MIGRATION! Yes, Spring is upon us, and things down here in South Jersey are changing faster than I can say “hey! look at that Laughing Gull!”. Southerly winds have begun to bring early spring migrants to the Garden State, and it’s only going to pick up from here. Bird song is thickening during my morning dog walks, and the beach just beyond our rental has had upwards of 3 different individual Black-headed Gulls during the last month. Here’s a shot of one of them, who as of today (this photo was from Feb 27th) has much more black in its hood… hopefully it’ll stick around to come into its full glory.
So I just wanted to get the ball rolling and assure you that I’ll be posting the radar starting late this month. I will try to take a combined forecasting-radar interpretation approach to make the site more effective, and hopefully get a little deeper into the radar analysis since that’s what I’m now doing for gainful employment (at NJ Audubon). Being this close to Cape May should afford me some regular ground-truthing as well- something I’ve been longing for ever since arriving in NJ back in January of 2004.
As things ramp up around here, be sure to check out Angel and Mariel Abreu who are the now running Badbirdz-Reloaded down in Miami, Florida (http://badbirdz2.wordpress.com). From there you can watch as birds arrive from Cuba and the Caribbean, as well as those that get blown east off of the Yucatan. Seeing these large flights moving up through Florida is a great bellwether for predicting arrivals here at home.
Okay- that’s enough for now. I hope to see each of you participating in the discussions here on woodcreeper.com… I think this year is going to be the best thus far!
Good Birding
David La Puma
Villas, New Jersey
4 responses to “It’s getting birdy”
Great to hear you’re back in the saddle again for the migration forecasts. I will be looking forward to them (and planning my birding accordingly)!
Ever think about putting together some kind of presentation or lesson plan, say for example that a high school biology teacher might use to explain your work and avian migration?
Woohoo!!! Can’t wait to see more postings.
Dan: I have worked with several teachers to help them integrate this information into a classroom setting, and now at NJAS, I’ve been talking to Dale Rosselet about a possible project to integrate our radar findings into some curriculum (not sure what grades we’ll target, as it’s still in the infant stages of development). Are you a teacher?
I’m so ready for spring-hope the birds are! I’m looking forward to the posts again – hope you’re enjoying NJ.