The first September day of the Sunset Beach Morning Flight Count had a light flight on steady northeast winds. The totals for the day were 36 species and 371 individuals.
Northeast winds are often somewhat productive for migration here, but generally do not produce a significant warbler flight. That was the case today on a day with little in the way of warbler morning flight. Northern Waterthrushes had a marginally better morning compared to other species with nine counted, six southbound and three northbound.
Other passerine highlights included the season’s first Eastern Meadowlark northbound over the campground and a decent flight of 37 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers.
A few raptors were on the move this morning, with a Cooper’s Hawk shooting through early, a very high Merlin shooting off over the bay, two American Kestrels, and one Osprey counted.
The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch crew had a better day with the stronger northeast winds. Raptor totals included 16 Osprey, one Northern Harrier, four Broad-winged Hawk, one Peregrine Falcon, three Merlin and 12 Kestrel. Other notable sightings included two flyover Whimbrel crossing over from the bayside, a rare sighting for the hawkwatch, as well as a Bank and two Cliff Swallows mixed with a small Barn Swallow flight.
Tomorrow’s conditions appear similar with a slightly diminished wind. Looking ahead later in the week, winds are forecasted to switch to the south by Thursday and Friday with the next cold front forecasted to arrive sometime over the weekend. The switching winds always have the potential to bring something interesting to the Eastern Shore.
Follow along with our latest migration updates here on the CVWO Blog, and keep up with our two migration counts real-time on our Trektellen pages at the following links:
Sunset Beach Morning Flight Count: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20250901
Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20250901
