Birds pushing through

With northwest winds over northern New York, it looks like some eager migrants may have pushed into the state. Here’s the radar from sunset last night through sunrise 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.

The radar is a bit difficult to read since there is plenty of non-bird signal present. Using the velocity images, though, you can see some activity heading from NW to SE overnight, most of which occurs after 11:00pm (as birds make it into our area from better conditions to the NW). It’ll be interesting to see the composition of these migrants…given both the time of year (sparrows are on the rise…but so are waterfowl!), and the conditions (less-than-favorable winds, so maybe stronger fliers?). I can say one thing, with a westerly component to the wind, if Sam Galick gets another “0” on his morning flight, I’ll personally drive down a six pack of his favorite beer and split it with him to help ease the pain.