Very little migration over South Florida

Only 1 more day to take the woodcreeper/badbirdz-reloaded, online survey! To the 52 of you who took the survey so far, thanks! To those of you considering taking it, let me assure you that It’s quick, painless, and will really help me improve the site, so please take a few seconds to click a couple of buttons. 🙂
Thanks in advance -David

After checking the radar again, I had to change the post title from “Little migration…” to “Very little migration…”. Here’s the radar from 7:00pm last night through 5:00am this morning.

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

Okay… so Fay is finally exiting state left. Good. Good riddance. This storm has put a serious damper on early fall migration (although it has displaced a few pelagic birds at seemingly unlikely sites throughout the state, which, for the birder, is pretty cool). The radar showed no migration over the entire state with the one exception being a small pulse of birds out of the Everglades, across Florida Bay, into the Keys. I’m guessing these were shorebirds, because the winds were clearly southerly and to my knowledge there are no passerines that need to get that far south so quickly as to fight a head wind over water… at least not in late August.

Looking ahead it appears that the southerly flow will stick around until the early part of the week. Coupled with some severe thunderstorms in northern Florida, I don’t think we’ll see any major influx of new birds until later in the week. There is some talk of easterly winds tomorrow and Monday, which might allow some smaller localized movements if the southerlies slacken over south Florida.
Of course, I’m always happy to hear about the conditions on the ground, so make sure to stop by and let us know what you’re seeing!

Good Birding,

David

Please don’t forget to become a member of the Badbirdz/Woodcreeper flock today. You can read the Become a Member post to find out more information.