Sunday, April 15, 2012

Winds Blowing Birds North

A look at the wind map for the U.S. at 12:30 am shows strong flow out of the south. The weather radar also shows heavy movement of migrants south of the storm system moving out of the Great Plains and into the Great Lakes area. Below is the wind map for tonight:
The radar looks like this from the gulf to southern Iowa:

 From Texas to Iowa the winds are very favorable for birds to move. Unfortunately the storms moving into the upper midwest will cause the birds to stop short of coming into Minnesota. I was encouraged today by some new species that have showed up in the last week or so. I saw my FOY (first of year) Field Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and I could swear I heard an Eastern Wood Peewee but it only called once and I never saw it so on the outside chance that it was a Starling  trying to make me crazy I can't say for sure it actually was a Peewee.

Birders in the south should have a great Sunday of birding.

2 comments:

Brian said...

I'm trying to understand this radar thing and how it can be used to detect migrations. For example, the NWS Mosaic for Louisiana this afternoon shows some light blue specs moving northeast. There was no precip in that area, so is that feedback birds moving?

Thanks

Brian said...
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