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Favorable conditions mid period bring light to moderate movements of American Wigeon, Ring-necked Duck, Pied-billed Grebe, Bale Eagle, Northern Flicker, and Yellow-rumped Warbler to the West, while moderate to very heavy weekend movements of Gadwall, Ruddy Duck, Horned Grebe, Sandhill Crane, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Eastern Meadowlark, and Fox Sparrow take flight in the East.

Light to moderate flights in the West last weekend featured Bufflehead, Cackling Goose, Ring-necked Duck, Herring Gull, Varied Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Golden-crowned Sparrow, and Dark-eyed Junco, while several pulses of moderate to very heavy flights in the East featured Green-winged Teal, Bufflehead, Northern Harrier, Wilson’s Snipe, Hermit Thrush, Eastern Meadowlark, Snow Bunting, White-throated Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, Le Conte’s Sparrow, and Field Sparrow.

While the favorable conditions in the West arrive during the middle of the period and bring light to moderate movement featuring Western Grebe, Northern Shoveler, Ruddy Duck, Hermit Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, White-crowned Sparrow, and Dark-eyed Junco, the East experiences more favorable conditions for several waves of moderate to heavy flights featuring American White Pelican, Merlin, Wilson’s Snipe, Marsh Wren, Sedge Wren, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow.

A week of light to moderate movements in the southern half of the West featured Red-necked Grebe, Mew Gull, Hermit Thrush, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, and White-crowned Sparrow, while moderate to heavy flights in the East, particularly in the Upper Midwest, Appalachians, and central Plains, featured Cooper’s Hawk, American Coot, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Eastern Towhee, Fox Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, and White-crowned Sparrow.

Migration events over the last week were respectable in size, but we did not see the widespread, monster movements that often grace this time of season. For example, in our paper characterizing nocturnal movements in the northeastern US, the largest movements we reported occurred during the first week of October. Remember, migration traffic rate is defined as the number of birds from 0-3,000 meters above radar stations moving hourly over a 1 km line drawn on the ground.

Favorable conditions begin and end the period in the West where light to moderate flights will feature Common Loon, Gadwall, Turkey Vulture, Ruby-crownd Kinglet, Yellow Warbler, and Lincoln’s Sparrow, while the non coastal East sees an extended period of favorable conditions bring moderate to heavy flights featuring Sharp-shinned Hawk, Northern Flicker, Blue-headed Vireo, Nashville Warbler, Pine Warbler, Palm Warbler, Lincoln’s Sparrow, and Western Meadowlark.

Light to moderate flights in the West, particularly the northern extents, featured American Wigeon, Ring-necked Duck, Northern Flicker, Varied Thrush, Golden-crowned Sparrow, and Dark-eyed Junco, while the East saw moderate to very heavy flights from the middle of the period that featured Tundra Swan, Northern Pintail, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Lincoln’s Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, and Dark-eyed Junco.

BirdCast was featured prominently in the New York/Region section of the New York Times on 29 September 2015. Read the article here.

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 the…

Once again, Team BirdCast is excited to bring you reports of migration traffic rates in the northeast United States, calculated from a completely automated pipeline of algorithms. The images you see in Traffic Reports present the migration traffic rate (MTR), direction of…

Team BirdCast is excited to debut daily reports of migration traffic rates in the northeast United States. Each night, from local sunset to local sunrise in the Eastern time zone, a BirdCast server downloads radar data from 16 stations in the northeastern US….

NOTE: Check out our new Traffic Reports, above!

Continental Summary
The West will see light to moderate flights, particularly in more northern reaches, featuring Eared Grebe, Cooper’s Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Say’s Phoebe, Townsend’s Warbler, Brewer’s Blackbird, and Lincoln’s Sparrow, while moderate to very heavy mid…