Migration densities were heaviest over New Jersey last night as skies cleared and winds turned northwest. 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.

Precipitation stretching across the Great Lakes last night appears to have dampened any movement out of Southern New York State. This could have been a great exodus of late season migrants had that precip cleared out. Instead we saw heavy migration from northwestern New Jersey moving down into the state and heading toward the coast. Birds could also be seen launching off from coastal New England, as well as from Long Island NY. Taken together these events should result in many birds coming ashore along the coast of New Jersey this morning. Sandy Hook and Cape May both look promising with high NW winds. Given the wind speeds, though, birds will be hunkered down and require some work to locate.

Also of interest today will be the hawk flight, which should be good and low given the wind direction and speed. With a solid report of a White-tailed Kite in southern New Jersey yesterday, you can bet that Melissa Roach will be keeping her eye out for it at the Leica CMBO/NJAS Hawkwatch today.

Good Birding

David