National Overview

UPDATE: The NCAR radar feeds are back online now, so here they are with my original writeup from this morning.

I guess we’ll have to wait for the NCAR folks to get into the office this morning, because the radar is STILL failing to be posted to their site. I thought that after yesterday this would have been resolved. Anyway, here’s the still image from peak migration last night, and you can see things were really cranking from the Gulf up into the Midwest last night. Birders in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and central Illinois should be on the alert for fallout conditions this morning as heavy thunderstorms appeared to put birds down during the night. If you live in these states and experienced thunderstorms between midnight and 2am, be sure to check out your local patch today. Migration was also quite heavy over the Mid Atlantic with many birds pushing up into Ohio and New Jersey, and even western New York. Over on the left coast it looks like birds were moving over the Central Valley and the Desert Southwest, while the Pacific Northwest was under some heavy precip. Of course, I’m forced to make really gross generalizations without the individual radars. You can view a complete loop of the nights even here on Paul Hurtado’s radar archive.

Below are the radar loops from sunset last night through 5:00am (central time) this morning

Since I will be publishing “as I go” each morning you may see some incomplete posts throughout the early morning hours. Don’t worry- it’s coming!

Mid Atlantic

Delaware & New Jersey

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

Birds were clearly moving last night under southerly flow, with the bulk of migrants heading into NJ along the Jersey Turnpike corridor. Expect good birding conditions at inland hotspots along the Delaware River and inland ridges such as Garret Mountain this morning. Birders in the DC area should check out Rock Creek Park for the chance at some of the best spring birding yet this season, but expect it to get even better throughout the week as strong southwesterly flow brings some of the latest Trans-Gulf migrants from the south. Birders in NYC should see a few new individuals, but otherwise will need to wait for the next big push on SW winds to get covered in migrants. Good Birding!

Upper Midwest

Iowa & Illinois

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

Wisconsin

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

Some good stuff going on in the Upper Midwest as that low pressure system carried some migrants up into the region last night. As mentioned above, birders in central Illinois should be on the alert for fallout conditions this morning. As for Wisconsin, west winds building in behind that low definitely brought some new birds to the western shore of Lake Michigan today. While we’re still waiting for the big push of migrants over the next two nights, we should see more new birds throughout the state today. Birders seeking out the Vermillion Flycatcher in Milwaukee should also be picking up newly arrived migrants as a collateral bonus. Birders in northern Wisconsin should see a few new birds today as some of the recent arrivals from the south pushed north… but again, the real numbers and diversity are on their way over the next few nights. 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.

For migration updates in other regions check-

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula – The Northwoods BIRDAR by Max Henschell <- NEW!
New England – Tom Auer’s blog
Florida/SE – Badbirdz Reloaded by Angel and Mariel Abreu
PA/Ohio Valley – Nemesis Bird by Drew Weber
NW Ohio – Birding the Crane Creek by Kenn Kaufman
Arizona – Words About Birds by Tim Schreckengost <- NEW!
Pac NW – Birds Over Portland by Greg Haworth
Continental US – eBird BirdCast Forecast & Report by Team eBird