Last night conditions for migration deteriorated over most of the Mid-Atlantic, while the Northeast experienced a much more conducive atmosphere. Here’s the radar from sunset last night through 5:00am this morning.

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

As you can see from the regional composite, there was a moderate migration out of central and northern New Jersey, and across the northeastern states. Very little movement was evident across the southern half of the state or anywhere to our south, with a small number of birds entering Pennsylvania from VA/Maryland.

Without a large influx of new birds, I would expect numbers to have decreased across the region, although these types of light movements following a large flight can result in interesting patterns on the ground. First, we could see the birds that came in two nights ago moving into more optimal habitat. If you have a local patch that tends to do better one or two days after a frontal passage, you might want to give it a check today. Second, the birds that were moving out of New Jersey were heading for Long Island, NY via Sandy Hook. That bodes well for another good day (with new species possible) out at The Hook. The buoy off of SH is reading light west winds, which further supports that as a good choice.

Good Birding

David