The radar indicates a light to moderate flight of birds into northern Florida, with smaller localized movements further south. Here’s the radar from sunset last night through 5:00am this morning.
Frames are every 1/2 hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.
From the western panhandle to the northeast coast, radar returns indicate birds were heading into the Sunshine State. Generally birds were moving W->E along the panhandle, and more N->S towards the east coast, effectively funneling birds down into the peninsula. Upon initial inspection of the regional image it appeared that nothing had migrated over southern Florida, but after viewing the individual radar loops it became apparent that a pulse of birds did move in from the northwest and reached the greater Miami area by morning. In the Florida Keys I could see no visible exodus over the Florida Straits, but what was apparent was some island hopping between the upper and lower keys. Therefore, the lower Keys should see some new birds this morning.
Of course your observations from the field are an important part of making this website what it is- so please stop by and let us know what you saw!
Good Birding,
David
Thanks to Angel & Mariel’s (The Birding Duo) excellent find of the Nashvilles yesterday, I tried Barnes yesterday morning before work. I’m glad I did. The place was pretty birdy. In addition to the Nashville, I also found a Bay-breasted, Blackburnian, and Magnolia, plus plenty of others. Didn’t find the Blue-winged, but the others made up for it. The oaks and figs near the lake were very active, but there were also birds in the Homeless Hammock and Rooster Areas (rooster area is on your left as you first drive in). I wish I had been able to bird more than the 1 3/4 hours I had. If there was ever a day and place to get 20 warbler species, Barnes was it yesterday.
In the afternoon a brief stop at Matheson added two Baltimore Orioles, plus a rare sighting of two birders that will remain nameless. The list:
Tennessee Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Pine Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Palm Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Worm-eating Warbler
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
And:
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Phoebe
Baltimore Oriole
By: Toe on October 20, 2010 @ 1:13 pm
at 1:13 pm