Well, we can tell we're in northwest Ohio. Here in the area of Magee Marsh /
Ottawa NWR in Ottawa and Lucas counties, the temperature has gone from near
freezing a couple of days ago to near 80 right now (late afternoon Thursday
May 13) -- there's a strong, hot wind out of the southwest, and Broad-winged
Hawks have been passing over the Black Swamp Bird Observatory and other
spots near the lake, the last of the raptor migrants making their push
through the area. Blue Jays, too, have been blasting by along the lake
shore. These diurnal migrants, riding the wind, probably foreshadow what's
going to happen with the larger numbers of nocturnal migrants tonight.

There's still rain in the area, and thunderstorms are likely to roll through
around 10 pm tonight. But it looks as if southwest or WSW winds will
continue for much of the night, switching to west by morning, with chance of
rain diminishing after dawn and temperatures cooling down to something
moderate in the morning. The wind flow out of the southwest is coming from a
long way south, and there are still a LOT of migrant songbirds that haven't
made it here yet, so we could have a massive arrival on Friday morning. I
know that a lot of us are going to be out there looking! And we'll report as
soon as we have an idea of what's going on.

If you can't make it out to the migrant traps near Lake Erie on Friday, it
looks as if Saturday also could be quite good -- maybe some more arrivals
overnight Friday night, with winds shifting around to northwest on Saturday
to hold some things in place. And even if huge numbers don't materialize,
the overall diversity of migrants in the area is good enough to make for
good birding.

Kenn Kaufman
Black Swamp Bird Observatory
Oak Harbor, Ohio

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