“Whoa!”
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.
Southwest winds and clear skies along the Atlantic coast triggered an awesome display of nocturnal migration into the region last night and this morning. High returns were detected on radars from Florida up into eastern New York with the heaviest migration apparent over New Jersey. Whereas two nights ago we saw heavy migration on southerly winds cause birds to head inland and bypass the coast entirely, last night the southwest winds caused more birds to be pushed to the coast today. With no appreciable precipitation to put birds down in any one place, today’s best bets are spring migrant traps such as Garret Mountain, Sandy Hook*, and Prospect and Central Parks (NY). Cape May will also see new birds this morning, but will not have the high concentrations of migrants of the sites previously mentioned. Hawks should be flying today across the region with some concentrations along the coast as well.
Looking ahead, as the latest cold front pushes east expect the SW wind gradient to tighten and strengthen. This will cause another night of heavy migration tonight with more birds being pushed to the coast for tomorrow morning. Expect the coastal hawk flight to be good tomorrow as well.
Please come back and let us know what you saw out there- and don’t forget to check out our carbon-neutral World Series of Birding team here.
Good Birding
David
* Definitely MY PICK for today even with light ENE winds – GET OUT THERE IF YOU CAN!
4 responses to “In the words of Joey Russo…”
Because of the forecast for SSE winds we decided to go to Garrett Mtn and we were not disappointed. We had 17sp. of warbler and 4 others seen by others for a 21 sp. total. Northern Parulas were everywhere and American Redstarts nd were in big numbers as well. Yellow-Rumped WA numerous but less so than a week ago.
In a 100yard slow drive along the roadway after entering the park we had 5 Least Flycatchers calling and had at least 2 more. We missed Canada, Cape May, Blue-Winged and Worm-Eating but had great views of Hooded, Chestnut-sided amongst others. Other birds were 10 Eastern Kingbirds in one flock, numerous White-throated sparrows, 4 RC Kinglets,Wood Thrush, Hermit Thrush, Veery,Orchard and Baltimore Oriole sitting side by side. Spotted Sandpiper. White-Crowned Sparrow seen by others. A great day for May 3rd.
Central Park was LOADED with birds. White-throated Sparrows everywhere–also big number of warblers, thrushes and tons of Catbirds. Highlights inc. Cape May, Wilson’s, Hooded, Worm-eating Warblers…20 warbler species in the short 90 minutes I was there. I can’t ever remember Central Park being as birdy as it was this morning.
Wendy, Stuart and Evan- Thanks for the feedback! W&S: I can’t blame you for going to Garret 😉 although I’d really like to know how it was at Sandy Hook. I imagine I can squeeze some info out of Scott Barnes.
Cape May was interesting as always. No great numbers but Michael O’Brien reported a southbound morning flight along the western part of Cape May Point this morning- and I had some nice birds in my 30-minute walk around Higbees (although less than 10 spp. of warbler and missed a lot of what was probably around in low numbers). The nocturnal flight calling last night, on the other hand, was awesome! There was a continuous stream of Veery and Swainson’s Thrushes throughout the night, Clapper Rails, Solitary Sandpipers, Green and Great Blue Herons, and a steady sprinkling of sparrows and warblers (I could identify only a small portion of these- mostly White-throated, Savannah, Chipping(?). Black-and-White Warbler and Yellow-rumped Warbler were the two warblers that I know I heard- but I think I had American Redstart as well… need to run through the recording when I have some time.
In Kunkletown, PA we had our first Indigo Bunting and Black-billed Cuckoo of the year show up as well as numerous warblers incl. chestnut-sided, nashville, and redstart. Still no Catharus thrushes…