Strong flight with possible upstate NY fallout

Regional Overview

Last night was another night of heavy migration. Northward movement was largely unhindered across the eastern US except in western and upstate NY, where are small line of heavy thunderstorms moved east along the Lake Ontario lakeshore and across the Adirondack’s. With the clear path of strong migration the whole way up the East Coast, there should be a lot of birds moving through. Some of the later migrants should be more evident this morning, with Yellow-bellied and Olive-sided Flycatchers moving through, and Blackpoll Warblers singing everywhere.


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

The line of storms hit Buffalo around midnight, Syracuse around 1am and the Adirondack’s around 2am. Areas that saw storms last night have a good chance at some fallout, if you can find them. The Lake Ontario lakeshore seems pretty promising as the storms were strong enough to put birds down, and small enough that there should be more birds piling on top of them as they fill in from the south.

Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.


Pennsylvania & New Jersey

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Ohio

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Maryland and Delaware

Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.


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-

Upper Midwest – Woodcreeper by David La Puma
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula – The Northwoods BIRDAR by Max Henschell
New England – Tom Auer’s blog
Florida/SE – Badbirdz Reloaded by Angel and Mariel Abreu
NW Ohio – Birding the Crane Creek by Kenn Kaufman
Pac NW – Birds Over Portland by Greg Haworth
Continental US – eBird BirdCast Forecast & Report by Team eBird
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!