Blue-gray Gnatcatchers continued to be on the move today, and put on a much more impressive showing than yesterday's count with a total of 54, with an even split between northbound and southbound individuals. With the lighter winds, most birds were very high and were tough to spot even with cloud cover.
The bulk of today's flight consisted of Purple Martins, with a total of 454 counted. In keeping with previous days, more martins began to fly later on in the morning but in much greater numbers. All but four individuals were northbound, and the steady flow of birds spanned from all the way out over the bay to the west over to Eastern Shore NWR to the east. One martin took a break and perched by the beach access for over half an hour.
Purple Martins
Warblers continue to trickle by in slowly increasing numbers. Thirteen American Redstarts, four Yellow Warblers, two first-of-season Northern Waterthrushes, and one Prairie Warbler rounded out the count nicely today. A southbound Eastern Wood-Pewee and a northbound Indigo Bunting were other firsts for the count season.
First-of-season Northern Waterthrush
Today's most notable sighting came at the very end, when a Swallow-tailed Kite appeared in a small kettle of vultures just north of the parking lot! It gained a bit of altitude and then moved steadily south, appearing to snatch at an insect on its way. Swallow-tailed Kites are rare but somewhat regular strays to the Eastern Shore, appearing as overshoots during spring and as post-breeding wanderers in the fall. This appears to be the first record of this southern species at the site!
Swallow-tailed Kite
Winds are forecasted to slide around to the east tonight and tomorrow, which will very likely reduce the number of migrants arriving on the Shore and will probably allow birds concentrated at the tip to depart. The easterlies will continue to build over the next few days, so it may be a slow start to the week. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how the shift in conditions affects the flight tomorrow, and how migrants currently on the shore will react to the wind switch.
Stay tuned for tomorrow's daily Eastern Shore Migration Update here on the CVWO Blog, and follow along with the Sunset Beach Morning Flight Count live every morning on Trektellen: https://trektellen.nl/site/info/3748
