Winter weather was warm, especially January 13 to February 3 and about February 22 to March 5. Mobile reports its warmest January in 100 years; Birmingham the warmest in 24. Winter survival of small land birds, especially the halfhardy ones, was excellent I So many of them were noted in late February and March that it was often difficult to decide which were successful winterers and which early spring migrants. It must be remembered though that the warm weather of the Southeastern U. S. is not affecting the biological clocks of our summer and transient birds when still in Central America or beyond. Thus, the February Indigo Buntings near the coast are most likely successful wintering birds, but the March 16 Indigo in Birmingham could have been a spring migrant that made exceptional progress from the coast where the earliest arrival date is March 6. In short, this warm weather can move birds inland from the coast, but not from Central America to our coast.
Author: Thomas A. Imhof
Volume Number: 22 Year Published: 1974
Issue Number: 1-2
Page Number: 10
Link to article: http://birdlife.aosbirds.org/1974/Vol 22 No. 1, 2_1974_p10-14.pdf
Link to the full issue of BirdLife: http://birdlife.aosbirds.org/1974/Vol 22 No. 1, 2_1974.pdf
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