Little to no migration


As the title says, there was little to no (leaning more towards ‘no’) migration last night, in the face of light southerly winds over the region. Here’s the radar from sunset last night through 5:00am 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.
Base Reflectivity image from Fort DixBase Velocity image from Fort DixBase Reflectivity image from Dover AFBBase Velocity image from Dover AFBComposite Base Reflectivity image from the Northeastern USA

Leave it to the radar to make things difficult…
As you can see, there appears to be a signal after sunset, with the typical “migration” look. When you check the velocity, though, the movement is from the south to the north, which would suggest the signal is caused by something blowing in the wind, rather than birds. The velocity is high given the wind speed, making interpretation a little more difficult (which is one reason why I need to hire a programmer to help me download a more sensitive radar feed, so that I could better discern between bird and non-bird targets). Overall, though my gut feeling is that the vast majority of this signal is not birds, although any reports of reverse migration last night or this morning would be greatly appreciated…as I’m not sure if sparrows would be more prone to such activity.

Good Birding

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