Birds took to the air after sunset last night, but were quickly deterred from migrating by the passing cold front packing strong northwest winds. Here’s the radar from sunset last night through 5:30am 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.
Migration began just after sunset, on a SW –> NE trajectory. Both the composite and local radars show the frontal boundary passing over the region a couple of hours after sunset. The velocity image shows the rapid wind shift once the front passed, and the reflectivity image shows the quick decrease in migrants once the shift occurred, indicating a rapid grounding of all birds that were in motion.
Birding conditions should be similar to yesterday but densities may have shifted with this abbreviated migration event. Given the initial SW flow, coastal sites will likely have a few new birds today, but diversity should remain pretty similar.
Good Birding
David
P.S. Come check out my migration forecast for the Mid-Atlantic on Birdcapemay.org
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One response to “Truncated migration last night”
It was very birdy around HMF today- with a noticeable increase in Eastern Towhees, Hermit Thrushes, Palm Warblers and a good flight of raptors. Leading a walk this morning, we observed 8 northbound Common Loons, two American Kestrels, both Accipiters, a slough of Red-tailed Hawks, and what can only be explained as a Rough-legged Hawk base on size and tail pattern. The bird was seen with a Sharpie and Kestrel for comparison. See my description in the eBird report below:
Location: Hutcheson Memorial Forest
Observation date: 4/13/08
Notes: Had a large buteo with a black terminal band, with white above, on tail. Only species fitting this description is Rough-legged Hawk. Bird was “Red-tailed size”, so I think that should rule out Broad-winged… but I didn’t get a good enough look at any other defining features (no “hands” in wings, no discernible markings on body, etc)- therefore I left it out of this report.
Number of species: 44
Canada Goose X
Common Loon 8
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Black Vulture 4
Turkey Vulture 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 2
Cooper’s Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 7
American Kestrel 2
Mourning Dove X
Red-bellied Woodpecker X
Downy Woodpecker X
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) X
Eastern Phoebe X
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Carolina/Black-capped Chickadee X
Tufted Titmouse X
White-breasted Nuthatch X
Brown Creeper 1
Carolina Wren X
Golden-crowned Kinglet X
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 4
Eastern Bluebird 1
Hermit Thrush 5
American Robin X
Northern Mockingbird X
Brown Thrasher 2
European Starling X
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) X
Palm Warbler X
Eastern Towhee 12
Chipping Sparrow 1
Field Sparrow X
Savannah Sparrow 8
Fox Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow X
White-throated Sparrow X
Dark-eyed Junco X
Northern Cardinal X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Common Grackle X
Brown-headed Cowbird X
American Goldfinch X
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)