] The Changing Seasons: 
PAUL E. LEHMAN -11192 PORTOBELLO DRIVE, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA 92124 - (LEHMAN.PAUL@VERIZON.NET) 
EDWARD S. BRINKLEY - 124 PEACH STREET, CAPE CHARLES, VIRGINIA 23310 - (THALASSOICA@GMAIL.COM) 
After two decades of monitoring weather systems and Cave Swallow sightings— and their relationships — in the Northeast, Nevrfoundland birders finally connected with this their first Cave Swallow near 
Cape Race, 13-15 (here 14) November 2008. Photograph by Bruce Mactavish. 
er 48 states divided about at Texas: while Cali- 
fornia had its tenth warmest September, Texas 
had its tenth coolest and the Southeast its 
eleventh coolest September, about 2.6° F below 
the twentieth-century mean. October tempera- 
tures stayed warm in the West and Southwest 
but cooler than average across the southern 
Great Plains, the Southeast, and the northeast- 
ern United States, In fact, the western United 
States had its ninth warmest August-October 
period on record, whereas the South had its 
Weather 
Lets start with the North this time. Canadas 
weather was again milder than average in fall 
2008 (Figure 1), with western British Colum- 
bia, southern Yukon, southern Ontario, Nova 
Scotia, and Baffin Island closer to the norm, 
though still above long-term averages. In gen- 
eral, areas farthest north experienced the 
greatest divergence from the average; the ef- 
fects of this warmth are many, but for birds, it 
means, among other things, a delayed freeze- 
up, greater persistence of mountain pine bee- 
tles and other insects in the boreal forest, and 
generally less urgency to vacate the northern 
latitudes than in past decades. 
The United States mainland was warm, too, 
but chiefly in the West, which experienced its 
fourth warmest August on record, almost 3° F 
warmer than the twentieth-century mean, but 
in the eastern half the of the United States, tem- 
peratures were mostly below normal. This dis- 
parity continued into September, with the Low- 
16 
NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 
