BirdCapeMay.org

The term "Siberian Express" in the bird world has been used to describe years in which an unusually large number of Asian/Alaskan species appear in southern Canada and the Lower 48 States. So far, the fall of 2007 has been SUPER for Asian strays turning up on the Bering Sea Islands (e.g., Gambell, St. Lawrence Island and St. Paul, Pribilof Islands), with some good results in the western Aleutians (Shemya Island) as well. However, it is a LONG way from the Bering Sea to the U.S. coast of Washington to California, and there is nothing to guarantee that the birds that have occurred so far this autumn in Alaska will translate into a bumper crop of same farther to the south and east. Typically October and early November is the prime time for such Asian strays to occur in places like California, so we'll have to see how this month plays out. Even in a NON-Siberian Express year, there are often a few Red-throated Pipits, a few juvenile Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, and one or two rarer Asian/Alaskan passerines found, so the occurrence to date of a few of those does not signify a Siberian Express year--at least not yet.

--Paul Lehman