Not much going on last night in terms of nocturnal migration, as the conditions were less than favorable. That said, there was alot of noise on the radar which made it hard to interpret. Fall is weird; there are lots of other things in the air that can give false positive results and last night was no exception. Here’s the radar from sunset last night through sunrise this morning.
Frames are every hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.
So just after sunset we see a signal appearing as growing concentric circles around the radar station…this is typical of birds taking to the sky and being picked up at growing distances (altitudes) from the radar station. By looking at the velocity image, though, you can see that much of this signal has no velocity associated with it, indicating that it’s not birds, but rather anomalous propagation (probably driven by a temperature inversion after sunset). There are some things moving across the radar though, but most appear to be moving from SW–>NE, counter to the expected movement of migrating landbirds. This is probably dust, pollen, or insects moving with the wind. Another interesting thing occurs just after sunrise, when a large signal from New Jersey moves offshore and to the NE, toward Long Island. Your guess is as good as mine…shore/wading-birds going off to feed? Insects? I have no idea…anyone hanging around the south shore of LI this morning?
This weekend we’ll be watching the cold front progress through our region and eventually move offshore, setting up for some heavy nocturnal migration. Stay tuned!
Good Birding!
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