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Birds likely to be pushed from normal route by Hurricane Rita (1 Viewer)

Chris Monk

Well-known member
Birds likely to be pushed from normal route by Rita
By DINA CAPPIELLO

Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

For birds, it's the worst time of year for a hurricane

Rita will make landfall at the peak of fall migration, when hundreds of thousands of birds are passing through the state or seeking refuge here for the winter, state wildlife officials and experts said.

Corpus Christi, for the first time in a decade, has canceled its annual Celebration of Flight this weekend, a festival honoring the half-million raptors expected to converge on the coastal city this weekend.

Shorebirds have begun to nestle into Texas marshes for the winter, and hummingbirds are in the middle of flitting to Central America.

The storm, however, was expected to make a greater dent in birding tourism dollars than bird populations, experts said.

"Birds are equipped with methods ... to detect barometric pressure," Cliff Shackelford, an ornithologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said. "A lot of birds will adjust their path and timing."

Joel Simon, the HawkWatch coordinator for Corpus Christi, said the arrival of hawks could be delayed by the storm, and some hawks could be pushed permanently westward. About 74 percent of all raptors that pass through Texas make the journey during the last eight days of September.

Peggy Holt of the Aransas Bird and Nature Club in Rockport remained concerned about what Rita would do to habitat, saying high wind and water could destroy the marshes.

dina.cappiello AT chron.com
 
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alcedo.atthis said:
Another fall of Purple Martins for the UK, in the next two to three weeks perhaps.3:)


Regards

Malky.

That'd be nice.

Has there been any serious flooding in the gulf coast area?

there's been a distinct lack of information on tv news here about the effects of Rita on the Tx coast. They've been concentrating on whats happened in New Orleans
 
alcedo.atthis said:
Another fall of Purple Martins for the UK, in the next two to three weeks perhaps.3:)

Do the purple martens get back on track eventually or will they almost certainly die?
 
What Happened Here

The center passed a little west of me but I'm not quite sure how close. Winds have been extremely high all day here and power has been out from about 4am till around 5:30pm so the local wind gauge was unavailable. Ft Polk maybe 45miles south-southwest recorded gusts to 50+ miles per hour.

Why such a detailed description? During the day with all the wind and higher gusts what was going on was of interest. Someone asked the other day about storms and hummers well now I know what they do, they feed on my feeders. At one time I had some 8 or 9 birds all hitting the one that the wind didn't tip and empty. What do I do. of course I put on a poncho run out and get other fill and return for them.

BTW so far I have seen some shingle damage on my house and a good bit of limb damage. I hope the insurance company totals my roof I could use another one. I built here some 29 years ago and am on third roof now. The original one along with all the glass on front was removed by a hail storm and the replacement failed due to faulty materials. Things could have been worse so I guess I've been blessed.

Hope this is not considered rude here but I had posted this info to a hummer thread and copied and pasted here. Let me know and I'll retract post best I can on this board.
 
Not good.I know those living on the European side of the Atlantic could expect a good fall of yanks but the truth is that most of the birds that manage to reach Europe won't survive.(especialy the small guys...)
 
Bluetail said:

Nope Jason we don't.I suppose it does happen that a few lucky ones make it home without getting seen(for the reasons already stated).But I think for most it ends on our side.(lets face it it's not easy flying over an entire ocean...).I suppose however that good flyers like Swallows and Swifts (as well as Waders) can make it.

Just my theory ;)

Cheers B :) ,

Dimitris
 
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