Birds on the move across the US last night

Birds on the move across the US last night

National overview

Evidence of nocturnal migration could be seen across all flyways last night with the heaviest movements from Texas to southern Minnesota, and along the eastern seaboard. High pressure over the Ohio Valley kept things quiet in that neck of the woods. While birds still haven’t made a strong push into the Upper Midwest the little trickle of new birds this morning will be welcome for sure.

national composite nexrad from around 11:00pm on 4/13/13
National Composite NEXRAD from around 11:00pm on 4/13/13

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.

base reflectivity image from Duluth base velocity image from Duluth

base reflectivity image from Minnesota base velocity image from Minnesota

The northern reaches of the forecast area were still under the influence of unfavorable wind conditions. As a result no migration was evident on either the Duluth or Twin Cities radars last night.

base reflectivity image from green bay, wi base velocity image from green bay, wi

base reflectivity image from milwaukee base velocity image from milwaukee

base reflectivity image from la crosse, wi base velocity image from la crosse, wi

Conditions didn’t improve much as we move east into Wisconsin, with the Green Bay radar only showing a light movement of birds up towards the Door Peninsula last night. Farther south things started to turn around a bit and both La Crosse and Milwaukee showed light migration overhead in advance of the precipitation band heading in from the southwest.

Iowa & Illinois

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

base reflectivity image from chicago, il base velocity image from chicago, il
base reflectivity image from davenport, ia base velocity image from davenport, ia

Conditions weren’t much better for IA and IL with only light migration over the region heading due north. While it’s not much, I think the folks in southern Wisconsin will gladly take a few more species today.

Expect a few new birds on the ground in the southern part of the forecast area but little to no concentration of migrants due to the low volume of passage and lack of migration barriers present this morning.

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

For migration updates in other regions check-

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula - The Northwoods BIRDAR by Max Henschell
New England - Tom Auer’s blog
Florida/SE - Badbirdz Reloaded by Angel and Mariel Abreu
PA/Ohio Valley - Nemesis Bird by Drew Weber
NW Ohio - Birding the Crane Creek by Kenn Kaufman
Pac NW - Birds Over Portland by Greg Haworth
Continental US - eBird BirdCast Forecast & Report by Team eBird

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