National overview
Trans-Gulf migrants continued to arrive along the Texas/Louisiana coast late yesterday, followed by heavy nocturnal migration along the latest front to march eastward across the U.S. This front, extending from South Texas to the Gulf of Maine, triggered heavy migration and caused localized fallouts across several regions. Parts of the Texas coast, the Mid Atlantic U.S. and New York State should see evidence of migrant fallout this morning. A smaller pulse of migration was also evident across parts of the Upper Midwest as a second front moved through overnight, and migration continued up the Pacific Flyway from California to Washington State.
Below are the radar loops from sunset last night through 5:00am (central time) this morning
Ohio/Ontario
Frames are every 1/2 hour. click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.
By the time the sun set on western Ontario, the latest front had passed over the region and northwest winds had begun to build in behind it. As we know, these are not the conditions we expect to trigger nocturnal migration into the region, and the radar supported our expectations by showing little to no migration to the northwest coast of Lake Eerie. Looking at the Detroit radar there is no indication of any nocturnal movement into or out of the region which bodes well for birders in terms of finding the birds already here as of yesterday. The Cleveland radar shows a slightly different picture, with some migration activity after sunset along the southern shore of Lake Eerie. Looking at the velocity data, though, it’s clear that these birds are heading from west to east across the radar’s view. Birders on the southern shore should therefore expect some turnover of birds this morning, while those of us on the north side of the lake will most likely not see any wholesale change today (although we may pick up a few new species as individual variation may cause some over water crossing). The Pittsburg radar does a good job of showing the frontal boundary packed with precipitation which kept any birds from making their way into the forecast region to our south.
So birders at the Point Pelee Festival of Birds should expect to have a nice diversity of birds in the park today consistent with yesterday’s conditions, although the northwest winds will drop the temperature a bit so bundle up out there. Across the lake at Magee Marsh birders should see some turnover this morning as some birds clearly moved on last night, while some others filled in from the west behind them.
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.
Good Birding,
David
For migration updates in other regions check-
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula -Â The Northwoods BIRDARÂ by Max Henschell
New England -Â 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
Pac NW - Birds Over Portland by Greg Haworth
Continental US - eBird BirdCast Forecast & Report by Team eBird