News

Heavy migration is currently blanketing much of the eastern half of the United States, especially in the midwest, southern Plains, and eastern seaboard. Many birds are currently visible in the Tribute in Light memorial in New York City.

This week, Team BirdCast highlights a friend in the field. Today, it is Dr. Emily Cohen, a research associate at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

Team BirdCast spent some effort last year to discuss vagrancy in Purple Gallinules in late fall and winter (see this post). As a very short addendum to that story, we have been looking at the track record for vagrant gallinules so…

Update 930am EDT, 2 October 2015 The newest models from the National Hurricane Center suggest Hurricane Joaquin will stay far to the east of the Atlantic Coast. We will continue to monitor the storm, although the most likely outcome from…

Winds shifted to the Northwest earlier today (Wednesday 19 September), bringing clearing skies, cooler temperatures, and anticipation of an excellent opportunity for seeing migrants in the greater New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas! Broad-winged Hawks, Sharp-shinned Hawks, American Kestrels, and…

Since the first units were placed along the Gulf Coast in the 1950s, ornithologists and birders have become increasingly aware of the power of using radar as a tool for understanding bird migration. In addition to detecting and depicting meteorological…

Back by semi-popular demand from Spring 2012, a basic primer on birding by radar . . . Since the first units were placed along the Gulf Coast in the 1950s, ornithologists and birders have become increasingly aware of the power…

This week the Gulf Coast of the US will experience landfall of two tropical systems, Laura and Marco. This dangerous twin bill will come with flooding, storm surge, heavy rains, and wind in many areas of the western Gulf of Mexico and lower Mississippi River valley. BirdCast is tracking the arrival of the two storms, and you can monitor with us on two maps tracking bird observations as they occur with landfall.

Despite a reasonably quiet season for tropical systems in the western North Atlantic, a lingering area of low pressure and associated storms that was once Tropical Storm Gabrielle has reorganized and started to move to the North and Northeast. The…

Tropical Storm Fay is a fast moving system that is forecast to travel a similar path to Hurricane Irene at a similar time as Tropical Storm Bertha. What will this system hold for those that can observe safely in the DelMarVa, coastal New Jersey and Long Island, Hudson River Valley, Lake Champlain, and St. Lawrence RIver Valley areas?

Here comes Tropical Storm Cristobal, forecast to make landfall in southeastern Louisiana on Sunday evening. With safety the top priority, we briefly highlight a few possible tropical and pelagic species that might appear far inland in the wake of the storm’s passage.

Beta is currently a tropical storm, deteriorating to a tropical depression in the next 36-48 hours. Storm birds will be apparent on the Upper Texas coast from Monday through Wednesday, whereas areas further inland into southwestern and central Louisiana may experience some impacts by Thursday.