Big migration last night with south winds up and down the entire country, from the Midwest all the way to the Atlantic. Here’s the radar from sunset last night through 8:00am this morning, with birds obviously moving unimpeded even into the daylight hours.
Zugunruhe!
3 responses to “Big migration over the Garden State”
Verified on the ground … really good morning around Franklin Township. Nice variety of sparrows, though sometimes I think juncos returning from their spring breaks make their own radar cloud!
Nice Susan. I noticed only one new species for the Spring, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, this afternoon. I still haven’t had any Chipping sparrows, but I hear you have had some so they must be close! Many Ruby-crowned Kinglets around the forest edges this morning.
I birded Glassboro Woods this Tues. morning not expecting too much in the way of migrants numbers wise. Glassboro Woods in Gloucester County, NJ is NOT a spring migrant trap and usually doesn’t get numbers of migrants unless a front pushes them down. No front Tues. morning, just the continuous SW winds from Monday night. So, why on earth did I have fantastic numbers and variety of migrants! I theorize just a huge flight! Here are some species and numbers for the 1/5 of the place that I actually birded. 7 LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSHES – 2 is the norm here breeding. The others must be migrants. Many RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS. Many GOLDEN-CROWNED also, but this was the first spring day that RUBY-CROWNED out-numbered GOLDEN-CROWNED. 1 PRAIRIE WARBLER back. 9 FLICKERS – the predominant woodpecker this morning. Migrating. 13 PALM WARBLERS, 32
YELLOW-RUMPED’S. Etc. I think the 7 PINES I had were already there. Breeders. So, in summary, excellent numbers for just the small area of the place I birded this morning. Although why these numbers…. only David and the radar can tell!