5/31 IL Migration Report: SPRING CONCLUSION

Radar again showing mostly rain in IL

So as far as birds migrating goes, the story remains the same tonight. Flycatchers, late warblers, vireos, thrushes, and shorebirds will be moving in lesser and lesser movements moving forward in to June (already?!). Precipitation in most of the state tonight will be keeping these birds grounded. Tomorrow will see a shift to westerly winds, and by Sunday, winds will be unfavorably northerly (Northern IL Wind Forecast: http://bit.ly/ZxyRq6, Southern IL Wind Forecast: http://bit.ly/124R3WX). This will effectively shut down most leftover night migration, which is only light at the most by now.

Migrants are still relatively prevalent both inland and along the lakeshore, but at this point, a) breeding species in many places outnumber the migrants, and b) there are increasingly fewer mass movements to predict and monitor. For these reasons, I think it's time to close up shop on this spring's series of migration reports. With the end of may, most of the expected spring migration has already occurred, and breeding birds are now displaying their full range of fascinating behaviors. I encourage you all to get out there and make some observations of your own, now that the madness and list-building of spring is largely over. Summer's a time to really get to know your local birds.

I will still post periodical migration updates when this or that comes up, or possibly analyses of vagrants or isolated/local breeders, but other than those things, keep your eyes peeled for a synopsis of the 2013 Spring Migration in IL, in which I will attempt to gain a little perspective in retrospect of what craziness we just went through. Sound good?

Thanks everybody for all your kind words, your questions, your feedback, and most of all, your interest. I truly enjoyed filling this role this season, and even more enjoyed helping people get the most out of birding and their understanding of nature.

Signing off until late summer,

NM