4/30 IL Migration Report

How about we start by checking today's winds, which is always a great place to start when predicting migration for the night: see to the right or http://hint.fm/wind/. Hmm. Southerly in most of the state, and slightly southeasterly winds in Southern IL. Overall, still really good for migration. Now, let's check out

the radar: national composite: http://bit.ly/10Qfjz3, live images from individual stations: http://bit.ly/18mDhQ7. (The more you play with the second one, the more you can get out of it.) Not quite so much migration as last night, but still moderate to heavy movement based on the dense, light to dark blue doughnut-shapes we see in these images. Green indicates even denser migration. (As an aside, we cannot tell individual species from this display, just that birds are moving). The higher the decibels, the higher the density of bird migration. Awesome!! So the last question is, of course, how long will it last? See here for that: http://bit.ly/18mEEOA --  click to zoom in on where you are regionally. Scroll through the 16 images with an eye on the times on the upper right-hand corner of each image. From this, we see that winds are forecast to weaken significantly throughout the state as the night progresses, with the winds becoming more easterly in the southern half of the state subsequently. So migration may not be as long-lasted tonight as last night, but hey, we may still be in for a bit more of a ride tomorrow. This remains to be seen. But back to today...

Today, passerine movement really got serious. Warblers of all sorts have made it to the northern reaches of the state, with the most significant arrivals/influxes being more Yellow-rumpeds and Palms, NASHVILLE WARBLER, NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH, BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER, BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER, and ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER. WARBLING and BLUE-HEADED VIREOS have also filled in in this area, and prepare for the soon-to-be constant meowing of influxing GRAY CATBIRDS. LEAST FLYCATCHERS, GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHERS, BALTIMORE ORIOLES, ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS, and SWAINSON'S THRUSHES are also influxing in the northern third of the state. Central IL had similar movement today, but just has many more warblers among other things. See an exemplary report from Champaign Co. here (IBF): http://bit.ly/18mHraL. Thanks for the report, Evan! Southern IL currently holds these and a few other species in greater numbers, such as EASTERN WOOD-PEWEE, RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, INDIGO BUNTING, and TANAGERS, although anymore reports of today's migration would be awesome, as this is an area I'm most curious about after last night's movement. Good stuff.

To get you even more excited about spring migration, here is a fantastic report from Montrose this morning submitted by Josh Engel, which holds a great list of birds to keep an eye out for in addition to my following giant list: http://yhoo.it/18mJuLX. Great list Josh, and a belated welcome back!

And finally, here's my trademark (no not really) giant list of birds to be on the look out for arrivals and influxes of in YOUR area: BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS, GREEN HERON, BROAD-WINGED HAWK, SORA, VIRGINIA RAIL, COMMON GALLINULE, maybe SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, PECTORAL, SPOTTED, LEAST, and SOLITARY SANDPIPER, DUNLIN, UPLAND SANDPIPER, WILLET, WILSON'S PHALAROPE, LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER, FORSTER'S TERN, COMMON TERN, COMMON NIGHTHAWK, EASTERN WHIP-POOR-WILL, CHIMNEY SWIFT, RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, EASTERN WOOD-PEWEE, LEAST FLYCATCHER, GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER, BLUE-HEADED, WHITE-EYED, WARBLING and RED-EYED VIREO, HOUSE WREN, SEDGE WREN, MARSH WREN, all the expected swallows, all the expected sparrows (especially take note of LE CONTE'S SPARROWS, HENSLOW'S SPARROWS, GRASSHOPPER SPARROWS, and LARK SPARROWS), SWAINSON'S, GRAY-CHEEKED, and WOOD THRUSHES, warblers including but not limited to BLUE-WINGED WARBLERS, ORANGE CROWNED WARBLERS, PRAIRIE WARBLERS, BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLERS, PINE WARBLERS, YELLOW WARBLERS, HOODED WARBLERS, BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLERS, NORTHERN PARULAS, LOUISIANA + NORTHERN WATERTHRUSHES, WORM-EATING WARBLERS, COMMON YELLOWTHROATS, SCARLET and SUMMER TANAGERS, ORCHARD and BALTIMORE ORIOLES, BREWER'S, RUSTY, and YELLOW HEADED BLACKBIRDS, INDIGO BUNTINGS, and possibly early DICKCISSELS or BOBOLINKS. And with migration, there are always chances of early overshoots and vagrants too.

Awesome. I'm excited, you're excited, we're all good. Happy birding folks.