Well, it wasn’t the motherload, but there was definitely some migration over New Jersey last night. Here’s the radar from sunset last night through 5:15am this morning. By looking at the base velocity image, you can see how the birds shifted orientation as they approach the coast. The winds aloft last night were more westerly than northerly, but as you can see, the birds compensate to stay over land. I’d bet that coastal sites are good this morning…gotta run!
Good Birding
2 responses to “Birds on the move”
Chris Vogel’s Cape May report from the Jerseybirds listserv:
While I kind of expected more given the break in the
weather, a few notables around Cape May today were:
1 Ad Bald Eagle- over the Parkway near mm 5
Northern Shoveler have increased to 3 at the Meadows
4 Blue-winged Teal are still there as well
At least 3 juv Sora were around the edges of the
Meadows.
S.B. Dowitchers have increased to nearly a hundred at
the Meadows, the preponderance being juvs. Four days
ago there were 4, the last 2 days there have been 35,
and then today-lots.
1 Long-billed Dow was there, but I would not have gone
to look for it had I not been tipped off to its
presence
8 Stilt Sandpipers were with the Dowitchers and
Yellow-legs
By sunset, 6 juv Black Terns were floating, Bat-like,
over the pool at the Meadows
1 Caspian Tern was foraging in the surf off South Cape
May this morning, and 1 White-rumped Sandpiper flew
out of the bunker pond. The hundreds of Forster’s and
Common Terns were nowhere to be seen on the bunker
pond this morning-dunno if they flew the coop
entirely, or were just around the corner where I could
not see them.
Bobolinks, E. Kingbirds, and Blue-grey Gnatcatchers
were all conspicuous migrants today, and a young of
the year Orchard Oriole in the hedge at the Meadows
was getting late.
I hear that a Black-throated Green was at Higbee’s
this morning(first I have heard of), but the most
interesting thing I saw there was a noisily scolding
“flock” of 4 Ovenbirds a bit later on in the day.
Cheers
CJV
Cape May, NJ.
On my point counts the only obvious migrants I had were a pair of BLUE GROSBEAKS, a BALTIMORE ORIOLE and an AMERICAN REDSTART.
Afterward I did a little screech owling and pishing in some of the more dependable areas around the forest and kicked up several BLACK-AND-WHITE warblers, a BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER, two CANADA warblers, more AMERICAN REDSTARTS, two BLUE-WINGED warblers, several PRAIRIE warblers and a female SCARLET TANAGER.
In the evening there were 4 Common Nighhawks over the fields behind our house heading NW toward Colonial Park.