Tonight - as I mentioned last night - is indeed experiencing some very irregular migration patterns. First of all, the frontal boundary that passed through today left behind a complicated wind situation for Illinois. One might be able to grasp from the current wind map (shown as of 10:00pm at right) that winds over the northern third of Illinois are light and northeasterly while the winds over the southern two thirds are of a higher speed and roughly southerly, converging around the Illinois River area and flowing towards the east from there.
These complicated winds are making for patchy and irregular migration tonight. From the current national composite radar (shown as of 10:00pm below & right), it appears that most of Illinois will experience pretty light migration tonight while areas in the northwest, west-central, and southern parts of the state may have slightly more evidence of arrivals and influxes tomorrow morning.
As winds continue to shift overnight; however, migration could, as well, so it would be worth checking those migrant traps in any part of the state tomorrow morning.I hope this is somewhat clear! Some nights, the weather and resulting migration patterns are just so complicated that it can be a challenge forecasting them. To see exactly which bird species are passing through our area, check out these two very helpful resources:
eBird's Illinois species occurrence map
Birdcast's regional migration forecast
So get out there tomorrow, wherever you are in the state, because although it may not be the biggest push of migrants in the world, it will be possible to find some new arrivals and influxes!
Good birding,
Henry
trumpetswan@comcast.net
ilmigration.blogspot.com
worldbirding.travellerspoint.com
sites.google.com/site/opbirdwalks/home
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