With Irene gone for good (or at least reduced to a tamed low pressure system over eastern Canada), many migrants along the northeast coast took to the skies last night. Here’s the radar from 7:30pm last night through 5:00am this morning.

Frames are every 1/2 hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.

Upper-level winds were in the 5-10kt range blowing from the NW (over NY state) and NE (along coastal NJ and much of New England) and winds at the surface were light and variable, making for some very good migration conditions overall. The regional composite shows the heaviest migration along the eastern seaboard where birds have been held up for several nights as Irene marched up the coast. All of the radars from Maine to NYC indicated SSW flow, suggesting that birds would end up along the coast at first light this morning. Looking at the Dover radar we can see a more NE->SW track which was aided by the light NE winds overnight. This will result in less bird concentration along the southeast coast of NJ today but should allow some of the more inland migrant traps along the Delaware Bay and mouth of the Delaware River to see new birds this morning. So for today we should migrant activity dispersed across inland and coastal migrant traps while I still expect a respectable showing of birds around Cape May. For those further north, interior ridges like Chimney Rock could be good for holding southbound migrants.

Good Birding,

David