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A quiet late season week in the West saw primarily scattered light movements, while a wild post-frontal passage ride of Franklin’s Gulls and Cave Swallows in the Northeast highlighted the period’s primarily localized light to moderate flights.

Welcome to our latest installment of the traffic report describing northeast US nocturnal bird migration traffic rates, as calculated from a completely automated pipeline of algorithms. The images you see in Traffic Reports present the migration traffic rate (MTR), direction of…

Mid to late period conditions will be favorable for scattered light to moderate pulses of movements featuring American Wigeon, Cooper’s Hawk, Golden Eagle, American Coot, Snowy Owl, and Red-winged Blackbird in the West, while a strong frontal passage early in the weekend brings moderate to heavy flights of Mallard, Snow Goose, Hooded Merganser, Common Merganser, Purple Sandpiper, Bonaparte’s Gull, and American Robin to the East.

A generally quiet week in the West featured isolated light and moderate flights of Greater White-fronted Goose, Northern Pintail, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Western Bluebird, and Yellow-rumped Warbler, while moderate flights of Red-breasted Merganser, White-winged Scoter, Franklin’s Gull, American Robin, Savannah Sparrow, and American Tree Sparrow graced the East early and late in the period.

A relatively quiet week of scattered light migration featuring Brant, Common Goldeneye, Barrow’s Goldeneye, California Gull, Chestnut-collared Longspur, and Golden-crowned Sparrow is in store for this late migration period in the West, while the passage of two strong cold fronts spawn the season’s last major moderate to heavy flights featuring Lesser Scaup, Long-tailed Duck, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Great Cormorant, Purple Sandpiper, and Rusty Blackbird in the East.

A quiet late season week in the West saw primarily light movements west of the Rockies featuring Brant, Red-breasted Merganser, Pacific Loon, Mew Gull, Bohemian Waxwing, Chestnut-collared Longspur, Grasshopper Sparrow, and Clay-colored Sparrow, while early and late period movements of moderate to heavy intensity in the East featured numerous waterfowl, Rough-legged Hawk, Northern Shrike, Cedar Waxwing, American Tree Sparrow, and Fox Sparrow.

Migration events over the last week varied substantially in size. Last Friday night (23 October) saw a particularly large movement (see below to watch), followed by no (or extremely small) movements on the following night. Successive nights saw decreasing migration traffic rates; remember, a major low pressure system moved through the region with lots of precipitation.

Favorable conditions from the weekend through early week in the West will see light to locally moderate flights of Canada Goose, Red-breasted Merganser, Common Merganser, Ring-billed Gull, Short-eared Owl, Marsh Wren, and Golden-crowned Sparrow, while a moderate to heavy pulse Friday along the Atlantic coast and along the Canadian border on Wednesday and Thursday nights will feature Snow Goose, Tundra Swan, Redhead, Hooded Merganser, Red-throated Loon, Common Redpoll and assorted western goodies.

Light to moderate flights earlier in the period from the southern reaches of the West featured Tundra Swan, Canvasback, Bufflehead, Bonaparte’s Gull, American Tree Sparrow, and Pine Siskin, while moderate to heavy flights last weekend and late in the current week featured Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Common Loon, Great Cormorant, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Snow Bunting, Fox Sparrow, and White-throated Sparrow in the East.

A favorable beginning and end of the period for the West sees light to moderate flights of Gadwall, Bufflehead, Long-tailed Duck, Northern Harrier, Bonaparte’s Gull, Hermit Thrush, Chestnut-collared Longspur, and American Tree Sparrow, while a late weekend and late week pulse of moderate to heavy flights in the East feature Hooded Merganser, Common Loon, American Coot, Ring-billed Gull, Snow Bunting, American Tree Sparrow, and Chipping Sparrow.

Light to moderate mid and end of week flights in the West featured numerous waterfowl, Varied Thrush, Hermit Thrush, and Pine Siskin, while extensive moderate to heavy flights last weekend saw the passage of Brant, Bufflehead, Red-throated Loon, Bald Eagle, Wilson’s Snipe, Merlin, Brown Creeper, Saltmarsh Sparrow, and Dark-eyed Junco.

The following “traffic report” describes northeast US nocturnal bird migration traffic rates, as calculated from a completely automated pipeline of algorithms. The images you see in Traffic Reports present the migration traffic rate (MTR), direction of bird movement, and speed of…