It’s never a dull moment up here during migration. Last night the winds were WSW after sunset, and nothing appeared to be moving. After midnight, though, birds began to arrive on the NY and NJ radars and head south across the region. 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 (sorry, no national composite today… radar indigestion).
You can see on the velocity images that the general trajectory changes from heading ENE to E and finally to S. If you look at the reflectivity image, you can also see that there was very little density present during the first half of the night, while the trajectory was ENE and E. After midnight, though, as winds came around, the reflectivity increased, indicating birds taking flight. This is interesting, because in most instances I have found (as have others) that birds make a “go/no-go” decision between 10:00pm and Midnight. Usually, if conditions improve in the early morning hours, bird will still wait it out until the next good migration evening. This was clearly not the case last night. It’s possible that there were enough birds moving into the region from the north, to set off a domino effect as local birds realized that others had taken to the sky. Either way, it’s cool.
Okay, now it’s your turn. Make sure you come back and let us know what you saw! I don’t expect too much based on this light movement, but migration funnels such as Cape May should pick up some of this event.
Good Birding
David
3 responses to “Migration happened, even if it was “light and late””
I think your theory about last night’s migration might be right on the money David. Here in Vermont it was a great night to migrate and there were many birds in the air when I went out to listen. Maybe their call notes stimulate those birds that were on the fence about going or staying.
Thanks for doing this, by the way. I’m a daily visitor.
I found scattered migrants in a couple areas in Gloucester County, NJ. Different composition from what I had Monday, so am assuming new stuff in last night. No really big flocks either. It was different!
Here are my migrants:
5 BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHERS
1 VEERY
1 RED-EYED VIREO – I am assuming migrant
1 TENNESSEE WARBLER
1 NORTHERN PARULA
1 MAGNOLIA WARBLER
2 PINE WARBLERS – don’t breed where I had them, so migrants.
1 OVENBIRD – this could be a local breeder.
3 BALTIMORE ORIOLES – same – could be breeders.
Please note – no Redstarts!!
An interesting morning.
I too have always found that if a front doesn’t clear by 8 or 9PM even, I don’t have much the next morning. These fronts have been different with these 2 hurricanes also. Maybe that is affecting things.
At the CF this morning, there were a few migrants, notably 2 each of Redstart, Ch-sided, and Parula. Interestingly, the Parulas represent a first August Record for the CF (and this place is covered well!) The evening yielded 5 Nighthawks–love them!