Hello fellow birders,
        There has been much talk on the mild winter and spring weather 
that most of the country has experienced and the question, will that cause 
an earlier migration. Two migration factors that are not directly 
influenced by mild weather are sunlight and winds. There is one factor 
that influences migration that is positively influenced by mild winter and 
spring weather and that is food. It is my experience that insects are much 
more abundant when there is a mild winter and spring. If this is true it 
may "speed" the migration ( to what degree I would not know )due to two 
factors. If there are more insects available during migration birds will 
have to spend less time to injest calories ( build fat ) and thus will be 
able to migrate earlier from each stopover site. Second factor is with the 
warmer weather birds will have to expend less calories for heat and thus 
will have this "saved" energy to use for flight thus be able to migrate 
from stopover sites earlier. This is contingent on insect availability 
during the migration period. An entemologist would have information on how 
early warmer weather affects specific inscects emergent/hatch dates. If 
the mild weather produces insects that are not normally available during 
migration or larger numbers of insects that are normally available during 
migration it will be interesting to see if this "speeds" up migration and 
by how much. I am interested to hear feedback an my belief that nature is  
a basic energy equation !!!! 
            May the birds be with you, Henry.

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