Steady north-northeast winds were blowing at Sunset Beach today, yielding a diverse flight of low volume but with an awesome surprise rarity! Totals of 264 individuals and 40 species were counted.
Chaos broke loose at the count when visitor Roberta Kellam spotted
a small passerine flitting around low in the shrubs just north of the count
site, and the bird quickly revealed itself to be a Bell’s Vireo, a very rare midwestern
vagrant! The Bell’s miraculously showed incredibly well for the next hour and a
half, giving good views to arriving birders throughout the morning and even this
evening as it preferred to actively forage with distinctive wing-flicking motion in the shrubs right next to the count site. There
are four previous records of this species in the state, and needless to say, it
is a first for Sunset Beach. Though the count was somewhat derailed by the
excitement around the Bell’s, a few nice birds including the season’s first Dickcissel
were counted amid a light reorientation flight dominated by 31 American
Redstarts.
The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch had its first official day of the
season, and a nice early season diversity of raptors were counted including three
each of Osprey and Cooper’s Hawk, an early Sharp-shinned Hawk, one Peregrine
Falcon and two American Kestrels. The Striped Saddlebags irruption made its way
to the hawk platform when Sage spotted a nice female teed up behind the platform
for most of the afternoon.
The day’s excitement concluded this evening over at the
Eastern Shore of Virginia NWR where all three of our counters were treated to
great views of an immature Cerulean Warbler, a very rare migrant on the Eastern
Shore!
Building south winds return tomorrow, and while migration will
probably be slow, lighter winds in the morning could be conducive to a flight
of swallows or other forward migrants.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s daily migration update on CVWO
social media and the CVWO blog: https://vawildliferesearch.org/cvwo-blog
And follow along with the count live every morning on
Trektellen: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20260825
