Light and variable winds last night allowed migration to pick up just after sunset, but the radar indicates that any movement was short lived, as upper-level winds increased out of the southwest throughout the late evening. Here’s the radar from 6:00pm last night through 6:00am this morning. Frames are every 1/2 hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.

The few birds that did fly last night, did so during the early hours just after sunset. Most migration appeared to end between 11:00pm and midnight, as indicated by the decrease in returns on the reflectivity image, as well as the change in trajectory on the velocity image (from a general NE-> SW movement of birds, to a SW->NE movement of “atmospheric soup”).

I don’t expect much in terms of bird density at any one location, although the NY radar suggested that more birds may have reached Manhattan and Long Island than had departed. It’ll be interesting to see if the NY Metro birders report good birding conditions this morning.

Good Birding

David