If you take a look at the regional composite, you’ll see that the heavy migration occurred not over the NE, but further south in the southern half of the Mid-Atlantic. While we didn’t get the bulk of the birds on this flight, we did get a moderate pulse of new birds coming in from NY and Eastern PA. Here’s the radar from 6:00pm last night through 6:00am this morning.

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

Both the Fort Dix and Dover radars indicate nocturnal migration after sunset, peaking around midnight, and tapering off after 2:00am. The NYC radar only indicated a small pulse of outgoing birds, and an early morning pulse of birds arriving today. Interestingly, there appears to be a cluster of birds that launched off from the Meadowlands and mouth of the Hudson River, over the Atlantic and out to sea. You can see this pretty clearly from the NYC, Fort Dix, and the regional composite radars. It would be nice to know the species composition of that group!

For today expect birding conditions to be best at fall migrant traps, with Cape May being a good bet given the SE trajectory of migrants last night.

Good Birding

David