April 20th, 2015

Winds at the time of this
post

Hey folks,

Tonight, I won't be able to write a report come nightfall, so I'm going to write an early and somewhat truncated report now. Let's get to it.

Most important to observe as always are the winds. The Prairie State is currently dominated by strong northwesterly winds, resulting in unfavorable conditions for migration. So while I can't look at the radar for birds now, it seems likely that very little will be migrating tonight.

Winds forecast for Tuesday night...
not very favorable anymore

How about the forecast? Unfortunately, the wind forecast has again shifted, placing northerly winds over Illinois on Tuesday night. While migrants may still be in the skies of Southern Illinois, this bodes poorly for much migration the rest of the week. The only promising forecast is that for Friday night, and given how far into the future that is, I'm sure the wind forecast we see tonight will be utterly unlike what we see on Friday. SO, overall, it appears this week is going to be a time of refuelling for the birds (or at least nocturnal migrants), which just gives us birders more time to find them.

Speaking of finding birds, predict just what species you'll find with this handy eBird page.

And that's all she wrote! I'll be back at it with you tomorrow night,