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

5/30 IL Migration Report

IL torn up by storm activity

Tonight, at least until the storm systems pass, IL will be experiencing very little migration. So tomorrow, we will, again, be seeing a lot of the same species with few influxes, only a little bit wetter.This means breeding species in addition to migrant warblers, flycatchers, vireos, thrushes, and shorebirds. But as we saw today with the Mottled Ducks found at Montrose Point (http://bit.ly/19roC9q), Brown Pelican at Horseshoe Lake (http://bit.ly/19rp0oH), and Black-headed Grosbeak in Cook Co. (http://bit.ly/19rpyuA), there are still rarities out there waiting to be discovered. Will that discoverer be you?

The next few days look to be holding more southerly winds (Northern IL Wind Forecast: http://bit.ly/ZxyRq6, Southern IL Wind Forecast: http://bit.ly/124R3WX), and with all this warm, wet air moving up from the Gulf, I wouldn't be surprised if more regional vagrants appear in the next few days.

To figure out which species to look for in your area, here are the eBird resources I've made a habit of sharing.
General IL charts: http://bit.ly/129Tru1
Make your own: http://bit.ly/129Tfed

Good stuff. Get out there and find something good!

5/29 IL Migration Report

So tonight, we see yet another report with southerly winds forecast for tonight and the next couple of days (Northern IL Wind Forecast: http://bit.ly/ZxyRq6, Southern IL Wind Forecast: http://bit.ly/124R3WX), and light migration for the most part in IL. But migration by no means has left us completely. Today especially saw good numbers of migrant flycatchers, vireos, thrushes, and other late passerines. Shorebirds also continue to be on the move, and will be so into June. A lot of this, though, remains in Northern and Central IL; not much is moving anymore in Southern IL with the exception of a few late passerines and shorebirds.

Migration at the time of this post

As you can see, this week has seen a fair level of uniformity...we'll see what happens when things start to change up. At this point, there's very little hindering remaining migrants as far as weather goes.

To figure out which species to look for in your area, here are the eBird resources I've made a habit of sharing.
General IL charts: http://bit.ly/129Tru1
Make your own: http://bit.ly/129Tfed

Good stuff. Get out there and find something good!

5/28 IL Migration Report

Radar at the time of this post

Though things stayed relatively the same as the past few days as far as species present go, some really cool sightings came in. Lots of later species seemed to be influxing today...or more birders covered more places. Whatever the case, flycatchers, thrushes, late warblers, and shorebirds were the highlights of the average IL birder's list. This will remain to be the case through the next couple of days as it has the past week, as we will continue to see southerly winds prevailing (Northern IL Wind Forecast: http://bit.ly/ZxyRq6, Southern IL Wind Forecast: http://bit.ly/124R3WX). Radar is showing light movement right now where precipitation hasn't taken over. Where it is stormy tonight, birds in its midst will remain grounded or will be grounded soon. Birds flying into the storm activity also present the possibility of fallout, but tomorrow will probably not hold any insane arrivals or influxes.

We'll see what the next few days hold. Already some fantastic finds were reported on IBET today...these next few days and especially this weekend will be defined by isolated reports of really cool stuff, so keep your eyes peeled.

To figure out which species to look for in your area, here are the eBird resources I've made a habit of sharing.
General IL charts: http://bit.ly/129Tru1
Make your own: http://bit.ly/129Tfed

Good stuff. Have a great day tomorrow, everyone!

5/27 IL Migration Report

Nice southerly winds in IL with only moderate levels of migration to
back it up (see below)

Migration's winding down...

So for the most part, IL is now under the influence of southerly winds, a pattern that should continue at least for the next couple of days (Northern IL Wind Forecast: http://bit.ly/ZxyRq6, Southern IL Wind Forecast: http://bit.ly/124R3WX). These conditions are favorable for migration, but the radar isn't reflecting this as much as it would have three weeks ago (http://bit.ly/18oO6p4). This again reflects the deceleration in migration occurring as we move into the summer breeding season. As yesterday, we still see influxes of migrant flycatchers (e.g. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher), thrushes (any Catharus species), warblers (e.g. Mourning Warbler), and shorebirds (e.g. White-rumped Sandpiper) in some parts of the state, but in many places, we aren't seeing much other than breeding species.

Earlier in spring, this northbound warm front would have
lit up the state. Now, it just means warmer temps and
more insects for breeding species to feed on.

Nature's giving me less and less to write about! Maybe time to start preparing a 2013 Spring Migration Summary...

To figure out which species to look for in your area, here are the eBird resources I've made a habit of sharing.
General IL charts: http://bit.ly/129Tru1
Make your own: http://bit.ly/129Tfed

Short and sweet, tonight. Good luck everyone!

5/26 IL Migration Report

Hmm...what to think...

Tonight should be showing some more movement in places experiencing southeasterly winds, but because of some complex frontal boundaries and interactions between systems, it seems that right now, these favorable conditions are mostly restricted to Southern and Central IL. This could change overnight, but even if it does, precipitation over Central and Northern IL should halt most movement until it passes--so whether or not much moves throughout the state tonight remains in the balance. Ultimately, we want precipitation to end followed by southerly winds, and this could happen randomly

Winds at the time of this post

throughout the night, and thus migration will probably fairly sporadic (save Southern IL). The radar so far tonight is at the bottom of this post, or live in the sidebar on the right. As reflected by the winds, migration, light to moderate, is mostly concentrated in the Southern third of the state.

However, sorry to say it folks, but we're running out of migrants! Central and Northern IL are still experiencing influxes of migrant flycatchers, thrushes, warblers, and shorebirds, but as observed by Keith McMullen here: http://bit.ly/14UALRw, most migrants have pretty much moved on or settled down to breed in Southern IL. The time is nigh, everyone. Don't get me wrong, birds will still be moving, especially shorebirds, but May is almost over. Time to prepare for Breeding Bird Surveys and all the other fun of summer birding. Breeding biology is one of the most fascinating parts of ornithology (see Bridget Stutchbury's "the Private Lives of Birds"), and I encourage you all to get out there and make ornithologists out of yourselves!

The next few days look to be relatively favorable, with overall southerly winds, but we'll see how it turns out. Northern IL Wind Forecast: http://bit.ly/ZxyRq6, Southern IL Wind Forecast: http://bit.ly/124R3WX

To figure out which species to look for in your area, here are the eBird resources I've made a habit of sharing. Overall, keep your eyes peeled for arrivals and influxes of flycatchers, thrushes, late warblers, hummingbirds, and any shorebirds.
General IL charts: http://bit.ly/129Tru1
Make your own: http://bit.ly/129Tfed

Cool. Good luck everyone. Here's hoping the radar lights up a little bit more some time tonight.

Not bad...how about a little more? We'll see what tonight brings.

5/25 IL Migration Report

Light migration tonight interrupted by storms and easterly
winds

So, as predicted, tonight is only holding light levels of migration. Luckily, a lot of the east to northeasterly winds that are present in the prairie state are weak, and thus some birds are still moving (http://hint.fm/wind/). Also in migrants' favor, a warm front is beginning to move northward through the south of the state, and may bring some southerly winds with it (see below). In spite of this, expect tomorrow's birds to be largely the same as today's. This means that, again, lists will be dominated by breeding species with influxes of thrushes, flycatchers, and shorebirds. On the shorebird front especially, some interesting species have been showing up sporadically, with WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER and RUDDY TURNSTONE being some of the highlights along the lakefront (Check out the map at the bottom of the report). Just because the birds are well documented, check out the Red-necked Phalaropes (4!!!) reported from northern Cook Co.: http://bit.ly/13UInAq. Not bad, eh? Who knows...there could be a few in your local patch.

Check out that northbound warm front...is anyone else
excited by that?

Anyway, yet another day passes with an unchanging forecast. Winds will remain to be easterly into tomorrow, when the winds will begin to shift into a more southerly range. Southeasterly winds should prevail by tomorrow night (Northern IL Wind Forecast: http://bit.ly/ZxyRq6, Southern IL Wind Forecast: http://bit.ly/124R3WX). This means that any restless birds waiting to move will probably do on Sunday, so keep an eye on the winds and the radar.

To figure out which species to look for in your area, here are the eBird resources I've made a habit of sharing. Overall, keep your eyes peeled for arrivals and influxes of flycatchers, thrushes, late warblers, hummingbirds, and any shorebirds.
General IL charts: http://bit.ly/129Tru1
Make your own: http://bit.ly/129Tfed

Good stuff. Happy birding everyone!

White-rumped Sandpiper reports on eBird in the past 30 days. Click to play with this page yourself.