The much-anticipated overnight cold front finally brought significant overnight migration and a busy morning flight to Sunset Beach. North winds throughout the day also made for good hawkwatching at the Kiptopeke Hawk Platform. At Sunset Beach, totals of 58 species and 1352 individuals were counted.
Warblers dominated the morning flight at Sunset Beach, and American Redstarts occupied a commanding majority of the flight totaling 795. Northern Parulas had by far their best day of the season so far with 115, and Cape May Warblers also had a good showing of 36. There was a fair bit of diversity in the flight including the season’s first four Palm Warblers as well as ten Black-throated Green Warblers. The highlight of the morning was a Clay-colored Sparrow that dropped into the southern shrub line, giving nice views as it teed up calling on several perches as it worked its way north along the shrubs. A calling Savannah Sparrow was also a first-of-season, and two Dickcissels were also heard as they moved over high.
Northeast winds tonight allowed for a massive liftoff of migrants across the Delmarva peninsula and elsewhere throughout the mid-Atlantic. These migrants will largely take advantage of the northeast tailwind to correct for last night’s wind drift and move back inland, though some nocturnal migrants will still find themselves arriving on the Eastern Shore tomorrow and there should be some morning flight. It will likely be a great day at the Kiptopeke Hawkwatch on northeast winds all day
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/3748/20260914
