South winds quell flood of migrants… for now


After four nights of heavy migration, the winds over the northeast and mid-Atlantic finally turned southerly again, making for a small last-ditch effort early yesterday evening. 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.

Base Reflectivity image from Fort Dix Base Velocity image from Fort Dix Base Reflectivity image from Dover AFB Base Velocity image from Dover AFB Composite Base Reflectivity image from the Northeastern USA

At sunset last night the surface winds were light and southerly, while the winds aloft were still light northerly, enabling a small number of birds to take flight. Based on the velocity image, this lasted only a few hours until all winds turned southerly and migration halted over the mid-Atlantic states.

Not a whole lot of new arrivals are expected from this last movement, although the cumulative effect of multiple migration events, coupled with poor migration conditions over the next few nights, will mean good birding across the region through the weekend. Since migration will be shut down through the weekend, I have decided to take off the remainder of the week and weekend and will not be posting the radar again until Monday (unless I detect migration, in which case I will resume posting earlier). There are some interesting weather possibilities coming up over the weekend, which I have highlighted in my mid-Atlantic birding forecast on birdcapemay.org, so make sure to check that out using the link below.

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.

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