Eastern Shore Migration Update: September 19, 2025
Today’s Sunset Beach Morning Flight Count featured light west-southwest winds and clear skies. The winds coming in from inland areas and the clear conditions following several days of rain and south winds provided ideal migratory conditions overnight, and an impressive flight in terms of both diversity and volume. A total of 64 species and 1552 individuals were counted.
Shortly after sunrise the sky came alive with American Redstarts, which moved in great numbers for the first two hours as the slowly trailed off throughout the morning leading to the season high count of 684. Northern Parulas also had a great day with 206, and Palm came in third with 51. Warbler diversity was great overall with 18 species and several uncommon migrants including a late Prothonotary and two Nashvilles and three Tennessee. The season’s first Philadelphia Vireo was also picked by middle management, and two Ruby-crowned Kinglets were also firsts for the season.
Raptors ended up making a very strong showing towards the end of the count, with 34 Osprey, 92 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 19 Broad-winged Hawks and 42 American Kestrels as notable standouts. The open sky out to the east provides an ideal vantage point to see what is flying out over the refuge, and early morning raptor totals at Sunset often eclipse what is visible from the hawkwatch early on in the day.
The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch had a fantastic day despite the high blue skies and light westerly winds with staggering numbers of Sharp-shinned Hawks in particular. Sharp-shinned Hawks led the pack by far with an impressive 1507. American Kestrels had a great day as well with 448, and Merlins put in a good showing with 82. An even flow of birds throughout the day contributed to the significant total. Three Mississippi Kites were also a nice addition, fairly late for this early migrant.
Favorable migratory conditions over the northeast led to a significant liftoff indicated by radar. With light southwest winds shifting around to west by early morning locally on the Eastern Shore, the conditions could be favorable for another very nice morning flight.
Keep up with both of CVWO’s counts right here on the blog with our daily Eastern Shore Migration Update, and follow along live every morning on our Trektellen pages:
Sunset Beach Morning Flight: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20250919
Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20250919
