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Birds moving swiftly into Oklahoma
Oklahoma Mesonet reported 1.85 inches of rainfall over the past week with more on the way.
Payne County rare birds for the same timeframe include Song Sparrow and Audubon’s Yellow-rumped Warbler at Lake Carl Blackwell — HPELS, Neotropic Cormorant and Song Sparrow at Lake Carl Blackwell — Hwy 86 Bridge, and Yellow Warbler and Neotropic Cormorant at Boomer Lake.
An estimated high 2,349,200 birds crossed Payne County between Monday, April 21, 2025 at 2010 hours and Tuesday, April 22, 2025 at 0640 hours.
Peak migration traffic was at an estimated high count of 195,800 birds in flight at an altitude of 2,000 feet from the north at a wind speed of 47 mph. At a speed that rapid, they were clearly in a hurry to get here with that push behind them.
Expected nocturnal migrants were Spotted Sandpiper, Song, Lincoln’s, Clay-colored, and Savannah Sparrows, Scissor-tailed and Great Crested Flycatchers, Eastern Kingbird, Orange-crowned and Black-and-white Warblers, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Warbling Vireo, Blue-winged Teal, and Baltimore Oriole.
Geomagnetic vagrancy conditions for 04-21-25 were high with current vagrancy conditions at 1.1, current magnetic field distortion at 1.1, and current solar activity at 1.8. Geomagnetic vagrancy conditions during spring 2025 have been high, and we are expecting this to remain the same over the next two weeks.
Species richness trends are about the same as they have been reported. Species demographic trends are slightly elevated for Eastern Phoebe, while Common Grackle has been in a downward spiral for several decades.
DEB HIRT
Nationwide rare/vagrant species include Greater Sand-Plover for Newfoundland and Labrador, Texas’ Mottled Owl, Cattle Tyrant, Brown Jay, Yellow-headed Caracara, and Amur (Asian) Stonechat, as well as Florida’s Yellow-headed Caracara and Arizona’s Berylline Hummingbird.
Black-chinned and Ruby- throated Hummingbirds have been seen at Mitch Park in the red honeysuckle on or about April 17.
For those who have not heard, there have been issues with Chesapeake Osprey even a half-century after the DDT era. This has to do with the suspicion that inadequate numbers of menhaden are dropping in the bay, and could bear watching, as egg-laying has fallen.
Boomer Lake reported Canada Goose, Mallard, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Mourning Dove, American Coot, Killdeer, Spotted Sandpiper, Double- crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Turkey Vulture, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Eastern Phoebe, Great Crested and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, Eastern Kingbird, Warbling and Red-eyed Vireos, Blue Jay, Fish Crow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Purple Martin, swallow sp., Carolina and Bewick’s Wrens, European Starling, Brown Thrasher, Northern Mockingbird, American Robin, Cedar Waxwing, House Sparrow, American Goldfinch, Harris’s, Chipping, Clay-colored, Vesper, Savannah, and White-throated Sparrows, Baltimore Oriole, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Common Grackle, myrtle Yellow-rumped, Nashville, and Pine Warblers, Northern Cardinal, Willet, Franklin’s and Ring-billed Gulls, Great Egret, Barn and Cliff Swallows, Eastern Bluebird, duck sp., White-winged Dove, Lesser Yellowlegs, Carolina Wren, Osprey, Blue- and Green-winged Teals, Northern Shoveler, domestic Mallard, Western Willet, Forster’s Tern, American Crow, Bank Swallow, Ruddy Duck, American Herring Gull, Western Cattle-Egret, Turkey Vulture, Tree Swallow, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Meadowlark, Yellow- headed Blackbird, Piedbilled Grebe, and Great-tailed Grackle.
Happy birding! Deb Hirt is a wild bird rehabilitator and photographer living in Stillwater.
A Greater Sand-Plover.
CHUNG KIU, RYAN CHENG FROM HONG KONG, CC BY-SA 2.0
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