Curses, foiled again!

No, the backpack trip to Pa.'s Grand Canyon is still on.

I was foiled in looking for aurora borealis last night. After 2 solid weeks of cloudless weather, it naturally clouded up on the day auroras were predicted for the lower latitudes. A second chance to see auroras is possible tonight.

Also foiled were hundreds of hawkwatchers in the eastern part of the country. Yesterday was uniformly terrible for broadwinged hawk migration throughout the region. Normally, yesterday would have been a day of building migration numbers but the weather wasn't cooperative. SW winds in New England kept the birds in place. Numbers from the northern hawkwatches indicate the birds are still north of the New England sites. Currently, there's an approaching front to the west and a stalled hurricane to the south. So for the moment, migration is moving very slowly. At this rate, the best day in southern Pa. is likely to be Saturday afternoon or possibly even Sunday. East winds today further north are likely to keep migration slow there today as well. Friday seems to have rain associated with it, possibly lasting into Saturday. Until the hawks move in the north, we won't see them here in the mid-Atlantic states. I suspect the birds will move, big time, on Saturday, but it's possible they won't arrive here until Sunday. more later.