Migration: Adapt or Head South
Winter is coming.
Yes, I’ve been away. Not physically. Just away. But I’m back, and have a buffer-full of things to share that have not gone stale during the period of my neglect to this space.
This morning it is the changing of the guard to which I wish to direct your attention—which means more than merely reading about dragonfly and bird migrations.
I’d like to be responsible for nudging you to ACTUALLY SEE this outside your own door. But to do that, yep: you have to step outdoors where you have a view of field or forest; settle in; and be patient. Your patience might just be rewarded.
Firstly, invest a few minutes to watch—and then admire—the dragonfly as an apex predator perfectly matched to the job by extraordinary anatomy and behavior. You may never think of them again as merely another insect. (Some species migrate vast distances along with the birds. We saw a swarm of Green Darners moving south along the NC coast in our recent travels.)
Then, realize that, no matter where in the country you live, tens of thousands of birds are passing overhead while you sleep.
And if you’re curious (and if you’re not I want to know why not!) you can discover which birds are flying in what numbers, in what direction and at what elevation at different hours over your county night by night.
Type in your county name. And see something like this:
The leaves are yet to turn their fall colors. The birds are not waiting for that signal. They are gathering to go!
My understanding is that this kind of granular detail of bird migration has been made possible in part by utilizing the NEXRAD radar towers like the one you have near you. See NEXRAD for BirdCasting.
So you read about Merlin Bird app in this space last year. I have been delighted locally to learn a number of my friends have downloaded the app, and are as amazed by its utility as I am.
Get out there with it today and ID one or more “confusing fall warblers” that are hard to tell apart by sight, but the SOUND ID function will nail it.
I went back to the site and looked at the data for March and June and they had it! Very fun to see.
Unfortunately Los Angeles county doesn’t have any information for this date. I really enjoy merlin bird ID! Thank you so much for letting us know about it. I really enjoyed the video on dragonflies.