Northeast winds and cloudy skies continued today at the Sunset Beach Morning Flight Count. Lighter migration conditions last night in turn made for a lighter flight for the last day of the month, though diversity was decent regardless. Totals of 38 species and 700 individuals were counted.
Northern Parulas have solidly taken over as the dominant warbler in morning flight, and 84 were counted this morning. American Redstarts trailed with 31. Three of each Northern Waterthrush and Yellow Warbler were nice to see as these species slow down for the season. Flocks of Brown-headed Cowbirds tallied 101, and T hree large groups of White Ibis moving south over Eastern Shore NWR totaled 230, a good count for the species for this location. A Savannah Sparrow by the parking area pre-dawn was a first-of-season for the count.
More northeast winds meant more raptors over at the Kiptopeke Hawkwatch. The threshold of 500 Northern Harriers for the month of September was crossed in the afternoon, and a total of 49 were counted for the day. A Merlin in hot pursuit of a bat in the late afternoon was an interesting sight, though the Merlin escaped empty-handed.
Tonight is a very active night of migration, and tomorrow could be a larger morning flight at Sunset Beach. Strong northeast winds will likely make for a great day at the Kiptopeke Hawkwatch as well. Northeast winds continue into Friday, and we should start seeing arrivals of more late season and wintering species over the next few days. We’re looking forward to starting October strong!
Keep up with both of CVWO’s counts with our daily migration update on Facebook, Instagram, and the CVWO Blog:
https://vawildliferesearch.org/cvwo-blog-1
Follow along with our counts live every morning on our Trektellen pages:
Sunset Beach Morning Flight: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20250930
Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20250930
