Greetings All

Actually, hurricanes are not associated with passerine vagrancy. Ned Brinkley
and others published a couple papers in North American Birds/Field Notes on
the subject a few (3-6) years back.

The bad weather can ground migrants, something which Ryan Shaw, Charlie
Wright, and I experienced when Otis passed Cabo San Lucas while we were there in
early October (huge numbers of Western Tanagers and OC Warblers). But passerines
are smart and have options. They lay low. If they are migrants, they drop
into the best cover they can find.

Seabirds, on the other hand, do get pushed around, but there are very
interesting trends. Frigatebirds, terns, storm-petrels and pterodromas show up not
only out of range, but inland. Boobies and shearwaters do so much less
frequently. One of the hurricane-and-vagrancy articles discussed wingloading as an
explanation for this.

When we were in Baja, we had a Juan Fernandez Petrel in the Sea of Cortez
(aka Gulf of California) between San Jose del Cabo and La Paz. We had another
pterodroma too far out to ID, but it was large and likely another JF Petrel or,
less likely, a Hawaiian/Galapagos Petrel (or something even more peculiar). We
also had Baja's second record of Mississippi Kite -- a flock of 8.

Single vagrants are thought to arrive at their errant locations due to inborn
genetic errors or disease that effects their ability to navigate or gives
them (immatures) the wrong set of initial instructions. Multiple birds are
thought to usually be related to weather phenomenon.

MS Kites occur mostly in eastern and southern Mexico during migration, and I
believe Otis passed by sw Mexico, where it could have encountered the kites,
though it would have meant the kites travelled a huge distance (but if they
were over water, they had no choice). Interestingly, MS Kites are similar in
structure to those seabirds that get swept inland: storm-petrels and terns.

Anyway, I've strayed off the initial topic. As surprising as it may seem,
vagrant passerines rarely seem to appear due to hurricanes.

Best Wishes and Good Cheer
Steven Mlodinow
Everett WA