Weather forecast screenshot for May 1 – 7. From weather.com (click to see the larger version)

The weather forecast for the first week of May does not look favorable for a large movement of birds. Chicago will experience north or east winds for most of the week; these conditions will greatly slow down migration, especially for insect eating songbirds. Birds will trickle through but we won’t get any large waves of warblers and other later spring migrants. When this unfavorable pattern finally breaks, hopefully sometime next week, the floodgates will open. What we need are two or three days of deep south winds coming up from the Gulf of Mexico. Keep checking forecasts for updated information.