The floodgates are closed, but a few sneak in


More birds are piling up to our south as a series of low pressure systems park themselves over the Mid-Atlantic. A few birds did manage to sneak into South Jersey before it all shut down, though. Here’s the radar from sunset last night through 5:00am this morning.

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

Base Reflectivity image from Fort Dix Base Velocity image from Fort Dix Base Reflectivity image from Dover AFB Base Velocity image from Dover AFB Base Reflectivity image from Upton NY Base Velocity image from Upton NY Composite Base Reflectivity image from the Northeastern USA

For starters, the radar showed no visible migration after sunset for NYC (via the Upton NY radar) nor for most of New Jersey (via the Fort Dix radar). The only apparent migration into New Jersey occurred along the extreme southern portion of the state, including a flight into the northern Delaware Bay shore, and into the southern peninsula. Northwest winds built in quickly as the low pressure systems barreled down on New Jersey, causing most of those birds to land before sunrise.

So, we continue with this backlog of migrants to our south- as there was some appreciably heavy migration across most of the eastern flyway last night, up to the Jersey border. We can hope to have some of these birds in our area by tomorrow, if the winds turn westerly as forecast… but we’ll have to wait and see if that holds through tonight. Until then, expect minimal changes locally, with the best chance at new arrivals being along the Delaware Bay shore at Belleplain, Heislerville, etc. Cape May could be interesting this morning… I’m about to go find out!

Good Birding

David


One response to “The floodgates are closed, but a few sneak in”

  1. IT WAS INTERESTING! In fact, we had a mini-fallout here in Cape May. Don will post an entry to the blog here: http://cmboviewfromthecape.blogspot.com/

    but for now, here’s the eBird list:

    Location: Cape Island–Higbees Beach SWA
    Observation date: 4/26/10
    Notes: With Dave La Puma. 2.5 miles, 2 hours 45 minutes. Fallout. Fog, 60’s, wind light northwest. Moderate to heavy migration over Delmarva terminating in south jersey on radar; 2 lows spinning over NJ pushing south, preventing birds from moving north (we think).
    Number of species: 85

    Canada Goose 15
    Wood Duck 2
    American Black Duck 2
    Mallard 8
    Green-winged Teal 8
    dark-winged scoter sp. 20
    Red-throated Loon 10
    Double-crested Cormorant 20
    Great Blue Heron 10
    Great Egret 1
    Green Heron 1
    Black-crowned Night-Heron 4
    Turkey Vulture 1
    Osprey 2
    American Kestrel 1
    Merlin 2
    Killdeer 2
    American Oystercatcher 4
    Spotted Sandpiper 2
    Greater Yellowlegs 10
    Willet 15
    Least Sandpiper 1
    peep sp. 10
    Laughing Gull X
    Herring Gull X
    Great Black-backed Gull X
    Forster’s Tern 15
    Rock Pigeon 4
    Mourning Dove 15
    Red-bellied Woodpecker 4
    Downy Woodpecker 2
    Northern Flicker 5
    Eastern Kingbird 10
    White-eyed Vireo 10
    Blue-headed Vireo 8
    Red-eyed Vireo 5
    Blue Jay 10
    American Crow X
    Fish Crow X
    Tree Swallow X
    Barn Swallow 10
    Carolina Chickadee 6
    Tufted Titmouse 8
    Carolina Wren 3
    House Wren 10
    Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
    Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 10
    Hermit Thrush 10
    American Robin 15
    Gray Catbird 5
    Northern Mockingbird 8
    Brown Thrasher 15
    European Starling X
    Nashville Warbler 1
    Northern Parula 6
    Yellow Warbler 5
    Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 250
    Black-throated Green Warbler 2
    Prairie Warbler 5
    Palm Warbler 50
    Black-and-white Warbler 12
    Worm-eating Warbler 5
    Ovenbird 10
    Northern Waterthrush 3
    Louisiana Waterthrush 1
    Common Yellowthroat 8
    Hooded Warbler 1
    Summer Tanager 1
    Eastern Towhee 10
    Chipping Sparrow 5
    Field Sparrow 10
    Savannah Sparrow 100
    Song Sparrow X
    Swamp Sparrow 1
    White-throated Sparrow 150
    Northern Cardinal X
    Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
    Blue Grosbeak 1
    Indigo Bunting 8
    Bobolink 1 Hidden Valley @ New England, singing
    Red-winged Blackbird X
    Common Grackle X
    Brown-headed Cowbird X
    Orchard Oriole 5
    House Finch 5
    American Goldfinch X
    House Sparrow X

    This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

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