A small number of birds could be seen migrating last night, but the switch to more northerly winds clearly shut things down early, especially in the north. 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.

Not much to say, except that while I expect a few more nights of moderate migration over the next week, things have definitely wound down for the season.

Last night we saw a little push of birds into the region, and an even smaller amount heading out. I think the main variable here was more northerly winds up north, and more variable winds down south. Expect birds to have thinned out a bit across most of the state, dispersing from migrant traps to better stopover habitat, and in general becoming less visible (ie not concentrated in any particular place). The Cape May peninsula showed a higher degree of activity last night that I had expected (with no strong westerly winds), so it will be interesting to see what turns up down here throughout the day. It’s possible that a good portion of this activity was shorebirds, especially since you can see a morning exodus of birds heading back south in the last frame, presumably roosting shorebirds or gulls heading over the Delaware to feed.

Good Birding

David