As the latest cold front pushed it’s way offshore yesterday, high pressure built in over the Northeast and mid-Atlantic with steady northerly winds. The result was a migration superhighway extending across the Central, Mississippi, and Eastern flyways. 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.
The most impressive image to me is the regional composite, which shows heavy migration across almost every radar within view. This was the first of many cold fronts to trigger extensive migration over multiple flyways, and will undoubtedly result in a species composition change across the mid-Atlantic region. While the forecast initially called for northerly winds across the mid-Atlantic, it appears that winds were consistently northwesterly over New Jersey and northeasterly over central Pennsylvania. These conditions will undoubtedly favor coastal locations in NJ and central locations in PA this morning. Given the clear skies and strong tailwind, Cape May should be full of birds this morning. Sandy Hook and Island Beach State Park should also see a good influx of new birds, but locations along the Delaware might not be as productive as birds over PA appeared to be moving NE–>SW. Well, that’s what I see on the radar, but the truth lies in the field… so please stop back and let me know how it looks out there.
Good Birding
David
P.S. Come check out my migration forecast for the Mid-Atlantic on Birdcapemay.org
Please don’t forget to become a member of the Woodcreeper/Badbirdz flock today. For more information, please check out the Become a Member post.
4 responses to “Heavy migration spanning three flyways!”
Probably the most impressive thing I saw this morning at Higbee’s Beach was a group of 30 kingbirds sitting in the same tree.
Well, I can’t say that I had much this morning! I didn’t get an early start, but birded Cumberland County for passerines. There might have been a few new birds around, but I think most of what I saw was in flocks from birds that arrived a few days ago. I believe. Nothing out of the ordinary for me. REDSTARTS were my most numerous species today. I had 1 TENNESSEE WARBLER also, plus the usual around.
Walkill NRA was more or less dead today! I don’t think I saw anything that might be definitely labeled a migrant … except a very out-of-the-ordinary whimbrel at Pine Island Golf Course in Pine Island, NY. Thanks to the birder at Liberty Loop for passing that tip along!
Yesterday morning J.B. Churchill and I set out to find some mixed warbler flocks in Green Ridge State Forest in Allegany Co., MD. By my records we tallied 46 species, including 12 species of warblers:
Northern Parula 1
Chestnut-sided Warbler 6
Magnolia Warbler 5
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Blackburnian Warbler 3
Pine Warbler 6
Prairie Warbler 1
Bay-breasted Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 4
Ovenbird 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Hooded Warbler 8
I’d say your predictions for central PA carried down into Western, MD. Keep up the good work!