Light southeast winds across the Mid-Atlantic and most of the Northeast triggered moderate to heavy migration into and out of the region. 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.

 

Last night was another textbook example of what migration looks like under little influence of the wind. While both the surface and upper-level winds were out of the southeast last night, they were light enough that birds could actively compensate for any drift associated with wind direction. Looking at the NJ radars you can see that most birds headed due north across the southern half of the state, bypassing the southern peninsula of Cape May County, while to the north birds headed more NNE following the geographical contours of the state. This means that interior ridges and hotspots along the Delaware River will be best this morning across the Garden State. Looking at the NYC radar you can then see birds tracking more SW->NE as they move up into the New England area. New birds should be present at Central and Prospect parks this morning based on this pattern. Over Central and Western NY migration was heavy for most of the night but was truncated locally following the passage of a few strong storms. If you’re in that area and you experienced heavy rain between midnight and 2:00am, be sure to check out your local patch.

Overall the Mid-Atlantic migration season is winding down, as can be told by the lack of significant migration to our south over the last few nights. Therefore I think I’ll switch to a more opportunistic posting schedule by this weekend, dependent on whether some significant event unfolds. I’ll be sure to ‘tweet’ any new posts to @woodcreeper so that you can get the word about it in a timely fashion. Thanks again for a wonderful season- and if you’d like to support woodcreper.com please head over to the “Become A Member” page on the right-hand sidebar and follow the links to make a donation. We keep it Ad-Free and totally community supported here at woodcreeper.com, and I plan to continue that tradition as long as it remains a viable model. Thanks in advance for your support.

Good Birding- and I hope to see you afield!

David