In recent days I’ve noticed a few of the early migrators passing through. Nighthawks are one of the earliest to leave, mainly because they eat insects and those tend to drop off quickly once the weather cools. We’ve also lost our dominant male Hummingbird, and most of the Orioles. A few, like this one remain despite the cooling nights. One of the most interesting tools now used to monitor bird migrations is Live Bird Migration Map from BirdCast. These real-time analysis maps show intensities of actual nocturnal bird migration as detected by the US weather surveillance radar network between sunset to sunrise.