Clear high pressure skies continue to dominate the weather on the Eastern Shore, and these conditions coupled with southwest winds put a stop to essentially all migration today once again. At Sunset Beach, totals of 15 species and 106 individuals were counted.
The clear skies were also clear of birds over Sunset Beach. Of the 106 individuals counted, 86 were southbound terns; 57 Sandwich and 29 Common. This brief southbound movement quickly ended when a brief flurry of feeding activity made it impossible to parse actively moving birds from foraging locals. Five Osprey were the next most numerous migrant counted, all low over the western bay shore. Warblers were limited to singles of Northern Waterthrush, American Redstart, Northern Yellow Warbler, Pine Warbler, and two Cape May Warblers. Though fairly regular this season, a distant adult Brown Booby was exciting as always to see feeding out over the Chesapeake Bay.
The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch was also slow with only six Osprey, four Sharp-shinned and one Cooper’s Hawks, and four Merlins counted. Precious few other migrants were counted on a day with only 11 species and 26 individuals. By this point in the season, days this slow feel exceptional, though they drive home the point that the correct conditions are everything during migration.
With few photo ops during our counts today, a Striped Saddlebags from Virginia Beach this evening serves as a reminder that this southern dragonfly’s irruption into the region is ongoing. Continued southerly winds in the area into tomorrow morning will further stall nocturnal migration, though an afternoon switch to more northerly winds could kickstart some raptor movement.
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/4022/20260917
