Hi All, Just got back from Costa Rica where I was attending the joint conferences of the Mesoamerican Society for Biology and Conservation, and Partners in Flight. I was part of a great symposium on the Sister Bird Club Network that links clubs and individual birders throughout the Western Hemisphere (and beyond).
Many people were commenting about how common and abundant migrant Bay-breasted Warblers seemed to be in the San Jose area where the conference was held (they also seemingly were abundant in other parts of the country, too). So, someone took a look at eBird data to see if this species really was more frequently encountered this year compared to last year. Lo, and behold, yes, about twice as many birds were being reported per observer/hour/km as in 2016. I just looked at the situation for New York State (Go to eBird. Choose Explore data tab at top. Choose Bar charts. Select NY State. When the bar charts come up (oh, and don't forget to choose the year you want to review), scroll down and click on the blue-highlighted name Bay-breasted Warbler. It will show a frequency distribution using both a line graph and histograms.). Guess what -- in 2016, birders in NY were reporting a peak of Bay-breasted migration in early September, with a likelihood of seeing about 3 birds per observer per hour per kilometer of travel. In 2017, the peak of migration occurred also in early September, but the abundance doubled to 6 birds.hr/km. Apparently this really was a good year for Bay-breasted Warblers! See how easy it is to use eBird to check on what you think you are noticing when you are birding? If you want to see some of these birds and others in Central America, the Cayuga Bird Club is facilitating two opportunities for bird trips there in 2018. We are going to Honduras in January 2018, and Costa Rica in April 2018. Trips need to be booked soon. I will hold two get-togethers at my house next weekend (the 18th and 19th) if you are on the fence and haven't decided yet. We can talk about the trips, birds to be seen, and what the experiences are likely to be like. Please email me directly if you want more info about the meetings. These trips are open to the public; you do not need to be a club member to join us. Please consider joining us! Thanks Jody Jody W. Enck, PhD Conservation Social Scientist, and Founder of the Sister Bird Club Network 607-379-5940 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
