A strong storm system moved through on Monday night bringing rain and very gusty winds that lasted into Wednesday. The storm must’ve wreaked havoc on fall migrating birds because when I opened the shades on Tuesday morning, there were goldfinches everywhere. I counted more than 80 of them.
When birds gather in large groups to wait out a storm—it’s called a bird fallout or migration fallout. Birds get tired and hungry fighting winds and other stressful conditions, so they seek shelter in large groups until weather conditions improve. You never know what you might see during a fallout, and you have to keep your eyes peeled because the birds may only stick around for a day or even just a few hours.
I’ve seen a couple of Dark-eyed Juncos (a.k.a. snowbirds) already this month, but the fallout brought a whole flock of them.
The juncos arrived with a large number of White-throated Sparrows. While some of the juncos will probably stay around for the winter, most of the White-throated Sparrows will eventually fly further south.
During this particular fallout, the most exciting bird I saw was this handsome White-Crowned Sparrow:
