Good morning! We’re reporting live from the Cape May Hawkwatch where light northeast winds are promising to make things a little more challenging for our Big Sit today. The radar was/is quite impressive into this morning, so we’re optimistic we can make a go at it. 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.
Last night the winds over most of the northeast started out NW and migration has been hot and heavy into this morning. Winds switched around to the NE over night and the major trajectory of bird traffic has adjusted accordingly, moving the bulk of the birds inland of the coast (we could actually detect the decline in flight call rate as the winds switched). You can see this quite clearly by watching the individual radar loops. With the heavy flight offshore throughout most of the night (see the regional composite), I sill hold out hope for our Big Sit efforts in Cape May, but Sandy Hook will probably lose most of its new arrivals early this morning (although what they lack in quantity they may make up in quality, like the LeConte’s found after yesterday’s lackluster flight). Inland hotspots will definitely shine today, so if you’re mobile, you might want to hit one of them!
Okay- I need to tuck back into my sleeping bag to warm up before things get crazy around here…
Good Birding
David
5 responses to “Big migration into the mid-Atlantic”
You should see the radar returns from Cape May to Lewes …. anybody doing a big sit in Lewes? A “green stream” of returns across the bay there.
David, your blog got me out this morning to my favorite haunt…the Finderne Mitagation Site in central Jersey along the Raritan River. Many flocks were streaming in from the east at 8 a.m., mostly landing there in the trees and then feeding in the trees and the grasses. Never saw such a sight there before!
A very birdy morning at Riverwinds in Gloucester County. About a mile south of the dredge spoils. If that. Again, a weekend late start. Work. Definite new birds in and lots out also! Yellow-rumped, White-throated Sparrow flight for sure.
4 NORTHERN FLICKERS
3 EASTERN PHOEBES
20 or so BLUE JAYS
1 RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH
2 GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS
5 RUBY-CRWONED KINGLETS
2 HERMIT THRUSHES
ROBINS – not many actually!
6 GRAY CATBIRDS
1 BROWN THRASHER
1 BLACK-THROATED BLUE
130 YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS – a little bit of an estimate as I lost track and one flock was huge!
13 PALMS – most of these were at another area I hit later.
2 BLACKPOLLS
1 COMMON YELLOWTHROAT
18 SONG SPARROWS
2 LINCOLN’S SPARROWS
20 or so SWAMP SPARROWS
200 WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS – again, lost track and too many in the flocks!
Not many GOLDFINCHES
1 BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO – very good bird for October. I managed a nice look.
Fortunately for those of us who were at Sandy Hook today, David’s prognosis did not come to fruition.
Despite the fact that the buoy off of Sandy Hook indicated that winds went ENE at 3AM, there was a huge flight with big numbers again today. Yellow-Rumped Warblers, RCKinglets and GCKinglets and Phoebes were everywhere. YRWA had to be in the thousands and the others were in high double digits.
The sparrow configuration changed as well with a noticeable number of Chipping Sparrows and big numbers of White-Throated Sparows. Big double digits on Brown Creeper. The stars of the show today were Connecticut Warbler-2, Orange-Crowned Warbler, Grasshopper Sparrow-1, Clay-Colored Sparrow-1, Lincoln’s Sparrow-1
One can only imagine what would have happened if the winds had not changed direction overnight.
No great influx of new birds was detectable at the Great Swamp this am, but a respectable 70 sp. Had been tallied at the Big Sit by the time I needed to leave at 10.30 am.
Good Sparrow diversity, good numbers of Rusty Blackbirds, purple finches, Kinglets, Yellow Rumps and Palms.
Woodcock, Snipe, GW Teal and Wigeon.
Cold at dawn – 29f.