Stormy night and migration alert for tonight

Regional Overview

The big story of the night is the large storm working its way north through the region. The south winds hampered migration last night but there may still have been birds moving to be put down by the rain.

The forecast for tonight into tomorrow looks fantastic, especially Ohio, western PA and western NY. NW winds should encourage a lot of birds to migrate after a couple quieter nights and the strong NW winds continuing through the day mean that spots along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario should see a good movement of ducks as well as the possibility of real fun birds like jaegers and rare gulls.

I don’t always have time to comment on the radar in each state. To interpret it yourself, read the quick tutorial at the bottom of the page.

New York

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Pennsylvania & New Jersey

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Ohio

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Ohio prediction coming soon…


Maryland and Delaware

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Prediction coming soon…


Quick guide to interpreting the radar

On the top row (reflectivity radar), the images show the magnitude of migration. When birds are migrating, it looks like a donut shape around the center of the radar station.

The bottom row is the velocity radar. This shows the direction that the objects detected by the radar station are moving. Blues are moving towards the radar station, yellows and reds are moving away from the station. So for southbound migration, blue should be on the top half of the donut, yellow on the bottom half.

Watch for precipitation moving through during the night hours, this can cause birds to stop migrating in a concentrated area, creating the fabled ‘fallout’, particularly on nights with strong migration.

For more in depth info, watch this video.
For migration updates or other regions check-

Pac NW – Birds Over Portland by Greg Haworth

I need your help! These reports will only be as good as the feedback I get on these updates. Please leave comments on interesting patterns of migration you are seeing in the field so I can incorporate some ground truthing to my forecasts and predictions. Thanks!