Dennis P. wrote earlier -


>> Parenthetically, with the abundance of Caribbean hurricanes, and the high
>> frequency of Caribbean and Atlantic seabirds being seen up and down the
>> Atlantic coast and even inland (see the last Field Notes), I don't recall
>> reading about a single West Indian *land bird* turning up north of Florida
>> on the Atlantic coast. The Bahamas are full of land birds that don't occur
>> in the U. S. Does anyone know of such records? Perhaps this should be our
>> clue?

>Hurricanes are usually a boreal late summer and fall occurrence. At that season,
>most boreal-breeding migrants are on their way south, not north. In fact, in
>El Nino years the Atlantic hurricane mechanism is suppressed while the east
>Pacific basin enjoys an increase in hurricanes - exactly what happened in the
>summer and fall of 1997. I take it you mean the Field Notes edition which
>summarizes the fall of 1996 season (spring 1997 edition).

Well, of course Dennis did not mean the spring 1997 Field Notes. Because of my
predilection for beginning to read every magazine from the back cover instead of
the front, I hadn't got to the lead article about hurricanes yet. Faulty brain
wiring, I guess. I will now skip to the front and read up like a good little boy.

- Jack



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Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jbowling at direct.ca

cc: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>