Good afternoon,
As many of you are probably aware of by now, we are expected to catch the Western-most edge of what will become Tropical Storm Irene, from Sunday night through Monday morning,. Area birders will want to keep a very watchful eye on Cayuga Lake, Seneca Lake, other large bodies of water, or larger rivers, over the course of the days and even weeks following the passage of Irene. Any pelagic bird species caught up in the middle of Hurricane Irene will end up being carried up the coast and potentially deposited inland. Resulting deposits of surviving seabirds will attempt to make their way South and Southeast back toward the coastline, by following large bodies of water. This can often take several days and many, sadly, do not necessarily survive the trek back to their marine environments; however, this does present a golden opportunity for birders to locate and document new or rare species of pelagic seabird species for this region. In the past, it hasn't necessarily been the day of passage of a Tropical Storm, but rather, the days following the passage, when unusual seabirds are sighted. Best of luck to those who will be lucky enough to find some interesting pelagic species as a result of Irene! Don't forget to take pictures or video as a form of documentation! Below is the current track of Hurricane Irene: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/145813.shtml?5-daynl?larg e#contents taken from this main track page: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/145813.shtml?5-daynl You can also find the current track by Googling: Irene Track. Good birding! Sincerely, Chris T-H -- Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes TARU Product Line Manager and Field Applications Engineer Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850 W: 607-254-2418 M: 607-351-5740 F: 607-254-1132 http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
