Happy end of the week, everyone! Over here at Kiptopeke, we've been faithfully scanning the skies since our last update. In the last several days, we've been experiencing northeast winds and very hot and humid temperatures, which are at least partially responsible for our having lower numbers of migrating birds over the past few days. We are hopeful that things will pick up in the next few days - keep your fingers crossed!
Purple Martins and Eastern Kingbirds continue to be the majority of songbird flyovers, with a few others such as Northern Flickers, Brown Thrashers, Blue Grosbeaks, and Semipalmated and Black-bellied Plovers making appearances. In the world of raptors, Osprey, Bald Eagles, Broad-winged Hawks, and Cooper's Hawks have been our most frequent visitors, with most being visible only at a very far distance on the Eastern horizon (which, though challenging, is great practice for a novice hawkwatcher like myself!).
Despite this week's hot temperatures and lower overall numbers, we have had a great highlight: this year already marks our best kite season yet! Monday and Tuesday's kite kick-off were not to be the last, as Karl counted three more Mississippi Kites on September 3rd. (We had the pleasure of a visit today from Bob Ake, who mentioned that kites are steadily expanding their range, and so reports of their presence is going up in many locations.) One juvenile surprised us by flying so low over the platform that you could clearly see its markings with the naked eye, which had Karl hurriedly scrambling for his camera.
I have also been keeping a daily tally of monarchs that move past the platform, with a high of twelve monarchs seen on September 2nd. We have also noticed a number of dragonflies around the platform, at least some of which may be migrating. Karl knows the names of a few dragonfly species, and together we're going to start learning to identify more - hopefully we'll have some pictures to share with you in upcoming posts! We've also both been doing early morning bird walks around the platform area, with Karl capturing some lovely warbler shots that you'll see below.
In other news, I wanted to let you folks know that you can see a live update of our non-raptor bird numbers by going to Dunkadoo.org, clicking the "Explore" tab, then selecting the CVWO icon on the map that appears. Though it doesn't quite equal making it up to the platform, this is still a great way to keep up with what we're seeing in real time.
Until next time!
-Bridgett
