Last night the winds along the eastern United States were light and primarily out of the north. Over the Northeastern US and mid-Atlantic we saw mostly northwesterly winds turning north by morning, which appears to have triggered the heaviest migration to-date this August. 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.
Well, I think I can limit my analysis to a few sentences since the gist of it all is that there were LOTS of birds moving last night and they did so pretty much across the board. Both the Fort Dix and Dover radars suggest migrating birds moved on a general NNE->SSW trajectory, which is typical for autumn migration over New Jersey. Some eastward drift was apparent early in the night (when winds were more westerly), and the 5:00am radar suggests that a number of birds were still over water in the early morning hours (some of which was probably drift, others are likely a result of birds leaving Long Island throughout the night).
Influx into New Jersey from the north (Albany radar), northeast (Upton radar) and Northwest (Binghamton radar) were all apparent, suggesting a general increase in migrants across the entire landscape. Interestingly, the winds on the Sandy Hook buoy are reading WNW this morning, which should bode well for that great birding location, while those at the Cape May ferry are registering ENE, a good sign for the morning flight at Higbee’s. Today should be one of those days when you can hit your local fall migrant trap and have a good day, or make the trek to the morning flight at Higbee’s and see what a really good August flight has to offer.
On that note, I hope to see you out there!
Good Birding
David
(p.s. thanks to Sandy and Simon for their reports yesterday, and to the folks at CMBO/NJAS (Don Freiday, Mike Crewe, Tony Leukering, Tom Reed, and Tom Johnson, to name a few) who are updating their blog and research results daily. To Everyone: If you do get out in the field today, any groundtruthing you can provide would be excellent!)
9 responses to “Heavy migration over the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic”
Well….. new birds around the National Park dredge spoils in Gloucester County, NJ. Just not in any great numbers! I am a bit surprised over that. Sometimes after a spell of south winds and then NW, the birds are all down the coast, but that wouldn’t apply for this past week. I think. Anyway, some numbers:
1 YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER
1 LEAST FLYCATCHER
3 GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHERS
2 WARBLING VIREOS
1 CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER
1 BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER
1 PRAIRIE WARBLER
1 BLACK and WHITE WARBLER
3 REDSTARTS
2 COMMON YELLOWTHROATS
3 BALTIMORE ORIOLES
30 or so GOLDFINCHES
30 or so BOBOLINKS overhead
An interesting morning.
A very good morning in eastern Pennsylvania (Kunkletown, Monroe County). Despite the good number of birds, the Bobolink count was not even close to the past few days.
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 2
Eastern Kingbird 10
Red-eyed Vireo 8
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Eastern Bluebird 1
Veery 15
Swainson’s Thrush 1
Wood Thrush 10
American Robin 2
Nashville Warbler 1
Magnolia Warbler 2
Blackburnian Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 2
Ovenbird 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Scarlet Tanager 3
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 5
Indigo Bunting 1
Bobolink 1
Purple Finch 5
Swallows were also present in good numbers. The winds or something today must be good for a flight of them. I found Barn, Tree, Bank, and Cliff.
Any information of shorebird movement the lst couple of days?
Went to the Sourlands Preserve this AM and was surprised to see nothing, hear nothing. Only a couple of goldfinches and a pair of robins. Very dsiappointed!
a little bit of movement here at Hutcheson Memorial Forest. I hit upon a nice pocket of migrants which produced several species of warblers, the highlight of which was a briefly seen female Hooded Warbler
other species include
Canada (2)
Magnolia
BT Blue
BT Green
Prairie (2, including one singing)
Redstart
a few red-eyed vireos and a lone scarlet tanager were also loosely associating with the feeding flock.
Morning flight at Higbee was indeed very active. More RB Nut’s than I’ve ever seen, and I did actually manage to get on a good few birds!!
Long haul from N Jersey is definitely a challenge!
From what I read, yesterday was better than today. Any speculation as to why?
Also, I just want to say, I am giving up totally on Rutgers Display Gardens! It had restarts, but no other migrants today. It is *never* good! Except in peak migration.
It ought to be good – how many other green spaces are there along the Route 1 corridor north to Raritan Bay? But, it is NOT good. I have birded there enoguh!
restarts, or redstarts? Hmmm
Thanks, everyone, for your feedback!
Susan- I would say definitely that yesterday was “better” than Thursday morning. It’s interesting that the numbers are higher for Thursday though. I would have expected the Kingbird count to be higher from yesterday, as well as the Bobolinks, but it could be that I was just so excited by the great looks at birds. Clearly diversity was up yesterday… and it’ll be interesting to see what today brings!