A bona fide arctic blast arrived overnight on the Eastern Shore, bringing temperatures nearly 15 degrees F below average with frigid northwesterly winds off the bay. Both of our counts experienced snow flurries today before clouds cleared out as the morning went on.
Neither of our counts had much to report yesterday with northwest winds and cloudy skies before the front arrived. A handful of the regular winter waterfowl were moving at Sunset, but the passerine flight was quite subdued. The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch had a trickle of hawks including four Northern Harriers.
Today was a very different story with the blasting west winds. Though baywatching was nearly impossible at Sunset with heavy shimmer on the water, the passerine flight was very active in the early morning with 849 Yellow-rumped Warblers in low northbound flight right over the parking lot and a handful of kinglets and sparrows mixed in including a nice Lark Sparrow. The Lark hung around with a mixed sparrow flock by the parking area later in the morning.
The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch was again slow, though four more Northern Harriers were logged along with a couple other raptors. Thirty Bonaparte’s Gulls were a nice first-of-season for the platform. A quick check of the Kiptopeke SP Fishing Pier revealed that the beautiful drake Harlequin Duck was back after more than a week’s absence, and it gave stunning views in the boat launch inlet.
Cave Swallows continued their presence on the Eastern Shore at the Edward S. Brinkley nature preserve this evening, with three individuals making incredibly close passes over the pond with a couple hundred Tree Swallows and one late Barn. Continued westerly winds will likely bring more Cave Swallows to the mid-Atlantic throughout the coming week and beyond, and southwesterly winds over the next few days have the potential for more passerine flights with more surprises sprinkled in.
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/3748/20251111
Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20251111
