Big flight over New Jersey, and entire eastern flyway


Well, it happened last night! The cold front cleared our area early yesterday, and as the sun set to northwest winds, birds took to the sky. Here’s the radar from sunset last night through 5:00am this morning.

Frames are every 1/2 hour for reflectivity and velocity, and every hour for the regional composite. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.
Base Reflectivity image from Fort DixBase Velocity image from Fort DixBase Reflectivity image from Dover AFBBase Velocity image from Dover AFBComposite Base Reflectivity image from the Northeastern USA

Something to note is the direction birds are moving. The winds switched from WNW to NW to NNW overnight, and you can see the birds follow suit in the velocity image. Because of this, we don’t see birds overshooting the coast at the same magnitude we saw last week, when winds were strong and out of the west through morning. Either way, all migrant hotspots will be birdy today; inland and coastal. Okay- I’m off to Sandy Hook…my first day of birding in weeks!!

P.S. Come see how the big flight played out down south on woodcreeper’s sister site: Badbirdz – Reloaded

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6 responses to “Big flight over New Jersey, and entire eastern flyway”

  1. Helyar Woods 7:40 to 8:20 this morning was rather quiet:

    Black-and-white Warbler (2-3)
    Red-eyed Vireo (2)
    American Redstart (~10)
    Ruby-crowned Kinglet (2)
    Common Yellowthroat (1)
    Black-throated Blue Warbler (1-2)

  2. David, hope you had better luck getting into Sandy Hook and birding then we did. Arrived at 7:30AM and a special event was going on with Danskin. Basically the Hook was shut down above the B parking lot! Disgusting!

  3. Strictly Coastal today for Migrants I talked to a few people they said inland spots were sub-par. Birded the Hook today which was a disaster!!!Does any body here of posting there is going to be a Cycling tournament during peak fall migration I guess its too much of an effort.

  4. Sorry to those who missed out on the Hook due to the giant mega triathlon. The flight was pretty great though.

    Okay…so there was some cone moving, and some asserting of ones superiority (Yes, we were supposed to have been at the bird observatory 10 minutes ago, officer).

    Inga and I took our dog Tess and made the rounds…here’s our list of migrants….if we include the ones reported by others with the 18 we saw, then the total for the day is 23….not too shabby.

    American Redstart (many, all over the place, all ages and sexes)
    Common Yellowthroat (the most common bird)
    Northern Parula (many, adults and juvies)
    Black-and-white Warbler (many)
    Black-throated Green Warbler (many)
    Magnolia Warbler (many)
    Black-throated Blue Warbler (4)
    Cape May Warbler (3) – all of them in red cedars
    Palm Warbler (3)
    Wilson’s Warbler (3)
    Prairie Warbler (2)
    Yellow Warbler (2)
    Blackpoll Warbler (1)
    Ovenbird (1)
    Orange-crowned Warbler (1)
    Pine Warbler (1)
    Blackburnian Warbler (1)
    Mourning Warbler (1) adult…sweet bird…foraging on a piece of lawn behind a residence right near the race finish line…got flushed by some kids running in front of us, then returned to feed again with an adult male Black-throated Blue, 2 Common Yellowthroats, 2 American Redstarts, a house finch and the only White-throated Sparrow of the day…surreal experience.

    Swainson’s Thrush (1)
    Scarlet Tanager (many)

    Red-breasted Nuthatch (in every conifer)

    Swamp Sparrow (1)
    White-throated Sparrow (1)
    Rose-breasted Grosbeak (4)
    Indigo Bunting (3)

    American Kestrel (1)
    Sharp-shinned Hawk (2)
    Cooper’s Hawk (1)

    Eastern Wood Peewee (several)
    Traiil’s type Empid (3)
    Least Flycatcher (1)
    Possible Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (quick look, but also reported by several others)

    Not seen by us, but reported by others:

    Nashville Warbler
    Connecticut Warbler (probable)
    Bay-breasted Warbler
    Chestnut-sided Warbler
    Canada Warbler

    Good birding!

    David (finally out of the house) La Puma, Inga La Puma, and Tess

  5. I found a lot of the birds to be moving NE over the dike at Higbee’s Sunday morning. The winds had shifted and the birds followed suit. There wasn’t too much on the ground and I wonder if your thoughts, David, on not many migrants overshooting the coast had anything to do with it. Interesting. I did have SWAINSON’S and WOOD THRUSH and VEERY between 5:30 and 6:30AM. And then the morning flight.

  6. Best day of the fall by far at the Allendale Celery Farm–10 species of warbler incl. a CT. Good #’s of hawks moving thru incl. an Im. Bald Eagle. Led a trip here for the Meadowlands fest so I’m glad the birds cooperated

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