Last week we had a period of unsettled weather with east winds. During fall migration we would expect such a wind direction to be less than thrilling for most migration, knowing that northwest and west winds are best for landbird and hawk flights along the coast. Well, one thing that east winds CAN sometimes be good for is bringing onshore some species that normally stay offshore when migrating south. These include especially such scarce-to-rare migrants as Hudsonian Godwit, American Goledn-Plover, and Black Tern. Perhaps the recent small surge in Black Terns at Cape May Point State Park was at least parly a result of the weather (although their numbers have been on the increase anyway the past two falls--after many years of decline). Two other species that sometimes occur in better-than-average numbers during east winds in September are Merlin and Peregrine Falcon, both of which are known to migrate long distances over open water.

--Paul Lehman