Start of Spring Migration

Animated .gif of the radar images from 17-18 March. Red/green represent stuff in the atmosphere moving away from/towards the radar station set in the middle of the image. There’s a clear pattern of movement along the outer coast of Baranof Island from south to north. When migration is at its peak, this pattern will show … Read more

Migrating Geese

Larger Flock – can you guess how many?

One morning last week I heard what sounded like a sizable flock of geese flying overhead, so I decided to head outside and take a look. I saw two large groups, both flying northwest over town. Connor and Rowan later told me they had seen the same flocks out by Whale Park while they were riding the bus. I’m not sure why they were heading in opposition to their seasonal migration direction, but my guess is they were looking for a suitable place to put down after flying through much of the night (a few days before, I had heard many flocks flying overhead through the night).

See below for a modified version of the first image with counts.

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Night Migration

I have read about observing bird migration via weather radar, and thought it might be interesting to see what showed up on the Doppler Radar station located on Biorka Island. The animated .gif shown above is color-coded by the velocity of objects the radar ‘sees’ relative to the radar station. Green indicates objects travelling towards … Read more