Today's conditions closely mirrored those of yesterday's, though with slightly reduced wind speeds and with a bit more sunshine. The strong northeast wind continued to provide some interesting migratory movements, though with slightly reduced migrant diversity compared to yesterday with a total of 32 species and 348 individual birds counted.
One of the more interesting migration movements of the day was a small but noticeable Blue-gray Gnatcatcher flight. A total of 10 northbound and 6 southbound gnatcatchers were tallied, and it appeared that some birds may have been struggling to fight the strong northeasterlies. The birds that ended up southbound initially started off in reverse northbound flight, but stalled over the parking lot and shot back south. A subsequent visit to Eastern Shore NWR after the count yielded 43 gnatcatchers foraging in flocks throughout the refuge, suggesting many more of these tiny migrants chose to hunker down on the eastern side of the tip today.
Other species highlights included a singing Northern Bobwhite somewhere off to the north, a welcome start to the day from a resident Eastern Shore species. New species for the season included 5 Tricolored Herons and a surprise Western Cattle Egret moving south. A very close Pileated Woodpecker was an impressive sight as it rowed its way north. Two Downy Woodpeckers also moved north this morning, and while it's difficult to know what these largely resident woodpeckers are doing for sure at this site, both species are known to make limited short range migration and dispersal movements.
Neotropical songbirds continued to trickle north in low numbers, with 3 Orchard Orioles, 6 American Redstarts, and 1 Yellow Warbler counted. Conditions are forecasted to remain similar tomorrow, with the northeasterly flow continuing to steady and slightly diminish in speed. It will be interesting to see what migrants remain in the pipeline after the passage of the cold front, and if more gnatcatchers attempt to make a move.
-Baxter
