National overview
High pressure over the Great Lakes Region kept much from entering the Upper Midwest last night, but southerly flow pushing up from the Gulf region did bring a new flux of birds into the central part of the country. Expect these birds and more to make their way into our neck of the woods over the next two nights. You can see some of that movement in the image below, where radars in the Central Mississippi Valley were showing strong migration returns late last night.
Below are the radar loops from sunset last night through 5:00am (central time) this morning
Upper Midwest
Minnesota & Wisconsin
Frames are every 1/2 hour. click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.
Looking at the MN and WI radars there was no sign of migration over Duluth and the Twin Cities last night, with the first signs of migration just showing up above La Crosse, WI. Moving farther south, we begin to see the leading edge of the migration event…
Iowa & Illinois
Frames are every 1/2 hour. click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.
Both the Davenport, IA and Chicago, IL radars showed light to moderate movements of migrants heading north last night, with the heaviest movements coming in from farther south.
Birders in the southern portion of the forecast zone should see some turnover of migrants this morning, especially at tried and true spring migrant traps. I don’t expect any local concentrations of migrants this morning as we’re still in the very edge of the migration front and birds were dispersed across the landscape with no weather to concentrate them throughout the night and early morning. Consider this a “priming of the pump” for the next few nights. Some lucky birders will undoubtedly pick out a new bird or two on this front, and the weather is looking excellent for some early spring birding!
As always, woodcreeper.com depends on you to report your sightings and be our ‘eyes on the ground’, so please come back and give us an idea of how we’re doing predicting birding conditions in your neck of the woods.
Good Birding,
David
One response to “Birds are coming…look busy!”
Of course everyone wants to know “what ARE those birds on the radar!?” Since the radar can’t tell us which species are migrating, we need to use other sources to figure this out. Nocturnal flight calls give us an idea, and anyone outside last night along the Central/Mississippi flyways probably heard waterfowl going overhead. You may have also heard some faint ‘chips’ from American Tree Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos making their way back north. You may have even picked up an icterid or two, or maybe a squawking Great Blue Heron. These early pushes are usually composed of waterfowl, blackbird flocks, and some of the shorter-distance migrants. Many Neotropical Migrants are beginning to make their way across and around the Gulf of Mexico so expect to start seeing them showing up in the Upper Midwest over the next four weeks.