Surface winds were calm last night, while the winds aloft were light southeasterly, providing less-than-optimal migration conditions. Still, a small number of birds appear to have moved overnight, although the majority of the signal on the radar appears to be something other than birds. Here’s the radar from 7:00pm last night through 5:00am this morning.

Frames are every 1/2 hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.

Taking into account both the reflectivity and velocity images, it appears that only a small amount of what was detected fits the description of migrating birds. Most of the signal last night appeared to be moving in an E–>W direction, which is consistent with the prevailing winds. Even when birds decide to migrate on east or west winds, the trajectory of motion appears N–>S, with slight variation between east and west. Only in northern NJ do we see a slightly more N–>S trajectory, and therefore I think the bulk of any migration last night was over the northern half of the state. Therefore, inland sites in the northern half of the state will have the best chance of good birding conditions this morning, and ridge locations such as Chimney Rock could be very interesting at first light. As always I look forward to your observations, so please stop by and let us know what it was like in the field!

Good Birding

David

P.S. Come check out my migration forecast for the Mid-Atlantic on Birdcapemay.org

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