Another night of northerly winds and clear skies made for optimal migration conditions across the entire Northeast and mid-Atlantic US. Here’s the radar from 7:00pm last night through 5:00am this morning.

Frames are every 1/2 hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.

Both local radars show heavy migration over New Jersey last night while the trajectory of movement was roughly NNE->SSW. The devil is in the details, though, when deciding where best to go birding today. Winds over the northern part of the state were blowing out of the northwest, as reported by the NOAA buoy off of Sandy Hook (SSW ~ 6mph, all night). Just after sunset, on both the Fort Dix reflectivity and velocity images, you can see a “plume” of birds heading out over the ocean from just north of Sandy Hook. It’s possible that these birds will keep going over water this morning, but more likely that some (if not all) will redirect towards land at first light. On the other hand, the winds over southern New Jersey have been light northeasterly… probably too light to have any appreciable effect on migrants, but clearly not conducive to creating the classic “Fall Cape May” experience.

So, as for birding, coastal locations in the northern part of the state (especially Sandy Hook) should be good this morning, with inland locations being favored further south. Light north wind will prevail throughout the day, so keep an eye to the sky for some early migrating raptors.

Good Birding

David

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

Please don’t forget to become a member of the Woodcreeper/Badbirdz flock today. For more information, please check out the Become a Member post.