Southerly winds prevailed over Pennsylvania and central and western New York last night, preventing any migration on the interior eastern flyway. Fortunately for those more coastal states, the northerly winds along the extreme east coast made for some heavy migration right along the shoreline. Here’s the radar from sunset last night through sunrise this morning.
Frames are every 1/2 hour for reflectivity and velocity, and every hour for the regional composite. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.
You can really see what I’m talking about if you check the regional composite. There’s virtually no signal (and I’d argue what signal there is is likely just noise) on the interior radars, but look at the coastal sites go! If you look at the velocity, most movement is from north to south, suggesting birds. There is some movement from east to west, which is probably something other than birds being carried along in the prevailing easterlies that built in early this morning, or maybe the signal is bird-related, as those birds who got blown off course two nights ago are “righting themselves”? The latter is purely speculative of course. The real problem, I’ve noticed, is the coarseness of this data- and how it makes it very hard to discern between different velocities which might shed light on the source of the signal…oh well, you get what you pay for (free internet weather data…which is still pretty darn sweet).
Frames are every 1/2 hour for reflectivity and velocity, and every hour for the regional composite. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.
You can really see what I’m talking about if you check the regional composite. There’s virtually no signal (and I’d argue what signal there is is likely just noise) on the interior radars, but look at the coastal sites go! If you look at the velocity, most movement is from north to south, suggesting birds. There is some movement from east to west, which is probably something other than birds being carried along in the prevailing easterlies that built in early this morning, or maybe the signal is bird-related, as those birds who got blown off course two nights ago are “righting themselves”? The latter is purely speculative of course. The real problem, I’ve noticed, is the coarseness of this data- and how it makes it very hard to discern between different velocities which might shed light on the source of the signal…oh well, you get what you pay for (free internet weather data…which is still pretty darn sweet).
Anyway, migrant traps today. Coastal sites - especially Island Beach State Park, given the amount of activity on the central Jersey coast. Inland sites may be good too since easterlies definitely built in late early this morning.
Good Birding
David
P.S. Come see what’s happening down south on woodcreeper’s sister site: Badbirdz - Reloaded
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