National Overview
The migration superhighway is beginning to open up once again, at least for the Central and Mississippi Flyways. Heavy migration was evident again over Texas and western Louisiana with moderate migration extending all the way up into the North Woods of Wisconsin and Minnesota. North winds over the northeastern US appear to have kept birds grounded in that part of the country. Be sure to check out Tom Auer’s blog and The Nemesis Bird for more detailed coverage of that region (see links below).
Below are the radar loops from sunset last night through 5:00am this morning
In an attempt to get the radar posted as quickly as possible, I will be publishing “as I go” each morning. Therefore you may see some incomplete posts throughout the early morning hours (5-6am Central; 6-7am Eastern Time). We’ll test out this method for a few weeks and see how well it works… your feedback, of course, is most welcome!
New Jersey (Mid Atlantic)
Frames are every 1/2 hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.
How do you like the new radar loops? You can really see the north wind pushing those wet clouds to the south last night… nothing in terms of nocturnal migration was evident on the radar.
Wisconsin (Upper Midwest)
Frames are every 1/2 hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.
Bang! Now here are the birds! The La Crosse radar is down for upgrades so I’ll be posting the Green Bay radar in its place for now. Both Green Bay and Milwaukee showed moderate migration last night with birds heading in a generally NE->SW direction. Look at the birds crossing Lake Michigan over Green Bay! Interestingly not much lake crossing occurred over Milwaukee; some very cool dynamics when you compare the two radars! Expect new birds across the region today while densities should remain similar to previous days. New species should be showing up in the south with turnover of short distance migrants and early spring arrivals finally reaching the North Woods. This pattern will continue and intensify over the next few nights when we should see a significant influx of migrants on strong southerly to southwesterly flow. The weekend is looking excellent- so go do those back and neck stretches you told yourself you were going to work on all winter…
As always, woodcreeper.com depends on YOU to report your sightings and be our ‘eyes on the ground’, so please come back and give us an idea of how we’re doing predicting birding conditions in your neck of the woods.
ÂFor migration updates covering other regions check-
Badbirdz Reloaded – Angel & Mariel cover Florida and the Southeast
Birds Over Portland – Greg blogs about the Pacific Northwest
Nemesis Bird – Drew and company give you the skinny on Pennsylvania
Tom Auer (aka The Skua) – Tom’s blog covers New England