A Kirtland's Warbler was found where? Part 2

The lazy days of summer may be over for us humans in the Northern Hemisphere, but for birds, fall is the time to be lazy.

Spring migration is a rush north because there are breeding territories to establish, mates to lure, nests to build and mouths to feed. Fall migration, on the other hand, is a chance to do a little sightseeing.

A couple of weeks ago, we reported on a Kirtland's Warbler being found in migration in a particularly surprising spot -- on a small island off the coast of Maine. Today we bring you another sighting of a Kirtland's Warbler in migration that's not as surprising but, yeah, kinda is.

Last Friday, a Kirtland's Warbler was found in downtown Detroit. It's only the ninth Kirtland's recorded in Wayne County.

The bird spent Friday bopping around the rose garden in front of the Detroit Athletic Club, in the median of Madison Avenue and a block away in Harmonie Park. It was seen again -- by several birders -- on Saturday. Then it disappeared until this morning, when it magically reappeared.

Birders are reporting the KW is actively feeding in the trees along Madison Avenue and East Grand River Avenue. One birder reported it eating yew berries. (Thank you, Andy.)

Let's face it, the streets of downtown Detroit aren't exactly hospitable for migrating birds. There's lots of vehicle traffic and noise. There are lots of parking lots in the area, particularly along Madison. Comerica Park is right around the corner so in the evening there will be lots of activity with people going to Tigers games. The streets are highly lit at night, so it's not exactly a place where a bird can get a good night's sleep. Oh, and there are also rats and Peregrine Falcons to worry about.

But birds are opportunists and for some, downtown Detroit is an oasis. One of our friends used to work in the federal courthouse in downtown Detroit and spent his lunch hours birding up and down Washington Boulevard and Hart Plaza. He'd find all kinds of unusual birds in migration, particularly in the fall.

Hopefully, this Kirtland's will end up enjoying his time in the big city. We hope he stays as long as he wants and has a safe trip to The Bahamas.

And we know that it goes without saying, but we'll say it anyway: Hurry back!

Image (below) of the Detroit Athletic Club from Google Maps.

A Kirtland's Warbler was found ... WHERE?

It's only the second week of September, but the Kirtland's Warblers are on the move. Two have been spotted in the last couple of days. One was in Monroe County, Michigan, just a mile north of the Ohio border. That's not out of the ordinary, but the other? Well...

Most mature Kirtland's Warblers don't leave the jack pine until late September or the first week of October, which just happens to be after the peak of Atlantic hurricane season. But it seems that hatch-year Kirtland's Warblers like to wander the landscape and see the world. You know how those teens are; you can warn them about the dangers of the world, but they won't understand unless they experience them themselves.

That helps to explain the location of the second bird found this week. It was found on -- ready for this? -- Mantinicus Rock, a tiny island that is 25 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Maine. Mantinicus Rock has a lighthouse, a gravel airfield, a population of 53 people who make their living from the ocean, and now Maine's second recorded sighting of a Kirtland's Warbler. (Many thanks to Katie Stoner for finding this bird.)

We just happen to know a little bit about this area from a previous life hanging around with lobstermen and harbor seals on a nearby island. Mantinicus Rock is not the most remote spot on the coast of Maine, but it's pretty close. Even the Native Americans understood its remoteness. Translated from the local language of the indigenous people, "Mantinicus" means "far out rock."

It's impossible to know the origin of this particular individual. Could it have been hatched in Michigan or Wisconsin and just wandered east? It's ... possible. Could it have been hatched in eastern Ontario near the population that occupies Garrison Petawawa, the Canadian Forces base northwest of Ottawa? That seems more plausible.

More importantly, does this individual know that it has put itself in a pretty bad spot? Does it understand that it needs to turn back toward the mainland? Let's hope. We know the Blackpoll Warbler can jump off the southern coast of New England and fly nonstop to Brazil. Could this young Kirtland's make it all the way from Maine to The Bahamas? That's not likely, particularly with Hurricane Lee soon altering its path northward toward the northeastern U.S. and the Canadian Maritimes.

So, at this point all we can do is hope, wish it safe travels and invoke the advice of Horace Greely: Go west, young bird. Then go south.

Might a Pacific typhoon prevent a hurricane from destroying KW habitat in The Bahamas?

Image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Typhoon Haikui slammed into Taiwan a couple of days ago and did considerable damage with wind gusts reaching 120 mph. Now, you might be thinking that we here at the Alliance have lost our minds. What does a typhoon in Taiwan have to do with Kirtland's Warbler conservation? Well, hang on and find out.

Everything on this rock in space that we call Earth is connected in one way or another and the typhoon that hit Taiwan over the weekend, believe it or not, has the potential to prevent a disaster in The Bahamas next week. Strong typhoons in the Pacific can alter the track of the jet stream, a current of strong air in the atmosphere that directs weather. The strength of the typhoon caused the jet stream to buckle, and that ripple in the jet stream will eventually cross the Pacific Ocean and impact weather here in North America. Locally, the jet stream will form a trough over the Great Lakes that will usher cooler than normal temperatures into the jack pines.

So what does this have to do with The Bahamas? The answer is Hurricane Lee. Now do not lay any bets on what we are about to say because weather is dynamic - it's constantly changing. But as Hurricane Lee develops into a major hurricane in the eastern Atlantic, it's going to head west. Models currently are predicting it to pass north of the Leeward Islands and head straight for the central Bahamas -- the primary wintering grounds for Kirtland's Warblers. And by the time is closes in on the archipelago, it's likely to be a Cat 5 storm!

But remember that trough over the Great Lakes caused by that typhoon on the other side of the world? If all says the same between now and the middle of next week, that trough in the jet stream -- caused by the typhoon -- will act as a big barrier. It has the potential to prevent Hurricane Lee from making a direct hit on The Bahamas and it could very well usher this humdinger of a storm right back out into Atlantic, sending it northeast to the place where hurricanes go to die.

And if this scenario does indeed end up playing out, you can thank a typhoon half a world away from preventing a potential catastrophe. Try to remember that while you are putting an extra blanket on your bed.