Conditions were excellent last night, for a strong movement of migrants heading north from all points along the Eastern and Mississippi flyways. The Central flyway, too, was pretty active, especially along the Gulf coast and throughout Texas. It’s beginning to feel a LOT like springtime! 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.
Migration was heavy across the Mid-Atlantic last night, with most birds heading on a more typical (than the previous night) trajectory of SW->NE. No weather was present today to concentrate birds in any one location, so choosing a spring migrant trap will definitely be the best bet this morning. Expect birds that arrived two days ago to begin dispersing into the landscape looking for optimal foraging habitat, and for new arrivals to concentrate at places such as the northern Delaware Bay shore, Garret Mountain, and Sandy Hook. This should mean an overall increase in bird diversity and density at most locations today. Southwest winds and high thermal activity will dominate throughout the day, which will allow for nice diurnal raptor activity throughout the region as well.
I should mention that today also kicks off the FREE NJ Audubon May Days event, being held at the brand new Hoffman Center for Conservation and Education at the Scherman-Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary in Bernardsville, NJ. This is a perfect way to see lots of birds (the center is on a great piece of birding real estate) while also experiencing live demos of radio-telemetry and bird banding, lots of hands-on activities for kids, and great food and exhibits.
Hope to see you in the field!
Good Birding
David
4 responses to “The floodgates are wide open”
Lots of birds this morning here in Kunkletown, PA. Some new ones have come in today:
American Redstart
Gray Catbird
Wood Thrush
Common Yellowthroat
Ovenbird
Worm-eating Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Bobolink
Northern Parula
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Blue-winged Warbler
Also, huge numbers of Yellow-rumped Warblers have been flying over the yard all morning.
Maria Greenwald Park in Cherry Hill, Camden County, NJ. A local spot 5 minutes from my house. Here are some numbers from myself and the Audubon Wildlife Society trip there this morning. I didn’t get there til 9:30AM. They started at 7:00AM. Now whether all this came in Friday or Sat. morning, or just moved here a bit from a Delaware River migrant area – who knows??
1 SPOTTED SANDPIPER
1 RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD
2 GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHERS
2 HERMIT THRUSHES – I heard many there Friday.
GRAY CATBIRDS – many
WARBLING VIREO – many. Can’t count everything!
3 RED-EYED VIREOS
1 BLUE-WINGED WARBLER
2 NORTHERN PARULAS
3 YELLOW WARBLERS
1 MAGNOLIA WARBLER
20+ YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS
1 BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER
1 BLACKPOLL WARBLER
2 BLACK and WHITE WARBLERS
2 REDSTARTS
COMMON YELLOWTHROATS – many
2 SCARLET TANAGERS
15 BALTIMORE ORIOLES – singing males.
A light WNW flow continued here in Northern New England, keeping the floodgates only “ajar” for at least another night. However, early this morning we did see a distinct arrival of birds, but the flight seemed very localized.
Comparing the morning’s radar image with reports from the field yielded an unsually precise demarkation of a flight for Southern Maine, with the groundtruthing to prove it!
Check it out:
http://maineoutdoorjournal.mainetoday.com/blogentry.html?id=19144
Yes, this radar shenanigans really works!
-Derek
Been out along the Delaware Bayshore birding now for the past two days. Great diversity (100 + species) found both yesterday (Friday) and today.
Will be heading out again tomorrow morning, hoping the migration continues. Big on our list of wants is Black-billed Cuckoo and the passing through of any types of Empids, which have been absent thus far.
Steve Glynn
Millville, NJ