Birds Birds Everywhere (on the radar). Excellent migration weather continued last night, as birds made their way up the Mississippi and Eastern Flyways. Here’s the radar from sunset last night through 5:30am this morning.

Frames are every 1/2 hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.

The radar crapped out again for a couple of hours just after midnight, so you might see some jumpiness in the single-station loops. The regional composite is actually the worst, as therefore doesn’t do a very good job of painting the picture of migration last night. Looking at the national composite (not pictured) it was clear that migration was heaviest in the southern tier of states, and progressively less heavy to the north. Locally, it appears that there was a larger movement through Central and Northern New Jersey last night (see the Fort Dix radar) than either entering the state from the south (see the Dover loop) or leaving to the northeast (see the NYC loop). It also looked like a number of birds left due north, into the woods of southern New York.

As is often the case under such weather patterns (high pressure, clear skies, a lack of weather to concentrate birds, etc.) the best locations will be known spring migrant traps. Given the more NNE trajectory of migrants last night, and the light easterly sea breeze this morning, I would expect Garret Mountain to be the best bet today, while Sandy Hook will probably pale in comparison to yesterday’s great day. The Delaware Bay shore and points along the Delaware River, should be holding some new birds today as well. It looks like we’ll experience another night of migration tonight before the front passes over us and shuts things down for a night or two. Hopefully you can get out there and enjoy the early migrants in your area!

I hope to hear about what you’re seeing- so please stop back and let us know.

Good Birding

David