Western NY Nocturnal Bird Migration Study
Z7 Megaflight Alert
Lake Ontario Megaflight Alert: A Z7 class megaflight has been detected across the WNYNFC monitoring transect with a strong wave beginning after 11PM on 17May26 and continuing through 4am EDT. Warbler & sparrow call rates exceeding 700/hr were detected at multiple stations after midnight. A strong coastal morning flight of neotropical migrants is anticipated between…
Conditions looking good for coastal aggregation after midnight tonight (May 10-11)
Windy.com map above shows the forecast wind direction & speed at 3am tonight (May 11). Light wind to light southwesterly wind south of the lake are forecast to meet northwesterly to west wind over Lake Ontario. This is the most promising forecast this spring season for coastal aggregation flight, though the forecast conditions don't develop…
![Looks like a coastal aggregation flight is possible tonight (May 9-10) after midnight [edit: after 2am].](https://www.wnynfc.org/wp-content/uploads/go-x/b/13103/5835b9f1-1ff0-4799-ae27-6233f67d5ff7/image.png)
Looks like a coastal aggregation flight is possible tonight (May 9-10) after midnight [edit: after 2am].
There has been no major coastal bird migration aggregation to report since the flight of April 28-29. But the forecast tonight is looking similar to April 28-29 -- a cold front sweeping across the coastal plain of Lake Ontario in western New York between 1am-2am. Rain and T-storms before the front should pass the transect…
Conditions look good for a big coastal flight tonight (Apr 28-29) after midnight
A dry cold front is forecast to enter the northern region of western NY tonight by 2am. Winds will shift from out of the southwest to northerly across western Lake Ontario and shut down cross-lake migration. Winds will have been out of the southwest and favorable for migration across western NY and western Lake Ontario…
Suggestion of westbound coastal aggregation on the evening of April 27
Not a big flight, but coastal transect stations clearly show an unusual pattern of more warbler & sparrow calling in the west. See here for link to station locations and comparative calling data from other nights. Wind direction and speed charts from Weather Underground for April 27. Wind direction was nearly straight from the east…
Outlook for the night of 27-28 April
No precipitation forecast for the transect region with winds starting out moderate from the southeast and gradually shifting to nearly south by sunrise. This will be the first broad-scale southeasterly wind night for the spring 2026 acoustic monitoring transect. Do coastal aggregations of night migrants in this region ever go westward?