May 6th, 2015

Tonight's spectacular radar.
Click image to view live & ani-
mated.

Fellow Illinoisans!

Tonight, as the wind forecast has predicted, we're experiencing a continuation of statewide favorable conditions. Any unfavorable winds occupying Northern Illinois are gone tonight, and it seems (drumroll) that this has been quite the trigger. While migration is already heavy in the rest of the state, birds have taken off explosively in Northern Illinois tonight, approaching decibels reflective of nearly 2000 birds per cubic kilometer overhead. Folks, that's a lot of birds. Radar is indeed bright and green tonight. While we have had obvious arrivals and influxes each morning for days now, novelties should be especially obvious tomorrow morning. I'll be excited to see what you all will find out there.

Tonight winds. Click image
to view live.

Looking ahead into the next three days, it appears that a front will expand into Illinois from the north on Friday. From there, it will disrupt (or at least slow down) migration in Northern Illinois on Friday and Saturday nights. After that, southerlies are predicted to return throughout the state once again. Elsewhere in the Prairie State, winds are forecast to remain southerly, so favorable conditions will remain the rule for at least the next 4 days. To predict what these winds will bring about, check out our trusty eBird Page.

Finally, given my schedule, it appears that I will be unable to write a migration report tomorrow night (and, for that matter, on Saturday night). Business sometimes necessitates some holes in this report's consistency. Regardless, remember that all the pages I use to analyze and predict migration are linked on the right side of this page. It's all available and ready for a test drive.

With that, I wish you all a good night and good birding. I'll be back writing to you on Friday the 8th.