Doctor Cliff Mass of the UW Department of Atmospherics has an interesting blog at http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/. His blog on 5/16 is interesting and informative so far as tracking birds on radar is concerned. He explains it well. This particular blog entry has good illustrations which should help those who wish to learn more about the subject.

A direct link to the UW Dept of Atmospherics is http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/ and a direct link to the radar he is talking about is http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/radar/. Click on the radar at Camano Island (ATX). The default image is reflectivity. This will show what's in the air. Click on the radar image to toggle to the velocity image where you will be able to see the direction and speed of the birds. In the case of the illustrations on his blog, most of the echoes are from smaller birds which are flying 20 to 30 MPH. The radar velocities are in knots and 1 knot is 1.15 miles per hour. Most of the larger, faster birds (geese and ducks for example) have already made their way north so you will not see so many higher velocity echo returns.

Two weeks ago, as the shore bird migration was warming up at Moon Island near Ocean Shores, I was on the Oregon Coast at Lincoln City. I observed hundreds of shore birds flying north but none were more than a few feet above the water. These birds will never show on a radar as they are too low. This will also be the case when we get the new radar near the ocean as the radars use a software filter to minimize ground clutter like waves, rustling leaves, and buildings for example.

A side comment about Lincoln City, Dennis Paulson commented on the number of Brown Pelicans in the bay near Moon Island. While at Lincoln City I was actively looking for them. I think in three days I only saw a dozen or so and many of those might have been repeats. I was staying near The Inn at Spanish Head and usually see many Pelicans in and around the Siletz river.

Doug Hudson
Bremerton, WA