Things are on the move – and not just us! Every birder we’ve spoken to since we arrived in Florida has commented on how slow Spring migration is this year. On Dry Tortugas people were suggesting that they were around three weeks behind. Certainly since then we’ve struggled to identify birds which appear to be migrants rather than resident / wintering populations – particularly warblers. Yesterday, at a couple of sites in Virginia / West Virginia, we may have witnessed some signs of migration. We started at Lake Robertson, where a short nature trail takes you through mixed woodland around an artificial lake. First bird we found in the carpark was a singing Louisiana Waterthrush – one of the earliest of the highly migratory New World ‘warblers’. Along the trail we also came across Scarlet Tanager and Yellow-rumped Warbler. In the afternoon we took the Top Drive along the ridge of the Allegheny Mountains – with views of the more famous Blue Ridge Mountains. At around 3000 feet temperatures were down to 6 deg C. which, with wind chill added into the equation, meant it was pretty damn cold. I may need to review my shorts-wearing policy! Anyway, here we found more ‘warblers’ – American Redstart, Oven Bird, Black and White, Black-throated Green, Hooded and Worm-eating Warbler. Hopefully an indication that the east coast Spring migration is finally happening. Let’s hope so as we are now less than a week away from the big warbler fest in Ohio!