Below is a snapshot of the national map with radar and weather fronts. Use this map to get an overall feel of migration and how weather affects nocturnal migration.
Birds were riding the tailwinds last night! Migration was evident with birds heading south over much of the state. Winds are blowing in from the north which is pushing a series fronts down the peninsula. Birding should be good in spots where precipitation had the chance to ground birds. South FL had a front pass through overnight. Drier air is settling in and northerly winds triggered a good flight.
A second front is still situated over North FL. In between this cold front sandwich we expect a good push of migrants overnight. The first front should clear the Keys by morning, north winds behind the front gives birds a tailwind that could carry them over and past us. One thing in our favor would be extensive cloud cover from Central FL to South FL. This cloud cover could encourage some birds to land and wait for a clear night to migrate over water. As night fell, most of the precipitation associated with the front moved off into the Atlantic. This precipitation could have stacked up birds over South FL and still could if thunderstorms fire up early in the day. Lets see what the day brings!
Our computer is still down and we were unable to download and post the radar as usual so we are doing the second best thing. Below is a list of links to radar loops from 2am-6am.
The regional radar is in reflectivity mode which is best used to quantify birds and to get a picture of where they are moving from. The rest of the radar links are velocity radars, these are best used to determine speed and direction of travel. With these images you are looking at light blue-dark blue returns (incoming birds) and yellow-orange (outgoing birds). The grayish line between the two colors is the line of axis, this line will give you an idea of which direction birds are entering the radar from and which direction they are flying as they exit radar range.
As always Badbirdz depends on its readers to help us understand the magic of bird migration. We ask our readers to take a minute to email us at badbirdz-reloaded@hotmail.com, post a comment on the site or share what you are seeing on our Facebook page. As a whole the Florida birding community is large and enthusiastic about bird migration, lets join together this year to make Badbirdz an integral part of every birders toolbox. Together we can track and monitor birds and learn more about this phenomenon called MIGRATION!
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