Good Morning! I’m trying something a little different today. So here’s the national composite for base reflectivity from last night at midnight, or ‘near-peak’ migration. As you can see, migration was evident across most of the landscape east of the Mississippi River, most of Texas, and into the Northeast as far as Northwestern New York. The relative bulk of this flight appears to have been along the Appalachians and into the eastern Great Plains. Light to moderate southeast winds dominated across most of the area where you see migration last night, whereas the Northeastern US was under more NW winds, and winds were out of the east along the east coast, primarily. NE winds over South Florida appear to have precluded much from moving there as well. Okay, now onto the specifics…

NATIONAL COMPOSITE (just a snapshot- No animation for YOU!)

Writing migration forecasts for two locations is tricky… and gets even worse when you have to put your head in two time zones to do it!

NEW JERSEY

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

Migration was light over New Jersey last night, as could be deduced from the national composite at the top of the page. Looking a little closer we see a very typical spring pattern emerge on the Fort DIX, NJ and Dover, DE radars. Both show light ‘blooms’ of birds after sunset continuing into the early morning today. Radial velocity shows that birds were moving at about 30kts heading northeast, both faster-than and contrary to the light easterly winds present last night. New birds will be present at spring hotspots such as Garret Mountain this morning, but don’t expect a major influx. Instead expect some turnover in the birds present at these locations.

WISCONSIN

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

Things around here are just beginning to warm up in terms of bird diversity (although in terms of weather, it feels like summer is at our doorstep!). Relative to the migration elsewhere across the country Wisconsin picked up few new birds last night, although comparing the two radars does give you a feel for the variation across the landscape. The radar over La Crosse, located in the Driftless Area of the Upper Midwest, did show consistently higher reflectivity last night than did the Milwaukee radar. This is probably a result of multiple drivers across the landscape, but I’m intrigued by how the Driftless Area (or Driftless Zone) is composed of much more contiguous forested area than the prairie/savannah dominated region to the east. We’ll have to see how this plays out over the season. In the meantime both radars did show some migration last night with reflectivity values on the lower end of the national average. Radial velocity over La Crosse indicated birds heading NNE on light winds, while the Milwaukee radar showed a much more pronounced push to the east, suggesting stronger westerly winds last night. Birds there actually appear to be bumping up against the lake shore.

So how will this play out this morning? Well, migration being as light as it was will probably not be very discernible on the landscape except for along physiographic barriers such as the shore of Lake Michigan, for example. Otherwise I would expect subtle turnover at locations which held birds over the last few days, and many of the birds engaged in this latest flight to be dispersed across the landscape.

Good Birding

David