org/mbo.html [email protected] . -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html --
