No Migration – Until Now?
Here is an image of last night’s radar taken a little before midnight with strong and heavy avian migration occurring across the Deep South and Gulf Coast. Very few birds made it into the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, and there was no action in the Northeast. It was yet another night of poor bird movement for us, continuing a pattern and a theme that has persisted for a while this April. We have had lovely weather recently all thanks to northerly-based flows keeping air moving off the land being warmed by the sun as high pressures have been centered over the Great Lakes or Mid-Atlantic. We...
Read MoreBird Migration on Radar – March 31
Here is a radar grab of the eastern United States from just after midnight today with light bird migration occurring from the deep south all the way through Maine. A warm front had lifted through the Northeast while areas of heavy rain and thunderstorms associated with a soon to come cold front stretched across the Midwest. Areas near Georgia into the Carolinas and Delmarva appear to have had moderate migration occurring. At this time of the year we have everything from ducks to wintering friends like the Dark-eyed Junco to early arrivals like Pine Warbler, both kinglets, Chipping Sparrow,...
Read MoreCave Swallows
After an enthralling day with the biggest invasion of Franklin’s Gulls across the Northeast and Atlantic coast since at least 1998 (more on that in another entry later this weekend) our collective hopes were high for more sensational rare birds with them. This Friday, one of the most memorable birding days in years, had all available Connecticut birders mobilized along the coast, looking for life and state Franklin’s while trying to remember to watch for many other target species. One of these was the Cave Swallow, a classic November vagrant in the Northeast since the early...
Read MoreDickcissel (Spiza americana)
The highlight of my Sunday birding was this Dickcissel (Spiza americana). My friend, and terrific birder, Tom Murray and I had crippling views of this bird after we spotted it simultaneously among so very many sparrow migrants. It hid on us for about 20 minutes after we first got a quick glance for the initial identification, eventually granting prolonged looks. Persistence pays off! Patience (and sometimes a lot of silence instead of pishing) often helps when you want to a better look a specific individual. This bird of the prairies and grasslands of the Central and Midwestern United States...
Read MoreRadar Migration Overnight April 3, 2015
Here’s a radar grab from the overnight period of April 2 into April 3, 2015. As you can see precipitation is moving across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic with heavier waves to the west and lighter showers to the east. Midwestern areas had strong and severe thunderstorms while the Atlantic Coast especially had moderate avian migration occurring – see the diffuse and circular areas of blue centered around radar stations contrasting with the green rain. Birds avoiding this wet weather included a lot of sparrows like the White-throated Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Song Sparrow and Swamp...
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