Overnight bird migration

September 16, 2008 · Print This Article

With a combination of a full moon and light northwesterly winds, a heavy migration of birds occured last night over Maine. The Maine-Bird List was alive with reports of birds in-flight and calling during the overnight hours.

As evident in the following image of the 9:00 p.m. radar, you can see that the movement was spectacular.

9:00 p.m. radar image showing evidence of last nights bird migration (GRLevel 3 Radar)

9:00 p.m. radar image showing evidence of last nights bird migration (GRLevel 3 Radar)

To some, this may look like it is raining according to the radar image. But as you know, clear skies prevailed last night. The radar operators place the radar in “Clear Air Mode” when there is no threatening weather. This is the perfect time to check the radar for migrating birds, but only at night.

 Good articles on “birding by radar” can be found at Derek Lovitch’s Blog and another at David LaPuma’s Woodcreeper.com. Reading these articles can help you better understand the relationship between night time bird migration and radar. You can view my radar images at anytime of the night or day at BathMaineWeather.com. There is a controller to loop through the images from the last several hours.

I leave you with a picture of the beautiful full Harvest Moon from last night. Click the thumbnail for a full sized view.

Harvest Moon - September 15, 2008 - Bath, Maine.

Happy birding!

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