Cold wind and rain defined today on the Eastern Shore, though conditions were still countable at Sunset Beach where totals of 22 individuals and 169 individuals were counted.
The Sunset Beach count site is reasonably sheltered from due north winds coming down the peninsula, and conditions were reasonable for most of the count before the rain picked up. More passerines were moving than expected, most of which were taking the shrub highway north in the rainy conditions. Gray Catbirds saw a bit of a resurgence in numbers totaling 31, often with several of the morning’s 11 White-throated Sparrows mixed in. There was still a bit of warbler diversity with 35 Yellow-rumped, seven Cape May, three Palm, two Blackpoll, two Northern Parula, and singles of Pine, Black-throated Green, and American Redstart counted. A juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk briefly landed on one of the picnic area grills as it attempted hunting on the rainy day.
The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch was largely rained out, though a few raptors were counted on and off from the morning through the mid-afternoon. Osprey dominated the rainy raptor numbers totaling 25, followed by nine Merlin and eight Cooper’s Hawk. A strong crowd of attendees braved the weather for the World Migratory Bird Day at Kiptopeke State Park festival, where CVWO Vice President Nancy Barnhart presented a talk alongside other Eastern Shore conservation organizations such as the Nature Conservancy while bird walks were lead around the park.
Rain is projected to clear out this evening while north winds roar all night. A significant flight of migrants is anticipated tonight in the wake of the strong cold front, and tomorrow should be an active day of migration in the cold wind.
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/3748/20261017
