[The Chesapeake Baywatch is conducted daily from Civil Dawn
until midday from an elevated bluff located north of Kiptopeke State Park. All
species moving both into and out of the Bay are identified, counted, and
recorded.]
A cold front swept through the region 7 Oct and ushered in fairly
strong NE winds and slightly cooler temperatures. A “mini-Nor’easter” continued
for the remainder of the second week of the month with mostly cloudy skies and
scattered precipitation.
Migration in the Bay was generally unspectacular during the
period with just a smattering of highlights and no large movements of birds. A
few Great Cormorants are already loafing about the concrete ships and the pound
net poles including at least one immature and one adult. Small numbers of
Northern Gannets have been seen moving south out of the Bay. One Red-throated
Loon was spotted migrating south on 12 October, and Common Loon numbers have
been steadily increasing. Of the two “dark-winged”
scoters, more Surf than Black Scoters were counted during the period. At this
point, the bulk of the season is still very much ahead of us.
The unchallenged highlights of
the second week of the Baywatch have been the migrating jaegers. A jaeger was
detected on 10 Oct, two moved past on 11 Oct, two more the following day, and finally
one migrated by on 13 October. All jaegers seen during the second week flew
south, and surprisingly none have engaged any other species, preferring to move
out of the Bay using straight-line powered flight. A few of the jaegers had to
be left as “jaeger species” due to distance, but all that have come close
enough to identify have been adult Parasitic Jaegers.
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| Caspian Tern foraging over the Chesapeake Bay. Note the large red bill, dark underside to the primaries, and dark forehead to separate this species from Royal Tern. |
