Well, in migration you’ve got ‘open flood gates’, ‘closed flood gates’, and in some cases gates that are left a little open (what’s the matter with you!? were you raised in a barn, buddy!??). Last night, while most of New Jersey was still under the influence of a remnant cold front, the Delmarva was clear enough to allow a small push of birds into southern NJ. Hence, someone left the gates unlocked. Not fully ajar, mind you, but just enough to let a few birds squeeze in. Here’s the radar from sunset last night through 5:30am this morning.

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

As you can see from the radar, the only real visible nocturnal migrants were restricted to the southern tip and shore of New Jersey. Winds were out of the west over this region, and the velocity image corroborates that fact, with most birds being pushed eastward over the Cape May peninsula, and up along the western Delaware Bay shore. I live along this shoreline, and I can tell you that last night the nocturnal flight calls were frequent, with lots of White-throated and Savannah sparrows, as well as Yellow-rumped Warblers. Tom Reed shot me a text message alerting me to the phenomenon, and he was hearing even more up his way on Reed’s Beach Rd. I would expect birds around Cape May point and the Delaware Bay shore this morning, up to the Atlantic City area- but not much else further north, based solely on the radar and the weather.

That said, all that will be on the ground today cannot be explained by the radar alone. Garret Mountain proved that yesterday, with an apparent influx of White-throated Sparrows, Ruby-crowned Kingelts, and Yellow-rumped Warblers. Judging from the radar, I can see no visible signal of migration north of Atlantic City- but birds can move under the precipitation, and under the radar, for that matter! I look forward to hearing your reports from the field, so please come back and visit and let us know what you’ve seen- and at the very least report your sightings to eBird and then to Jerseybirds so that we can have a running archive of migration for the region.

Good Birding

David