Strong east-southeast winds and light rain associated with the passing remnants of Hurricane Isaias made for a slow morning at Sunset Beach. Things picked up a bit at the hawkwatch later on with another good showing of Peregrine Falcons. Totals of 14 species and 55 individuals were counted.
Having had a very dry season so far, today’s 45-minute rain delay for the count was a first for 2026. Though the Eastern Shore did not get much rainfall in total from the tropical system, the strong winds and blowing rain made for challenging counting conditions to start. The flight was quite subdued by the adverse weather overall, and very little was moving over the Chesapeake Bay. The few highlights were unsurprisingly waterbirds, including one Short-billed Dowitcher, three Dunlin, and four Northern Pintail. Huge clouds of Tree Swallows were swarming around the area and were frequently harassed by Merlins making for impressive spectacles.
The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch had a better go of things for most of the day before rain to the north shut down the raptor activity. Peregrine Falcons had another good day totaling 29, though few other raptors were on the move. Four Northern Rough-winged and three Barn Swallows were nice to see for the date, bringing a touch of diversity to the scores of Trees. Continuing the streak of successful Monarch tracking, the sixteenth tracked monarch of the season, CVWO-Baxter, was captured, tagged, and released by Monarch specialist Audrey Anderson! You can follow along with all of our tagged Monarch journeys using the Project Monarch app.
Fairly strong southwest winds tomorrow switch to northwest by the afternoon, calming down by the evening. Though migration will probably be generally slow, southwesterlies sometimes have interesting potential for bay watching and could always bring something surprising up the shore.
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/3748/20261011
