Date: 5/6/25 5:47 pm From: maliadances via groups.io <maliadances...> Subject: [pen-bird] Fw: [CALBIRDS] a spring landbird migration update--good news!
Hi Pen-birders,Hi Pen-birders,Wanted to share this interesting update from Paul Lehman talking about Spring Migration.Malia
----- Forwarded Message ----- From: <lehman.paul...> via groups.io <lehman.paul...>To: <calbirds...> <calbirds...>Sent: Tuesday, May 6, 2025 at 11:36:46 AM PDTSubject: [CALBIRDS] a spring landbird migration update--good news!
Back near the end of the third week of April, I (and others) posted our thoughts about the spring landbird migration to date in parts of CA and how late and slow it was. Pretty depressingly so. Similar sorts of news was coming out of the Gulf Coast and Southeast U.S. at the same time. But some of us, at least, are happy to report that there has been a substantial improvement during the last week of April and now through the first week of May. Not only where I am here in San Diego County, but also I've heard similar news from other places such as the southern deserts, LA and Santa Barbara Counties, etc. Not all species, and not everywhere everyday, by any means, but generally much better and involving a good selection of species. One species seemingly doing especially well is Lazuli Bunting, with lots of folks from many areas reporting large numbers. Also finally reasonable numbers of W. Wood-Pewees, Swainson's Thrushes, Nashville, B-t Gray, & Wilson's Warblers, Western Tanagers, and Black-headed Grosbeaks. It seemed as though Townsend's & Hermit Warblers were a bit slow to get untracked, but during the past week they too seem to be doing better. Several folks from a wide swath of CA commented earlier on the very poor numbers of Empidonax flycatchers through April (except for some brief pulses of Hammond's locally), but at least down here around San Diego I am happy to report a major uptick in the numbers of migrant Western Flycatchers during the past week.
On the landbird VAGRANT front, April was quite slow, even though in a "normal" year by the last 10 days of the month one often starts hearing about a few. But I am also happy to report that at least here in San Diego County the past four days have produced several typical early May vagrants: Northern Parula, Black-and-white Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, and coastal Summer Tanager. Hopefully the trend will continue.
Given that it seems lots of species were running late, it will be interesting to see if stuff quickly catches up or if the spring migration ends up being protracted well into June. Also how many truly late-lingering birds will be found this season? Here in San Diego County, for example, we have more than the usual number of Gambel's White-crowned Sparrows turning up this past week, at a time when they typically have become pretty rare.
