Today’s Sunset Beach Morning Flight Count saw cloudy skies and winds out of the east northeast. While the songbird flight was very slow in contrast to the past couple days, the day was not without highlights and 43 species and 516 individuals were counted.
Songbirds were lacking this morning as anticipated following northeast winds overnight allowing the birds from the last push to cross the bay overnight with a tailwind and return to their preferred inland migration routes. Only a handful of warblers across ten species were recorded, and no species in the double digits.
Raptors provided more excitement today with some low flyovers early in the morning and a little bit of excitement when two Mississippi Kites appeared, one near adult to the east and a later juvenile to the south. A couple waterbird species were also on the move including 129 Double-crested Cormorant and 138 White Ibis.
The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch came in strong with another big flight of several species including 394 Broad-winged Hawks and 264 Merlins. Two Mississippi Kites were also counted, further highlighting the notable late presence of these early migrants on the Eastern Shore.
Winds tomorrow stay out of the northeast which should be great for raptors but slower for songbirds. Winds switch to the south for the rest of the week, so we will take anything with a northerly component while we’ve got it!
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/3748/20250921
Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20250921
