With the passage of the last cold front, high pressure has built in across the northeast and northern Mid-Atlantic bringing WNW winds and relatively clear skies to the region. Birds appear to have taken notice! 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.
Birds were definitely on the move last night across the Central, Mississippi and Eastern Flyways, especially at mid and northern latitudes. Migration was heaviest at mid latitudes where conditions were most optimal (light to variable winds, mostly out of the NNW). Over the northeastern US the winds were stronger (10-25kts) and more westerly, which appears to have influenced the density of birds leaving western and northern NY state (one of our major source pools for migrants). Still, moderate densities could be seen flying through the Binghamton and Albany radars heading in a southeast direction. Coupled with the good flight out of eastern NY, the state of New Jersey should get a nice influx of birds this morning.
Both the Fort Dix and Dover radars indicate strong directional flight, with birds being pushed to the southeast overnight. This bodes very well for coastal migrant traps. The Sandy Hook buoy is reading NNW winds at 9.9 kts (gusts to 13) which should mean that birds coming ashore from the eastern NY flight will stick around The Hook today. Of course, northwest winds and a good flight are the two major ingredients in Higbee Dike Migration Gumbo, so if you’re down this way you may want to make a visit to this often-magical fall hotspot. A spin around the Higbee WMA fields should also turn up some great birds today… I mean, it IS September in Cape May.
Good Birding
David
3 responses to “Another flight reaches the Mid-Atlantic”
NP dredge spoils – Gloucester County, NJ. I only had 1 hour this morning. NW winds, sunny, 65 degrees or so. Just walked the north woods area. This is also a clearing. And down to the cove. Nothing in the cove at high tide. Yes, a definite change and new birds in.
1 YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO
1 YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER
BLUE JAYS – say 15 but were moving around a lot.
3 HOUSE WRENS
ROBINS – hardly any!
1 WARBLING VIREO – singing.
1 PARULA
4 MAGNOLIA WARBLERS
1 PINE WARBLER
1 BLACKPOLL
2 REDSTARTS
6 COMMON YELLOWTHROATS
4 LINCOLN’S SPARROWS – my highlight. Beats my Gloucester County arrival date by 3 days. And beats my high count there for a day by 1.
GOLDFINCHES – hardly any.
3 BOBOLINKS – heading north.
Light migrant activity at Liberty SP.
10 Warbler sp. – Redstart and B&W predominating.
Also had a single Lincoln’s Sparrow here.
PS yesterday was much the same
PPS Chimney Rock had 650 or so hawks yesterday incl. 500+ BW’s
Nice! Yeah, it was pretty crazy around here this morning. The final tally was somewhere over 6000 warblers with 26 species represented. When I left early at 7:45am, there had been 6 Connecticut Warblers counted from the dike. Later in the morning our hawk counter, Melissa Roach, found a Wood Stork which put on a show before heading across the bay and being counted at the Camp Henlopen hawkwatch. I’m going to go out on a limb, though, and bet that tomorrow will be better… any takers?