As the latest cold front cleared the eastern seaboard early this morning, a small push of birds could be seen making its way into the eastern mid-Atlantic. Here’s the radar from 7:30pm last night through 5:00am this morning (although some of the later images were missing from the archive).

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

As usual, winds along the leading edge of the front were strong and SSW (25-30kts at ~3000ft; 10kts at the surface) while high pressure behind the front brings the northwest flow. Therefore we saw widespread migration throughout the night over the Central, Mississippi and parts of the Eastern Flyways that had been cleared by the front over the previous day(s), while the east coast remained quiet until early this morning. As the front finally moved offshore, though, the NYC, Fort Dix and Dover, DE radars each indicated a late push of birds into the region. Whether these birds will be apparent on the ground is a good questions. I would think that given the lack of exodus across the region, these new birds would simply augment the current population such that locations which were good yesterday (especially inland migrant traps) should also be good today. Otherwise little change is expected. Due to the evacuations going on today (both mandatory and voluntary), as well as all of the emergency preparations, moving about the southern part of the state will require extra caution and consideration. Whatever you do over the next few days, have your wits about you and remember ‘safety first!’.

I’ll post a migration forecast for the next few days sometime tonight so stay tuned!

Good Birding

David