… here I am, stuck in the middle with __________ [rain, wind, cold, yesterday’s birds, etc.].

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.

As you can see, a low pressure system is parked right over New Jersey bringing with it wind and rain, coupled with cooler northwest winds. The low is spinning counterclockwise, which explains the southeast flow of the precipitation apparent on the radar. High pressure to our west is spinning clockwise, which explains the otherwise northwest flow across the northeast and mid-Atlantic. This makes for some interesting weather, and even more interesting migration!

For example, all of the local radars indicate northwest flow across New Jersey, which you would expect to trigger nocturnal migration. Look at the regional composite… migration is happening over New England (especially Maine), parts of northern and western New York, and to our south over the Carolinas. If not for the low pressure system (which now extends to western New York) the entire region would have experienced migration last night.

So, migration over New Jersey is going to be dependent on the weakening and moving-out of this system, which appears to be on track for Thursday night (the pesky thing is going to give it one last go to the west before getting shoved off to sea by the next cold front). Until then, though, we should see migration occurring all around us, especially to our west. The weekend is looking good for birding, and in full disclosure, I’m actually secretly hoping the low takes its time so we can maximize the number of good birds for Sunday’s Big Sit!

In the meantime, though, there are plenty of good birds around. The shorebird flight at Cape May has been excellent, and Peregrines are still up in the pipe somewhere. Let’s go birding!

Good Birding

David