With strong northwesterly winds to our south, and light and variable winds over the region, migration-ready birds from New Jersey and across the northeastern US were able to exploit the clear skies and head north. Here’s the radar from sunset last night through 5:30am 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.

Both local radars indicate moderate to heavy migration out of New Jersey last night, while the composite does a good job of showing the extent to which this event occurred. Similar conditions are expected to persist for the next few nights, most likely resulting in a net loss of birds from the region. It will be interesting to determine which birds are moving on these conditions… strong fliers (shorebirds?), late winter visitors (Dark-eyed Juncos? White-throated Sparrows? Purple Finches?), or the early migrants that only recently arrived in large numbers (Palm Warblers? Eastern Phoebes?). Your reports from the field will be a most valuable tool for ground-truthing what we’re seeing on the radar- so please come back and let us know!

Good Birding

David

P.S. Come check out my migration forecast for the Mid-Atlantic on Birdcapemay.org

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