High flyover Ruddy Turnstone (I bet you miss Baxter’s photography already)
Barn Swallows were the stars of the show this morning with 285 southbound birds and only nine heading north. Some were distracted by fast food but many were taking advantage of the nice conditions to fly south out in the Chesapeake Bay. I imagine a number of swallows crossed over the Chesapeake Bay today utilizing the light winds and smooth water.
Other highlights included another early Broad-winged Hawk heading north in the late morning as the Purple Martins began to climb up into the sky in the warming conditions. Up to three Broad-winged Hawks were seen at Eastern Shore of Virginia NWR yesterday which comes as a surprise this early in the season. Warblers consisted of two Louisiana/Northern Waterthrushes, 20 American Redstarts, three Yellow Warblers, and two Pine Warblers. One migrant Yellow-billed Cuckoo enjoyed a cicada while jumping along the trees by Jackspot before launching north.
Immature Broad-winged Hawk
The light wind from the east buffered by the peninsula led to nonexistent groundlevel winds in the morning. These conditions are favorable for gnat swarms with several forming over the dunes at eye level in the morning. Due to this there was a swallow show with large feeding flocks of predominantly Barn Swallows but also several Bank and Northern Rough-winged Swallows getting involved in the action. It was also cool to see some Swamp Darners diving in and around the feeding swallows to get a piece of the action.
Worn and tired Baxter Beamer takes a breather as he stares down the remaining three months. Lucky for us we get three more months of sightings, insight, and breathtaking photography.
Tune in tomorrow for the return of beautiful, sharp pictures. For the full list of migrants seen today check out the Trektellen page (https://www.trektellen.org/count/view/3748/20250810).
