woodcreeper

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Thanks in advance -David

Perfect migration condition last night lead to the largest push of nocturnal migrants into the region this season. Here’s the radar from 7:00pm last night through 5:00am this morning.

Frames are every 1/2 hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.

At sunset last night the surface winds were steady out of the NNW, while winds aloft were much stronger (15-20kts) out of the west. This set up a tail/side wind which heavily favored migration but which also cause many birds to be pushed to the coast and over water (this was most dramatic on the NYC radar (not shown) where birds were flying due south over Long Island and out into the Atlantic for several hours, before turning west as the winds shifted later in the evening/early morning).

Over the course of the night both the upper-level and surface winds turned more northerly, and in some cases even turned northeasterly. If you look at the velocity images you can really see the change in trajectory as birds migrate throughout the night and early morning. The initial image shows a W–>E pattern, consistent with the wind profile just before sunset. As birds enter the radar the direction shifts immediately to NW–>SE, and then N–>S, at which point birds are negotiating between the northerly tailwind at lower altitude and the strong westerly crosswinds at higher elevations. Eventually the trajectory turns more NE–>SW as birds appear to compensate for their easterly offset just before daybreak.

This, of course, begs the question of where to go birding. I know I sound like a broken record, but given the lack of precipitation or adverse weather conditions to cause localized fallouts, the best locations this morning will be tried-and-true fall migrant hotspots. Cape May is an obvious choice, as is Sandy Hook given the number of birds obviously displaced over water this morning. That said, offshore buoys indicate easterly flow near Sandy Hook which usually doesn’t bode well for that location (although I think it should be excellent for the first few hours of the day, at least). Cape May should be excellent, but the northeast winds that are evidently blowing along the coast could push birds inland and favor the Delaware Bayshore over more traditional spots such as the dike at Higbee’s. This could actually prove the best of both worlds, as coastal locations should see heavy bird activity with many birds making landfall this morning, while more inland locations such as Chimney Rock and the Delaware River floodplain could also see a nice influx of new birds. Okay, now it’s up to you to determine what it’s really like out there. Please come on back and let us know how it was.

Good Birding

David

P.S. Come check out my migration forecast for the Mid-Atlantic on Birdcapemay.org

Please don’t forget to become a member of the Woodcreeper/Badbirdz flock today. For more information, please check out the Become a Member post.

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Only 6 more days to take the woodcreeper/badbirdz-reloaded, online survey! To those of you who took it yesterday, thanks! It’s quick, painless, and will really help me improve the site, so please take 30 seconds to click a couple of buttons.
Thanks in advance -David

With winds out of the south and west last night, birds should have taken the night off from migration. A little peak at the radar, though, left me with a few questions to ponder. Here’s the radar from 7:00pm last night through 5:00am this morning.

Frames are every 1/2 hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.

Okay, so migration conditions last night were clearly poor (unless you’re a bird migrating north, when everyone else is heading south). The winds at the surface were southwesterly (~8 kts), while those aloft (3000 feet) were from the south (over DE,MD and southern NJ) and west (over PA and the rest of NJ) at about 15 - 20 kts. If we look at the base reflectivity images we do see a fair amount of “noise”, that is, low signal values (mostly gray in color), most of which is clumped near the radar (indicating that the objects (if they even are objects) are likely ground clutter. There does seem to be a pulse of activity after sunset, which could be cause by temperature inversion, which is usually identifiable using the velocity image (it will tend to show zero velocity). Instead, the velocity image shows movement across the radar consistent with the wind direction BUT apparently faster than the prevailing winds which usually suggests powered flight.

If the direction had been N->S, I could easily have said these were low-flying birds and it would have been tough to dispute it (there are some blue values mixed into the “noisy” background, which could help corroborate my story). My point is that even when the radar indicates objects moving at speeds 15-20 kts faster than the prevailing winds, it’s possible that part of the data represents something other than birds. This is especially true in the fall, when the atmosphere is a biotic stew, full of insects and pollen. So if some of this is a non-bird signal, how to explain the objects moving faster than the prevailing wind? Well, I don’t know. Right now I’m just going to wave my hands and say, it’s most likely not birds, given the direction of travel together with the very low reflectivity values and proximity to the radar. Based on intuition I’d say that what we’re seeing is a mix of ground clutter and other biotic and abiotic reflectance, mixed with some gusty winds. Of course, if anyone has any reason to believe “reverse migration” could explain part of this, I’m all ears.

Good Birding

David

P.S. Come check out my migration forecast for the Mid-Atlantic on Birdcapemay.org

Please don’t forget to become a member of the Woodcreeper/Badbirdz flock today. For more information, please check out the Become a Member post.

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Please take a few seconds to fill out a very short survey to help me improve woodcreeper.com. It will take less than a minute, and can be found here, or by clicking the ONLINE SURVEY button on the right-hand sidebar. Thanks in advance! -David

Some interesting happenings on the radar last night… but in order to make any sense of them we’re going to have to read between the pixels…
here’s the radar from 6:00pm last night through 5:00am this morning.

Frames are every 1/2 hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.

Last night’s WSW winds precluded most birds from migrating, although both the velocity and reflectivity indicate some movement over the state. The best explanation for this is the difference between the surface and high elevation winds whereby birds flew at higher altitude to avoid the adverse surface winds (which were coming out of the SW). The velocity image shows this well, with two apparent trajectories present at the peak of migration (around 10:00pm). In the center of the image you can see passage across the radar from SW->NE, indicating objects moving with the wind (dust, pollen, insects, etc.), but outside of this and extending to the perimeter of the radar’s view (which represents higher elevation since the radar picks up objects that are higher up as one moves away from the center of the radar beam… think “ice cream cone” with the outer rim of the radar beam equal to the rim of the cone) we see movement from N->S, which is consistent with birds flying at around 2000-3000 feet last night, where the winds were light from the northwest. Granted this was not a large push of birds, but the lack of a significant tailwind means that they will probably not go very far, which might cause bird densities to build up at places like Cape May (where many birds probably stayed put, given the adverse surface conditions). It’ll be interesting to get some field reports this afternoon and see if this is indeed evident on the ground.

Good Birding

David

P.S. Come check out my migration forecast for the Mid-Atlantic on Birdcapemay.org

Please don’t forget to become a member of the Woodcreeper/Badbirdz flock today. For more information, please check out the Become a Member post.

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There’s nothing like a tailwind to get birds moving around here, and last night was no exception. Here’s the radar from 6:00pm last night through 5:00am this morning.

Frames are every 1/2 hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.

After the cold front pushed offshore on Friday night, high pressure built in over the region on Saturday clearing up the skies and bringing light-but-steady northwest winds. The radar indicates that soon after sunset birds took to the skies heading south/southeast. The velocity images indicate that much of the signal was indeed birds. This is determined by 1) The trajectory of movement is off axis from that of the winds- you can see the change in direction during the first few frames of the animation which starts off WNW–>ESE and quickly turns almost N–>S as birds enter the radar’s view, and 2) the speed of the targets is significantly greater than that of the prevailing winds. The winds were ~5-10mph whereas movement was 25-30mph. With no precipitation to concentrate birds, most of them will have passed over us unimpeded, while those that put down during daybreak will be dispersed across the landscape.

So, where to go birding? Given the westerly component to the wind, I’d suspect Sandy Hook, Island Beach SP, and Cape May would all be good choices. Brigantine would probably be good too, owing to the shorebird numbers also moving through. Birds will be dispersed across the landscape today, so choosing a known fall migrant trap will increase the likelihood of a good birding day.
Good Birding

David

P.S. Come check out my migration forecast for the Mid-Atlantic on Birdcapemay.org

Please don’t forget to become a member of the Woodcreeper/Badbirdz flock today. For more information, please check out the Become a Member post.

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It always takes me awhile to get the old engine started after a summer hiatus… this morning was no different. I even tried to hit the snooze and postpone the inevitable one more hour, but after lying awake for 20 minute, realized that I should just get up, download the radar, and begin the fall migration study. I thought I’d share that with you, just in case you thought I was crazy and jumped out of bed each morning with wild abandon…maybe by mid-September…

Okay, here it goes!

Frames are every 1/2 hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.

Birds were on the move last night, as a cold front pushed eastward to the coast during the late evening. Just after sunset most of the activity was concentrated along the western portion of the state, as northwest winds had built in earlier in the day. As the night progressed, though, moderate densities of migration birds can be seen across the entire region. Most of the movement was from N–>S as the winds went slack during the night (ie. no westerlies to push large concentrations of birds to the coast). Still, given Cape May’s fall history, the best bet for this morning will probably be down there. Inland sites such as Chimney Rock (positioned at the southern end of the Watchung mountains, the northern bend being the spring migration hotspot Garret Mountain) could see some good movement of birds along the ridge as well. No weather present to cause localized fallouts, so pick your sites based on their reliability during fall migration. As has been customary in the past, please come back and let us know what you’re seeing. I look forward to all of your comments and observations this fall season.

Good Birding

David

P.S. I have begun posting my 5-day migration forecast for the Mid-Atlantic on Birdcapemay.org

Please don’t forget to become a member of the Woodcreeper/Badbirdz flock today. For more information, please check out the Become a Member post.

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Watching the Mets game last night I was again reminded of how crappy television can be… which is unfortunate, because the game was awesome (10-8 win with some serious battling down to the end of the 9th inning).

Two images stick in my mind as of this morning; first being the Verizon FiOS commercial, where Kevin Garnett has all of his gigantic television screens wired up in his palacial estate (obscene, whether real or not), playing some of the goriest scenes from the Rocky movie. Each punch from the movie clip is punctuated by a beat in the background “whoomp-there-it-is” soundtrack. Not only is the commercial way too violent for a child under the age of 15 (yes, I have grandiose ideas of watching baseball with my kid, as soon as s/he is able to say “baseball”… or “Reyes”), but it also drives excessive consumerism straight down the viewer’s throat.

The second commercial, that I find comical in its absurdity, is the new McDonalds breakfast advertisement. The commercial shows several Americans fumbling with (one guy struggles to open a cereal box only to have it explode all over the dining room, where is toddler daughter watches in disapproval), burning (one woman flips what appears to be an omelet out of a pan and onto the gas burner where it promptly catches fire), and generally despising (the old “lumpy oatmeal on a spoon” camera shot) their breakfast. The kicker is when the camera pans to the NEW southern-fried chicken biscuit from McDonalds. “Leave breakfast to the professionals” the ad proclaims…the implication, of course, is that indeed YOU are too lame to even make breakfast for yourself, or your family, so go to McDonalds and eat some fried chicken on a biscuit!

McDonalds does acknowledge that “tastes are changing” and “change is good” (on several other new commercials advertising the chicken breakfast biscuit), and challenge the viewer to “think outside the box”… it’s funny they should say that, because now I’m thinking seriously of living without the box entirely…

For more information on the effect of media on children, I can highly recommend The Other Parent, by James P. Steyer (who is also a fan baseball, and had a similar revelation almost twenty years ago)

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