Birds were in the air last night – and Thrushes were clearly a part of the action based on the nocturnal flight calls we were hearing after dark. 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.
Northerly winds yesterday gave way to southwest winds in the afternoon which then continued through early this morning. Clear skies and favorable winds were the recipe for a moderate to heavy flight over the Mid-Atlantic last night, where four species of thrushes (SWTH, GCTH, VEER, and BITH) could be readily heard overhead (from Villas, NJ, at least). Swainson’s Thrush clearly gave off the most numerous flight calls, and only one Bicknell’s Thrush was detected… but the calling rate was something to be experienced (about 1/minute, sometimes up to 10/minute). Other birds detected (and identified) were Least Sandpiper, Clapper Rail, American Redstart, Canada Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, White-throated Sparrow (getting late!), and Savannah Sparrow. That was all before midnight.
So, radar-wise, birds were headed in a SW->NE trajectory with a good source pool of birds originating over eastern Virginia and Washington DC. With high densities coming from both the south and the west, expect most migrant traps across the state to have new birds this morning. The obvious targets would be locations along the northern Delaware Bay shore, Garret Mountain, and Sandy Hook; but don’t overlook your local patch either. Northwest winds are on tap for this morning, but they’re light and variable at best right now, so we’ll see how much they push down the Cape May peninsula today. I’d expect a good showing of birds around Cape Island, based on the combined radar and flight call information… now I’ll have to go and find out. Please stop back and let us know what you saw!
Good Birding
David
6 responses to “A Thrush-tastic Flight”
I’m an experienced birder working on kicking up my skills a notch. Your site & info is absolutely wonderful! Is there any additional info regarding interpretation (regarding the radar maps you post)that you can offer other than the NEXRAD info on your site?. It’s still a bit murky as to what I’m seeing in those maps.
What does awaiting moderation mean?
A Mourning Warbler (my 2nd only at this site) sat mostly in the open and sang in front of me for nearly three minutes at Liberty State Park at 6.30am today. It really doesn’t get any better than that!!
A smattering (mostly singles) of other neo-trops including Magnolia, Canada and a Swainson’s Thrush.
Andy- have you gone through the Radar and Migration FAQ on the right sidebar? If not, check that out first. If you have any specific questions, let me know and I’ll answer them in the FAQ to keep it growing and provide the resource to others (if you have a question, it’s more than likely that someone else has the same one too!).
The “moderation” is a result of many spam posts hitting my site… it’s unfortunate, but required. I try and approve posts as soon as I’m aware of them via automatic email.
Simon- GREAT! We had ~3 today at Higbee’s Beach… I only heard 2, but a third was reported. We also had Bicknell’s Thrush calling, and many MANY thrushes went over my house last night (with many Swainson’s being reported this morning). Blackburnians were in almost every big tree I looked at… too bad I had to head into the office before making the full rounds… hopefully some will stick through the weekend. -Cheers!
Garret Mtn was great this morning. We had 18sp of warbler including Cape May, a late Yellow-Rumped,
3 Bay-Breasted, Magnolia warbler being the most abundant warbler today, many Canada’s and Chestnut-Sided Warblers. We detected only 1 Blackburnian warbler in 5 hours of birding. many Swainson’s Thrushes, some Veery, 1 Gray Cheeked Thrush. The best bird today besides the Bay-breasteds was a singing Olive-Sided FC! Have never heard Olive-Sided singing its song in NJ before!
My Gloucester County migrant spots were good for diversity this morning, but not numbers. I am going to combine from the dredge spoils and Riverwinds – which is about a mile south of the dredge spoils and also on the Delaware River. I am presuming the numbers of birds kept going north. I am just going to list migrants – not the breeding flycatchers, thrushes, and warblers.
1 LEAST FLYCATCHER
1 SWAINSON’S THRUSH
1 NASHVILLE WARBLER
2 NORTHERN PARULAS
1 MAGNOLIA WARBLER
1 BLACK-THROATED BLUE
1 BLACK-THROATED GREEN
6 BLACKPOLLS
1 BLACK and WHITE WARBLER – could be a breeder.
2 REDSTARTS – ditto.
1 MOURNING WARBLER