Courtesy Wikimedia Commons
For local birding friends: On the Friday night/Saturday morning preceding our Saturday 4/26 Migration Bird Walk Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s BirdCast service (https://dashboard.birdcast.info) recorded a total of 100 birds flying over Cook County, Illinois, where I live. Despite that low total, we had a very good birding day at a nearby forest preserve, Thatcher Woods, in River Forest on Saturday.
On Saturday night/Sunday morning the total was 44.400. Then the winds shifted from strong northerly to very strong southerly. On Sunday night/Monday morning the total had jumped to 1,622,200, Last night (Monday/Tuesday) saw 3,213,600! This fully accords with friend and master birder Greg Neise’s heads-up about what Monday night would bring, based on BirdCast predictions.
BirdCast also suggests what we might expect at any given time. Right now, we could be seeing:
Palm Warbler (seen Saturday in numbers)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (seen Saturday
Yellow Warbler
Northern House Wren (2 seen Saturday)
Golden-crowned Kinglet (cousin Ruby-crowned Kinglet seen)
Black-and-white Warbler
Swainson’s Thrush
Spotted Sandpiper (seen Saturday)
Green Heron
Fox Sparrow
Nashville Warbler (seen Saturday)
Orange-crowned Warbler
Caspian Tern
Baltimore Oriole
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons
The winds are shifting again as we speak, so the total tonight will be lower. But still! Spring migration is in its full glory right here, right now.
Ed McDevitt
©April, 2025