SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — It’s not just rain and snow that can be picked up on our live dopplar radar.

As you can see, these returns were because of birds. And this isn’t the first time it’s happened.

In this week’s Flashback Friday, we take you back to 2004 with Meteorologist Brian Karstens to see why the birds seemed to be going the wrong way.

Yesterday, our KELOLAND Live DOPPLAR Network picked up on some interesting clutter in Western Iowa around 4 p.m. That’s not precipitation. No, those echos are birds. Thousands and thousands of birds.

Shortly after analyzing the Iowa images late in the afternoon, other bird flocks were picked up in southern Charles Mix County around 6:30. Their movement brings up a good question, why are they moving southeast instead of north?

“The primary reason for that is probably because the birds have started their northward migration, have maybe not found suitable food and water conditions. By that all our water is probably frozen, maybe some shallow sheet water in the fields, and it’s just not to their liking at this point in time.”

And that’s not the only reason they sometimes turn around. Shauer says the birds will head south in times of stormy weather.

“Storms can also play a roll too because they may be up into South Dakota and a storm hits they may go back south again.”

While no major flocks have been officially sighted around here yet, it makes sense to find the first birds out near the Missouri River since temperatures have been much warmer.

“The weather dictates their movements quite a bit, and it’s probably a good indication that warmer weather, Spring, is coming, and we’ll see lots of it pretty soon.”