As expected, birds took to the skies last night, and continued to push through the region as the latest low pressure system slammed into the east coast. Here’s the radar from sunset last night through 7:00am this morning.
Frames are every 1/2 hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.
Each of the local radars shows moderate levels of migration last night, before the storms hit the east coast. As precipitation pushed eastward, though, birds appear to have kept moving on the southerly tailwinds, especially over central New Jersey (as per the Fort DIX radar). This suggests two things. 1) there were less birds coming up out of the south and entering the Delmarva and southern New Jersey. This is also corroborated by the regional reflectivity, as well as the general direction of migrants from Virginia and the Delmarva (primarily heading from south to north, which therefore bypasses southern New Jersey and heads more for Pennsylvania).
The most interesting part of this flight might be the apparent push from SW->NE, putting large numbers of birds over Garret Mountain and Sandy Hook before the heaviest rains put birds down. The switch in wind direction from SW to S to SE overnight would usually mean birds would be absent from The Hook by morning- but I’m hesitant to make that bet. In fact, I’d be very keen to head out there this morning and see what’s flitting about… chances look better than even that it’ll be a good day. Garret Mountain, too, should see some dense concentrations of birds today, and I’d like to have been at the top of the ridge at first light to see what kind of action was going on there.
That said, your local patch may be hopping this morning, especially if you live in Central or Northern New Jersey, and the rain began in earnest over your area after 1:00am. If you make the trip out into the field this morning, please come by and let us know how it went… I’m out the door to see what might be around Cape May, although I don’t expect much in terms of migrant landbirds… but who knows!?
Good Birding
David