Well, it didn’t take much to get those birds moving again; just a little switch of the wind and the floodgates opened once more. 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 regional composite indicated that while migration was widespread across the NE and mid-Atlantic, most activity occurred out west (western NJ and all of PA) and down south. The NYC radar indicated a light flight on NE winds, causing birds to head inland on a NE->SW trajectory, while winds over the Delmarva were strong (10-15kts) and from the NW, causing birds over Southern NJ to head on a NW->SE trajectory towards the coast. Birds over central NJ appeared to be following a more typical N->S route, indicative of the changing wind direction as birds headed south.

In short, if you’re near Cape May hit the dike this morning. The flight may not be particularly heavy, but with the NW winds at high altitude over night, there will definitely be some birds for Cameron to count today. Otherwise it looks like coastal sites will be favored this morning in Southern NJ, while inland sites will be better bets from Central to Northern NJ.

Thanks to Mike Lanzone, working out at Powdermill in western PA, for sending along this really cool recording of nocturnal flight calls from last night. You can listen to it below.

[audio:pnr25509_msec.mp3]
Nocturnal Flight Calls
Powdermill Bioacoustics Research Program, Rector, PA
Recorded by Mike Lanzone
Converted from WAV to mp3 in iTunes 9

How cool is THAT? Well, it definitely appears that migration was heavier out in western PA last night… if only I could have been out there with Mike to hear those birds going over in person!

Good Birding

David