Yup, it sure did… blew all night, and based on the radar no birds headed south in the process. I decided to catch up on some well-needed sleep after checking the radar late last night, and therefore had not posted the radar as of 9:00 this morning. Once I did get up, and checked the radar, I noticed that the Fort DIX radar was down for most of the night (who knows why… it happens from time to time). Anyway, I’m not going to post the radar today, but rest assured, it was lame.
On another note, several reports of “new arrivals” came in from across NJ over the weekend, which is interesting since there was little to no movement apparent on the radar. There are two very good reasons for why this might be. First, it’s very possible that some birds move on less-than-desirable weather and don’t get picked up on the radar. The radar resolution is 1 cubic kilometer, so if most of the “stuff” in that kilometer is moving north, but a few warblers are moving south, the pixel will show an average southerly movement. Common sense will tell you, though, that most birds will not be migrating against a strong headwind… and the radar will confirm this. The second (and I think more compelling) explanation is that while birds are not making major movements during these adverse weather conditions, they are moving on a more local spatial scale into areas of better foraging habitat. The ultimate goal of the migrant is to bulk up to make the next leg of their journey, so it only makes sense that they would move from areas of low quality (where they might have ended up after a night of heavy migration) to those of higher quality. We see this often in Cape May after a heavy flight, where birds will move north and west, away from the coast and into a more diverse landscape.
Tonight’s the night for a mid-Atlantic migration… so get ready!
Good Birding
David
One response to “And the south wind continues…”
Dave,
Great analysis. Its always good to have some prime feeding areas in your ‘birding arsenal’. It certainly makes “slow days” much more interesting. I imagine HMF benefits quite a bit from that kind of local movement. In fact, I think I can specifically remember times last winter where we had massive fall-outs of white-crowned sparrows (at Duke Farms) one day and you’d be inundated with a bunch the next. Probably individuals moving out of our marginal WCSP habitat and into greener pastures.
I did a little follow-up on my blog, discussing some of the common attributes that may make up prime foraging habitat: http://www.isoetes.blogspot.com
Duke Farms behaved like a good migrant trap on this day of S winds….only birds of interest were one black-and-white and a singing willow flycatcher
cheers,
Brian