After The Storm - Birding Opportunities You Won't Believe

As much as we hate them, hurricanes can make a bird-watcher’s dream come true. Powerful winds send birds from distant locations far north along coastlines, or even inland. You might even find some rare species from Africa or the Caribbean in your own backyard.

Forbes ran an article a couple of years ago - Where Do Birds Go In A Hurricane? The author wrote of several instances where tagged birds were transported amazing distances by storms. In one case, "A chimney swift (Chaetura pelagica) flying in Austin, Texas, USA. This migratory species is famous because a flock was 'kidnapped' by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and relocated to Western Europe."

Read it here.

Marshall Iliff wrote an article - How Hurricanes Affect Rare Bird Movements - for The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s publication, All About Birds. In it, he describes a wonderful birding experience he had during Tropical Storm Irene.

Read more about it.

With such tales as these in mind, you'll want to get outdoors and scout for birds before the wind dies down!