Birds were on the move again last night, this time unimpeded to the south as the southerly winds prevailed up and down the eastern shore. Densities were not as high as two nights ago, but the trade off was more birds pushing into southeastern Jersey then had the previous night. A front of storms did push into Northern Jersey early this morning which may have shut down migration as far south as Garret Mountain. It’s hard to determine whether the decrease in bird traffic was due to the weather, or simply the normal timing of birds descending, but reports from Garret Mountain northward would be appreciated.
Here’s the radar from sunset last night through sunrise this morning. Birding conditions should remain fair-to-good across the state, with overall passerine diversity remaining about the same. The first neotropical migrants are just now beginning to make their way into the Gulf states and Florida, so our big diversity shifts are still a couple of weeks away. Now is a great time to bone-up on your birdsong, while the number of singers is nice and manageable.
Good Birding
Frames are every 1/2 hour for reflectivity and velocity, and 1 hour for the regional composite
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4 responses to “Birds keep a-comin’”
Sorry David,
This report is not from the north-but well south in Belleplain this morning, we had at least 3 Yellow-throated Warblers as new arrivals. There were 2 Louisiana Waterthrushes in full song today and the male Pine Warblers are there in BIG numbers. We had the first female Pine Warblers yesterday also at Belleplain and at Tarkiln pond a newly arrived Rough-winged Swallow in with all the Tree Swallows.
Awesome! Thanks Karen, and please keep the reports coming. We’re taking our ornithology class to Belleplain for the weekend- so the new arrival information is extra-pertinent.
Cheers!
David
There was some obvious changes in birds at Garret today. I didn’t see your post on the radar, but have been looking at a radar reflectivity loop hourly over night. It appeared to be active through midnight when I went to sleep, so I thought I’d give it a try. I spent the morning at Garret and the first thing I knew I was surrounded by Golden-crowned Kinglets. Kinglets were seen basically around any wet area. Also reported were 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets. I did not see these. Wilson Ave. surprised me with 1 Pine Warbler, 5 singing Fox Sparrows, 2 Winter Wrens, a Brown Creeper, and 6 Phoebes. A phone call about a Red-breasted Merganser at Great Notch Reservoir, got me to leave Garret for 20 minutes. A nice male Red-breasted swimming with 2 Common Mergansers. Also on Great Notch Reservoir were 4 Wood Ducks. Lots of birds with the first Pine Warbler of the season!
This is my Garret totals today through 12:30PM
26 Canada Goose
18 Mallard
10 Ring-necked Duck
1 Hooded Merganser
1 Wild Turkey
4 Double-crested Cormorant
4 Great Blue Heron, 3 flying over
1 Great Egret
1 Black Vulture
8 Turkey Vulture, 6 of which were sitting on the
2 Red-tailed Hawk
1 American Kestrel, kiting over the pond
1 Killdeer
3 American Woodcock
1 Ring-billed Gull
10 Rock Pigeon
12 Mourning Dove
1 Belted Kingfisher
9 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
9 Downy Woodpecker
3 Hairy Woodpecker
20 Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) , all about the park
25 Eastern Phoebe, all about the park
50 Blue Jay
6 American Crow
8 Black-capped Chickadee
15 Tufted Titmouse
4 White-breasted Nuthatch
2 Brown Creeper, Wilson Ave and NW hill
1 Carolina Wren
8 Winter Wren, everywhere wet
23 Golden-crowned Kinglet
2 Hermit Thrush
270 American Robin
2 Northern Mockingbird
1 Brown Thrasher
5 European Starling
1 Pine Warbler
11 Chipping Sparrow, Upper Picnic Area and Big Field
1 Field Sparrow
22 Fox Sparrow, Dump, Wet area and Wilson Ave. had multiples
145 Song Sparrow
2 Swamp Sparrow, Wet area
15 White-throated Sparrow
237 Dark-eyed Junco
8 Northern Cardinal
25 Red-winged Blackbird
3 Rusty Blackbird, Wet Area and 1 bird on NW hill
2 Common Grackle
155 Brown-headed Cowbird, 130 or so on the big field
9 American Goldfinch
8 House Sparrow
Good Birding,
Chris Takacs
Friends of Garret Mt.
Had my FOS Eastern Towhee in the field behind the house while taking Tess for her evening walk. Appeared to be a first-year male as it was singing all “crazy”. It did pop up finally for a viewing- what a sharp looking bird! Only one Woodcock tonight.
Other nature notes: FOS bumble bees, mosquitoes, and BATS tonight….warblers can’t be far behind. 🙂