Nexrad and Bird Conservation

The vast majority of birds that migrate to more northern latitudes in spring and return south in fall do so at night. Peak movements occur on many nights from April 15- June 15 and August 15- October 15 under benign weather conditions. Today with the combination of the Internet and the US Government NOAA operated Nexrad weather radar network it is possible to observe the radar detection images of swarms of millions of migrating birds in real time. Nexrad has been used to document the decrease in the frequency of these movements as numbers of birds have decreased due to destruction of wintering habitat in the tropics and nesting habitat in the US and Canada.

In the Great Lakes Region migrating birds have had to deal with the complex geography presented by this region and the need to cross wide bodies of water without drowning. We are just beginning to understand the migration corridors and strategies that have evolved over thousands of years (see the discussion on Ascension on the main page). As we continue to increase mortality of migrating birds by such human hazards as lighted tall buildings, transmission towers, window collisions and free-roaming and feral cats, it is imperative that we try to understand the movements of these migrants under many conditions so that we can use this information to devise long term management and planning strategies to minimize mortality. Specifically, once we understand where the major corridors and lake crossings occur, the habitat of specific areas can be managed for quality cover and feeding  for migrants after they fall out of the sky at early dawn. We can scale this planning all the way to the level of urban landscape design to afford protection to those birds that fall out into our cities.