May 13th, 2014

The enormous cold front from
yesterday

Evening Prairie-staters,

Alas, after last night's violent expression of nature's meteorological power, winds are unfavorable tonight. If you were to take a gander at the radar right now, Illinois would look very close to how it does during the day throughout the state, with almost no bird-like noise. In the wake of last night's cold front from northwest of us (see the huge front now passing over Ohio, Kentucky, etc.), Illinois is subject to unfavorable northwesterly winds. And unfortunately (for us, not necessarily the birds), these winds are forecast to continue throughout the state at least through Thursday (N and Central IL, S IL).

Tonight's winds

As everything can be a blessing in disguise, however, this may be the birds' much-needed period of rest and refueling from their intense, hormone-driven migration. Behaviors exhibited by migrants, especially when interacting in mixed flocks with other migrants--or even with breeding residents--can be fascinating to the discerning observer. I encourage you all to get out there and make ornithologists of yourselves...I'd love to hear about it! Here's the list of bird frequencies.

Tonight's sorry radar

Sadly, that's all I've got for tonight. The next few days will be ones of short, repetitive migration reports, or at least until the winds shift.

Cheers everyone! And happy birding!