National Overview
With the arrival of the next cold front from the west we’re seeing southerly flow extending from Mexico up into the North Woods of the Upper Midwest. Yesterday afternoon Angel Abreu at Badbirdz-Reloaded alerted the Facebook community to some trans-gulf migration going on over Texas and Louisiana at about 2:30pm central time. Clearly, the migration superhighway is now open for business! Expect this pattern to continue and shift eastward as we move into the weekend, with heavy migration expected into the Great Lakes region beginning today and a strong push into the Northeast by Sunday. Also keep an eye on precipitation along the frontal boundary as this might act as a concentrating factor especially when heavy storms interface with heavy nocturnal migration. Hawkwatchers from Corpus Christi, Texas to Duluth, MN should have eyes to the sky over the next few days as diurnal migration conditions will be excellent.
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.
The east coast will have to wait another day for any big pushes, but the Dover, DE radar did show some birds heading into Southern NJ last night. Therefore Cape May and Delaware Bayshore birders should be out looking this morning. It would be really interesting to note whether this new influx was comprised of passerines, or rather of shorebirds or otherwise larger, stronger fliers as the winds were still quite northerly in the face of these northbound migrants. The Fort Dix radar, on the other hand, indicated no significant flight of birds into or out of Northern NJ, so expect conditions there to remain consistent with yesterday. Good Birding!
Wisconsin (Upper Midwest)
Frames are every 1/2 hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.
As soon as I can get out of the house I’m doing a little birding! Wisconsin experienced a nice influx of birds last night which could be seen on all radars within and surrounding the state. I’ve posted the Green Bay and Milwaukee radars above where you can see a strong SSE->NNW flight taking place throughout the night. Birds were crossing the lake at all points with the heaviest over-water flight occurring over Green Bay. Heavy migration out of the Chicago area could be seen moving over Milwaukee later in the evening, and the Davenport, IA radar showed very heavy migration which would put those birds over the Driftless Area by daybreak (SPOILER ALERT: I will be adding several radars in the next few days, including Davenport IA, Chicago IL, and Duluth, MN). Since birds were moving in a general SSE->NNW direction, expect them to be dispersed across the landscape this morning. Hit the known spring migrant traps for your best bet at density and diversity, but don’t neglect the lake shore if you’re near Lake Michigan… given that birds were still crossing at 5:00am this morning I imagine some new ones can be found at first light in any available habitat along the lake edge. Good Birding!
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
5 responses to “Heavy migration ramps up in the south and makes its way into the Upper Midwest”
David- last two “good” flights turned up nothing new here in Washington County, WI. IN fact, friend did Waukesha County, WI and noted same thing. Are these birds overshooting the state and putting down further north?
Thanks
Tom
First of all, thanks for posting your observations to the site; it’s critical to have the ground-truthing to go with the radar and predictions in order for us to learn-as-we-go. Since the radar doesn’t discriminate between species we’re left to use other information to infer what we’re ‘seeing’ on the radar. No doubt on every night where I say the flight was “good”, what we’re seeing IS birds… but this time of year we still have many short-distance migrants in the system which include the Am Goldfinches, Song Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, etc. plus the lingering waterfowl. In the case of these species it’s possible that many people go out and look around but don’t notice an increase in the same species they’ve been seeing all winter… or are looking in the woods when in fact the majority of the flight happened to be waterfowl. That’s where knowing what to expect based on the date comes in handy. Some folks are out listening at night and can decipher species composition based on nocturnal flight call (for those species which do call, that is). Right now the airspace is full of sparrow chips on big flights suggesting that the Song, Swamp and White-throats are moving out and the Chipping, Field, and others are arriving.
I don’t think birds are overshooting since nothing major has been reported farther north of where you are. Are you birding locations that tend to concentrate birds in the spring? does that spot tend to be good regardless of wind direction the night before or the morning of? Since I’m just becoming familiar with the area I have little knowledge of where might be a spring hotspot in Washington or Waukesha counties, but I’d love to hear about some specific locations and I’ll try and pinpoint a time when migration looked ‘good’ for that spot in the future. Birds were definitely dispersed across the landscape during migration last night- so expect them to work their way into more optimal habitat during the day. I wouldn’t be surprised to see concentrations increase later this morning and afternoon… but given the weather over the next two nights we should expect birds to move through as long as they’re fit to migrate (good conditions coming up!). Expect more birds in your area tomorrow and Sunday mornings… that I feel pretty confident about.
Push into Salem Co, Nj was minimal with new species but there were alot more blue gray gnatcatchers, goldfinches, and swallows today. alot of osprey and hawks species in air as well as vultures. may have been some of what was on radar.
Jeff-
Thanks for the report! That fits with the expectations, especially because the influx was small and somewhat local (birds coming in from the Delmarva Peninsula). Expect more movement into S. Jersey at the end of the weekend and early next week. Good Birding!
Hi! Last year you always included an animated map that captured at least a little into New York state. Anyway you could include a map that shows some or all of NY? Thanks for the work you do.