Friday, March 13, 2009

An Approaching Thaw

With the snow and cold at the beginning of the week, it is with great anticipation that I look forward to this weekend when it is predicted to get into the mid to upper 40s for daily high temperatures. I'm already trying to decide where I should head to for a little birding. Reports from southern Wisconsin indicate the arrival of early migrants that haven't shown up here yet like meadowlarks, killdeer and locations with open water are hosting ever more diverse collections of waterfowl.

Several people have asked where I obtain the radar images that I've been posting. There are several weather sites that lead to nexrad images but the one that I find most useful is a composite map that covers all of the United States. It's a rather long URL that can be found here. A couple of folks also asked if there is a good site for basic info on radar ornithology. I found a really good tutorial produced by John Idzikowski over in Wisconsin.

I hope everyone finds these links useful but don't stay up all night watching radar. Get some sleep and go out to meet the migrants as they land at dawn.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Like you, we are anxiously awaiting a predicted "warm weekend". Temps are to be in the lower 40's. Planning a trip to the southern part of Maine this weekend to see some of the same early migrants that you mentioned.