Today saw northeast winds and clearing partly cloudy skies, cool in the morning but warming up nicely. At Sunset Beach, totals of 42 species and 4342 individuals were counted.
Many forward migrants seemed to be taking advantage of the northeast tailwinds and moving with the wind this morning, possibly continuing their nocturnal migration and crossing the Chesapeake Bay. Most of the day’s 981 Yellow-rumped Warblers were doing just that, moving south in small groups. Warbler diversity has continued to dwindle as October draws to a close, and only two Blackpoll and two Cape May were in the mix today. Most of the other passerine migrants counted today were 991 southbound and 491 northbound American Robins, and good numbers of southbound blackbirds; 630 Red-winged Blackbirds, 194 Brown-headed Cowbirds, and 70 Common Grackles.
Several flocks of Northern Pintail totaled 41, including a lone drake that made a nice overhead pass. Common Loons were moving in their best numbers so far this season totaling 17. One local loon fishing off the beach caught a small flounder but seemed confused what to do with the flatfish, repeatedly dropping it in the water and picking it up again for several minutes. Other waterbird diversity included four Killdeer, two Dunlin, and a Wilson’s Snipe.
The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch had another light flight of 76 raptors. As is typical, the hawkwatch logged even higher totals of southbound passerines including 2310 American Robins, 218 Pine Siskins, and 2109 Yellow-rumped Warblers. A nice surprise at the hawkwatch was a flyover Red Crossbill, the first and hopefully not the last on the Eastern Shore this fall. Audio recordings support this individual being a type 2 or “ponderosa pine” Red Crossbill, a primarily western type currently undergoing an immense irruption in unprecedented numbers in the western Great Lakes region. Hopefully this singleton is a sign of more to come!
Light northeasterlies diminish overnight and tomorrow may be another good day for forward migrant passerines with the calm conditions.
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/3748/20261028
