Today’s sunset beach morning flight count featured clam winds and sunny skies and a light migratory flight. A total of 47 species and 340 individuals were counted.
Northbound reorienting migrants started out to the east as is typical, but the flight shifted west as the morning went on and a steady trickle of birds came by in nice lighting throughout the early morning. Highlights included the season’s first Rose-breasted Grosbeak, the season’s second Bay-breasted Warbler, and a surprise White-rumped Sandpiper that flew off the beach with three Least Sandpipers.
Lighter flight days are generally a little more laid back and enjoyable for actually enjoying good views and taking photos of birds in flight. Today was a great day to kick back and take a moment to the flybys without having to stress about clicking warblers all over the sky.
The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch had another fantastic early season flight, with even more impressive numbers than yesterday. With the clam winds and blue sky, many birds were way up and hard to spot. Despite the speck birds, impressive totals of 206 Sharp-shinned, 56 Cooper’s Hawks, 204 American Kestrels and 85 Merlins were counted.
The strong trend of northeast winds continue for the next few days, and clouds roll in tomorrow with chances of rain early next week. The favorable winds combined with cloud cover and arriving rain could create a similar setup to this week’s fallout-like conditions with many migrants concentrated and grounded at the tip of the peninsula. Migration will likely slow down before the next front comes in. Every day has the possibility to be very different and interesting, and we’ll see what the changing conditions bring down the shore!
Keep up with the happenings on the Eastern Shore here on the CVWO Blog, and make sure to check out our live Trektellen pages for real-time updates for our two counts:
Sunset Beach Morning Flight Count:
https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20250913
Kiptopeke Hawkwatch:
