Friday 07 September 2012

Migration density eased considerably last night.  The weather conditions didn’t change much.  The winds became a bit more variable, but they were too light to be of much significance.  It’s probably just a lull in movement as the birds to our north are most likely satisfied with the local conditions.

I’ll be gone again this weekend but i may throw something up in the evenings.

20120906_BARS_0618

20120906_BARS_0628

20120906_BARS_0638

20120906_BARS_0647

20120906_BARS_0657

Winds Aloft (5000 ft)

National Reflectivity Composite (static)

Surface Winds and Isobars

Drew has another post up on the migration activity east of the Mississippi — check it out.

Of interest is something that a fellow on our state listserve pointed out that i thought was pretty cool.  Here is the original post. Paul pointed out how the radar was picking up “… the morning fly-out of the BARN SWALLOWS roosting in cornfields near the Wheatland Ferry.”

I’ll put four static images in today’s gallery.  I have no idea how WordPress sorts those images so look for the sequencing captions:

20120906_BARS_0618: a shot just after most nocturnal migrants have put down

20120906_BARS_0628: just south of McMinnville a 30 dBZ cluster of birds appears.

20120906_BARS_0638: the density of the return drops as the birds disperse.

20120906_BARS_0647: the sun clears the Cascades, the radar catches a strobe, the birds are further dispersed.

20120906_BARS_0657: the event disappears into the usual background ground clutter.

I have no idea who Paul is but i thank him for pointing this out.  It’s pretty cool and i’ll be looking for it the rest of the season.