Eastern Shore Migration Update: October 29-30

Yesterday’s counts mostly saw drizzle and northeast winds. Sunset Beach had a pretty nice flight regardless with 44 species and 5009 individuals. Highlights included 5 Brant, 52 Surf and 145 Black Scoters, 254 Fish Crows, a late Tennessee Warbler, and continuing flocks of Tree Swallows, American Robins, blackbirds, and Yellow-rumped Warblers. The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch also had a fairly busy day with nice counts of 32 Sharp-shinned Hawks and 8 Northern Harrier.

This morning was drizzly with strong winds out of the southeast this morning, falling out to south and building from the west by the afternoon. Sunset Beach had another good morning highlighted by 10 American Wigeon, a first-of-season Red-breasted Merganser, 4,629 Tree Swallows, and a nice late season showing of warblers with 10 Cape May, two Northern Parula and one Black-throated Blue.

Cape May Warbler

American Wigeon

The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch had a slower start to the day, but things picked up in a big way in the afternoon when an intermediate juvenile Swainson’s Hawk flew south on the east side! This is the second Swainson’s Hawk for the hawkwatch this fall, is very likely the same individual as the bird that hung around Machipongo October 16th-26th. The Swainson’s was subsequently spotted at the Eastern Shore National Wildlife Refuge as well as Sunset Beach as it moved around the tip of the peninsula, and made another pass northbound past the hawkwatch late afternoon. Hopefully it will make another appearance on our counts tomorrow!

Bonaparte’s Gull

Swainson’s Hawk

The cold front pushing through this evening  will bring westerly winds tomorrow and Saturday. Westerlies are some of the most interesting winds on the Eastern Shore, and we’re excited to see what tomorrow brings!

Keep up with both of CVWO’s counts with our daily migration update on Facebook, Instagram, and the CVWO Blog: 

https://vawildliferesearch.org/cvwo-blog-1

Follow along with our counts live every morning on our Trektellen pages:

Sunset Beach Morning Flight: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20251030

Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20251030

Eastern Shore Migration Update: October 28, 2025

Today saw the arrival of a nor'easter type low pressure system moving up the coast bringing blasting northeast winds and rain to the Shore. Conditions were challenging, though bay watching was made possible by the sheltered deck of the Sunset Beach Bar and Grille. Totals of 23 species and 813 individuals were counted. 

Rain and strong 30-40 mph winds all but killed the passerine morning flight with only a handful of brave Yellow-rumped Warblers zipping around and a few coming in off the bay. A few flocks of Tree Swallows were moving around as well. There were a few interesting sightings over the bay when haze temporarily cleared including a small duck flight and the season's first three Dunlin moving north. 

Waterfowl were also detected by the hawkwatch crew from the Kiptopeke SP Fishing Pier, including most notably a drake Harlequin Duck! Likely a returning individual from last year, the Harlequin showed very well throughout the morning at the Fishing Pier and was even visible from Sunset Beach looking north. The hawk-turned-bay watchers also had a couple nice shorebird flyovers including seven Red Knots, a Lesser Yellowlegs, and a Least Sandpiper. Weather allowed a quick afternoon hawkwatch count that yielded four Osprey, two Sharp-shinned and one Cooper's Hawk, six Northern Harriers, an American Kestrel and two Merlins.

Harlequin Duck (Audrey Anderson)

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audrey Anderson)

Forster’s Tern (Audrey Anderson)

Winds will be somewhat calmer tomorrow and rain is forecasted to hold off until later tomorrow night, so our counts should be back to their regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. A major wind shift is still forecasted Friday which will bring very strong westerlies to the Eastern Shore with the arrival of a major cold front. West winds always have serious potential on the coast, and we're excited to see what shows up!

Follow along with our counts live every morning on our Trektellen pages:

Sunset Beach Morning Flight: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20251028

Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20251028

Eastern Shore Migration Update: October 27, 2025

Northeast winds continued began to build this morning under heavy overcast skies. At the Sunset Beach Morning Flight Count totals of 44 species and 7,157 individuals were counted. 

American Robins had their best day yet with 2,814 counted. Blackbirds were showing strongly once again including 34 Rusty Blackbirds. Yellow-rumped Warblers took a little bit of a break today with 601 counted. Ducks had a decent flight with 15 Wood Ducks, 45 Green-winged Teal, 31 Surf and 10 Black Scoters.

The hawkwatch had its busiest day in a while with the return of northeast winds. Sharp-shinned Hawks took the lead with 78 closely followed by Cooper’s with 72 counted. Northern Harriers had a bit of a resurgence as well with 10 counted. There were a number of nice non-raptors counted today as well, with the biggest surprise being an early morning Cattle Egret. A late Chinney Swift and Tennessee Warbler along with a leucistic Song Sparrow added some more flavor to the day.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Northeast winds continue to build as a  low pressure system works its way up the coast bringing chances of rain Wednesday. An arctic blast seems poised to arrive by the end of the much with much colder temperatures and westerly winds heralding the arrival of November, and hopefully some interesting birds too!

Follow along with our counts live every morning on our Trektellen pages:

Sunset Beach Morning Flight: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20251027

Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20251027

Eastern Shore Migration Update: October 26, 2025

This morning saw light winds and high overcast skies. At the Sunset Beach Morning Flight Count totals of 45 species and 5,192 individuals were counted. 

Yellow-rumped Warblers, Tree Swallows, Red-winged Blackbirds and American Robins continue to move in good numbers. There was a good diversity of other birds mixed in, including the count’s first-of-season Blue-headed Vireo northbound, 14 American Pipits, a Dickcissel, and 52 Forster’s Terns moving south over the bay. A very strange sight was a young White-tailed Deer buck swimming straight out into the bay, eventually  lost in the distance!

Over at the hawkwatch it was a slow day for raptors, with the raptor movement ending around midday. Morning flight at the hawkwatch was quite busy and including nice counts of 2,327 American Robins and 3,401 Yellow-rumped Warblers moving south. A Lincoln’s Sparrow also continued around the platform. Despite the erroneous claims of the Hawkwatch team, Sunset Beach leads the Hawkwatch in the Dickcissel World Series 13 to 12.

Westerly winds paid off in a big way this afternoon when a Say’s Phoebe was discovered at Custis Tomb Drive north of Kiptopeke! Say’s Phoebes are very rare vagrants from western North America, and this is the fourth record of this species on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The phoebe put on a great show all afternoon as it hunted from roadside power lines and perched on a nearby house!

Say’s Phoebe

Northeast winds build tomorrow and will continue to increase in strength through midweek as a low pressure system slides up the coast bringing rain chances by Tuesday.

Follow along with our counts live every morning on our Trektellen pages:

Sunset Beach Morning Flight: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20251026

Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20251026

Eastern Shore Migration Update: October 25, 2025

Winds this morning were out of the north, an ideal setup for migratory activity especially with a strong liftoff last night over the northeast and northwest winds bringing lots of migrants down the mid-Atlantic coast and funneled down the Delmarva Peninsula. Late season migration was in force today during the Sunset Beach Morning Flight Count, and totals of 59 species and 7,975 individuals were counted. 

It was a sky full of birds this morning at Sunset Beach. Late fall was certainly in the air with a flight dominated by blackbirds, robins, Tree Swallows, and Yellow-rumped Warblers. Red-winged Blackbirds were the dominant species with 2,455 counted southbound, mostly flocks of several dozen spread out throughout the morning. American Robins put on their best showing yet with 842, the majority southbound and many extremely high. Highlight species included four Red-shouldered Hawks, eight Rusty Blackbirds, a cooperative Nashville Warbler, and a Dickcissel. 

Common Loon

Blackpoll Warbler

Swamp Sparrow

Nashville Warbler

The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch had a similarly busy day with many comparable species and counts. Bald Eagles dominated the moderate raptor flight with 19 counted, and it is only a matter of time before they are joined by the first Golden of the season. Yellow-rumped Warblers put on an impressive showing at the hawkwatch with 5,180 counted moving south, considerably more than recorded at Sunset. Seventeen Purple Finches, six Pine Siskins, and 32 Rusty Blackbirds were nice counts of these late season migrants. Songbirds foraging around the platform throughout the day included another Lincoln's Sparrow, Nashville and Tennessee Warblers, and the continuing Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow. 

Winds shifting slightly to the northeast may allow some migrants to depart the Eastern Shore, but many more will likely continue to filter in and the slight easterly component by midday may make for a better day at the hawkwatch than the past few days. Northeast winds will continue to build through the week with the next westerlies by next weekend. 

Follow along with our counts live every morning on our Trektellen pages:

Sunset Beach Morning Flight: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20251025

Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20251025

Eastern Shore Migration Update: October 24, 2025

Light north winds made for another nice busy day at the Sunset Beach Morning Flight Count. Activity was noticeably better from the get go than the several preceding days, attributable to significantly calmer winds. A nice varied morning flight ensued with 51 species and 2932 individuals counted. 

Blackbirds contributed the most volume with 1145 Red-winged Blackbirds, 408 Brown-headed Cowbirds, 74 Common Grackles, and one Eastern Meadowlark counted, with Red-wings and cowbirds being predominately southbound. Yellow-rumped Warblers took a bit of break with "only" 173 southbound and 281 northbound counted, though with birds milling around all morning a number of active migrants likely blended in with general back-and-forth fluttering across the parking lot.  Other Sunset Beach highlights included a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher on the late side, a Dickcissel, an even hundred Turkey Vultures migrating, 91 Fish Crows, and a very surprising flock of seven Western Cattle-Egrets.

Western Cattle-Egrets

Peregrine Falcon

The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch was slow on the raptor front, though 17 Bald Eagles were nice to see migrating. Turkey Vultures also had a nice tally of 259. Passerines continue to entertain around the platform with an impressive total of three Lincoln's Sparrows around the platform today as well as the continuing juvenile pale-lored White-crowned Sparrow and a Nashville Warbler. The abandonment of the main Hawk Counter by the Monarch Biologist and the Morning Flight Specialist in hopes of a Virginia Beach Gray Kingbird was in vain, and the weary counters returned to the Shore with no prize other than consolation Chipotle.

Lincoln's Sparrow

Northwest winds overnight already appear to be facilitating a significant night of migration, and tomorrow will likely be another nice day of movement on the Eastern Shore. Winter arrivals will likely increase in number and late migrants will take the opportunity to move. Hopefully there will be a surprise or two in the mix tomorrow!

Follow along with our counts live every morning on our Trektellen pages:

Sunset Beach Morning Flight: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20251024

Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20251024

Eastern Shore Migration Update: October 22-23

This morning featured strong winds out of the West and blue skies. At the Sunset Beach Morning Flight totals of 32 species and 11,646 individuals were counted.

Once again Yellow-rumped Warblers led the charge with 10,695 southbound individuals, mostly on the eastern side of the peninsula. Other highlights on the morning included a very nice Forster's Tern flight with 228 individuals and a late Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. 

Over at the Kiptopeke Hawkwatch it was a slow day for raptors, but a few lingering songbirds kept things interesting. The Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow, a Dickcissel and a Lincoln's Sparrow all provided great views throughout the morning. 

Clear skies and west winds continued this morning at Sunset Beach and totals of 4,912 individuals were counted. Yellow-rumped Warblers dominated as is expected these days, with 2,415 individuals counted northbound and 1,465 counted southbound. Other migrants were fairly slow, though blackbird numbers continue to slowly build with 558 Red-winged Blackbirds counted. 

The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch had a moderate flight on westerlies, with a nice little falcon flight of 17 American Kestrels and 13 Merlins. The Lincoln's Sparrow, Dickcissel, and Nashville Warbler continued to linger around the platform. 

Westerly winds often bring migrants far from the interior to the coast. Coastal Virginia has seen a notable influx of Clay-colored Sparrows over the past few days, and one popped up this evening at Magothy Bay Natural Area Preserve. 

Clay-colored Sparrow

Westerly winds continue into tonight shifting around to the northwest and north by sunrise, which will likely lead to more migrant arrivals tomorrow. North winds continue through the rest of the week and weekend.

Follow along with our counts live every morning on our Trektellen pages:

Sunset Beach Morning Flight: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20251023

Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20251023

Eastern Shore Migration Update: October 21, 2025

Clear conditions this morning following the cold front with westerly winds overnight and into the morning provided a strong flight at both of our migration sites. At Sunset Beach Morning Flight, totals of 34 species and 17,509 individuals were counted. 

Yellow-rumped Warblers are in full force right now on the Eastern Shore, and 15,752 were counted southbound at Sunset Beach. The massive Yellow-rump flightline at times extended from the Chesapeake Bay shoreline all the way east to Eastern Shore of Virginia NWR. A handful of other species could be picked out from the close flightline, including 24 Cape May, 17 Palm, three Black-throated Blue, and one each Blackpoll, Northern Parula, and Tennessee Warbler. Five Red-breasted Nuthatches and three Dickcissels were also picked out of the fray.

The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch had a slower day for raptors but a great day for songbirds. Ten species of sparrow and 14 species of warbler were detected from the platform throughout the day! Highlights included an individual of the western Gambel's subspecies of White-crowned Sparrow, a Vesper Sparrow landing on the platform, a Dickcissel touching down, and two late Prairie Warblers.

White-crowned Sparrow (photo by Sage Church)

The hawkwatch also had a great spread of blackbirds with two Bobolink, 21 Eastern Meadowlark, a Baltimore Oriole, 467 Red-winged Blackbird, 931 Brown-headed Cowbird, 12 Rusty Blackbird, and 162 Common Grackle.  the transmitter-tagged Monarch from yesterday was also seen hanging around today.

South winds shift around to southwest overnight. Anything with a westerly component has potential to be interesting on the Eastern Shore, and if there are many birds left in the pipeline after today it could be another busy flight.

Follow along with our counts live every morning on our Trektellen pages:

Sunset Beach Morning Flight: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20251021

Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20251021

Eastern Shore Migration Update: October 19-20, 2025

It has been a busy couple days on the Eastern Shore! Tonight’s double feature Eastern Shore Migration Update will include summaries for the past two days of our counts as well as some more exciting rarity news elsewhere on the shore.

South-southwest winds on Sunday Oct 19 did not yield a major reverse morning flight at Sunset Beach, but a significant southbound movement of Yellow-rumped Warblers tallied 16,762 in three hours of nonstop clicking! Thirteen first-of-season Brant were another highlight. The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch had a solid flight led by 51 Sharp-shinned Hawks and 16 American Kestrels.

A cold front moved through overnight and brought blasting west winds over the Chesapeake Bay to Sunset Beach this morning, suppressing activity and moving the Yellow-rumped Warblers far to the east, though a total of 2,716 were still counted moving south. There was some action at the Kiptopeke Hawkwatch with a few more falcons on the move today including 25 American Kestrels and 12 Merlins. A couple nice surprises were a late immature male Ruby-throated Hummingbird and 22 American White Pelicans way out to the east.

Monarch butterflies also had big news today, with two Monarchs at Kiptopeke receiving Bluetooth transmitters from Cellular Tracking Technologies to track their migratory movements! We will be eager to see where CVWO’s first two Monarchs, Nancy and Brian, flutter past on their migratory journeys this fall.

Nancy the Monarch with transmitter

Now for some rarity action! The biggest news of the weekend was the confirmation of Virginia’s first European Golden-Plover on Arbuckle Neck Road up in Accomack! Present since October 14, this plover was rediscovered and identified on the 19th and showed well for many today including many flashes of the diagnostic white underwing. This is only the seventh record of this species in the lower 48 United States. (Photo by Mario Balitbit)

European Golden-Plover

Just a couple days after the shore’s second Swainson’s Hawk of the fall, a third was discovered yesterday along Seaside Road near Machipongo! This bird, an intermediate juvenile, entertained a crowd of birders this afternoon as it hunted praying mantises along the edge of a woodlot. (Photo by Mario Balitbit)

Swainson’s Hawk

South winds return tomorrow, followed by a switch back to west later in the week. There’s no telling what might happen at this point in the season on the Eastern Shore, and there’s bound to be more surprises in the coming days!

Keep up with both of CVWO’s counts with our daily migration update on Facebook, Instagram, and the CVWO Blog: 

https://vawildliferesearch.org/cvwo-blog-1

Follow along with our counts live every morning on our Trektellen pages:

Sunset Beach Morning Flight: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20251021

Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20251021

Eastern Shore Migration Uodate: October 17, 2025

Eastern Shore Migration Update: October 14, 2025

North winds continued last night and allowed for ideal migratory conditions. Unlike last night, nocturnal migration was more moderate following the massive push the night before, but there were still lots of birds moving around today. The Sunset Beach Morning Flight Count totaled 54 species and 1834 individuals.

Highlights at Sunset Beach included more flocks of Fish Crows totaling 160, 28 Ring-necked Ducks, the season’s first three Pine Siskins, and a solid diversity of winter passerine movement. Birds today were a little more disorganized with notably southbound and northbound movements. A Chimney Swift on the late side hung around for most of the morning, readily recognizable as the same individual due to a distinctive bent primary on its right wing.

Chimney Swift

Cooper’s Hawk

The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch also had a diverse overall flight with 4500 individuals and 56 species. A nice total of 24 Northern Harriers continue a good streak for that species lately as our counters steadily approach 1000 harriers for the season. Other highlights included a nice blackbird flight, a couple Purple Finches, and a Dickcissel.

The biggest surprise of the day came when an adult Swainson’s Hawk was spotted circling low over the town of Cheriton in the early afternoon! Already a significant rarity, it is especially unusual that multiple Swainson’s are detected on the Eastern Shore in a given fall, and an adult bird is even more exceptional! Hopefully this bird will stick around the area and be detected on one of our counts in the coming days.

Swainson’s Hawk

Keep up with both of CVWO’s counts with our daily migration update on Facebook, Instagram, and the CVWO Blog: 

https://vawildliferesearch.org/cvwo-blog-1

Follow along with our counts live every morning on our Trektellen pages:

Sunset Beach Morning Flight: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20251017

Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20251017