Southerly flow dominated again last night (it only takes walking outside my house to know… the mosquito-meter is all but foolproof) which appears to have shut down any significant southbound migration. 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.

Of course, I say ‘significant’ because I have some insider information. Michael O’Brien did send out a text at around 9:30pm last night saying that birds were overhead at the State Park. He was both hearing them calling overhead and seeing them in the light of the lighthouse. I’m not sure how this played out throughout the night, but my suspicion is that the event was short-lived and that most of the birds decided to put back down early in the night. Looking at the radar I saw little to no southbound movement over NJ or the Delmarva Peninsula. Possibly more interesting, though, was what appeared to be some northbound movement up the western half of the Chesapeake Bay. I’m not sure what it was- but it did have the classic signature of bird migration. The targets were moving between 20 and 25kts, heading NNE, and really picked up after midnight. The prevailing winds were 10-15kts out of the SSE, which means that these targets were both moving faster that the prevailing wind and compensating for the crosswind – both signs of bird migration.  Otherwise things were quiet over the region until you get up into Maine where migration was moderate to heavy and heading ESE.

For today, expect little regional change although some birds may have moved locally to get into more optimal foraging habitat. Light SSE winds today will bring more mosquitoes to my house, but otherwise does little to improve the birding situation. That’s all going to change at the end of the week though, so let’s celebrate Hump Day by looking forward to the NW wind forecast!

Good Birding

David