Rob's post reminded me that I had an early Yellow Warbler and early
American Redstart this morning on the OSU campus in Columbus.

I suspect that last night's rains forced a few early migrants to land in
the dark and spend the day in the nearest  marginal habitat. To verify
this, I would normally look back at last night's radar loop (
http://www.pauljhurtado.com/US_Composite_Radar/ ) to see if there were in
fact birds migrating through central Ohio when the storms hit, but my site
is down for another day or two until I get it back up and running again (my
apologies!)

Fall songbird migration, it seems, has arrived!

For all you eBirders (and future eBirders!), that means now is a great time
to start checking your local migrant traps!

Not only will you get to witness the shift in the composition of your local
bird community from our summer residents to fall migrants, but you'll also
be documenting the absence and subsequent arrival of all those migrants.

By submitting complete checklists for those not-so-birdy outings BEFORE
migration picks up, you're actually making those later observations more
valuable! Sometimes documenting the ABSENCE of a species is just as
important as documenting their presence. Together, those data help us
better understand changes in seasonal movement patterns, and fall migration
for many species is right around the corner.

Good birding,
Paul Hurtado
Columbus, OH

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.


You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]