Yesterday’s counts mostly saw drizzle and northeast winds. Sunset Beach had a pretty nice flight regardless with 44 species and 5009 individuals. Highlights included 5 Brant, 52 Surf and 145 Black Scoters, 254 Fish Crows, a late Tennessee Warbler, and continuing flocks of Tree Swallows, American Robins, blackbirds, and Yellow-rumped Warblers. The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch also had a fairly busy day with nice counts of 32 Sharp-shinned Hawks and 8 Northern Harrier.
The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch had a slower start to the day, but things picked up in a big way in the afternoon when an intermediate juvenile Swainson’s Hawk flew south on the east side! This is the second Swainson’s Hawk for the hawkwatch this fall, is very likely the same individual as the bird that hung around Machipongo October 16th-26th. The Swainson’s was subsequently spotted at the Eastern Shore National Wildlife Refuge as well as Sunset Beach as it moved around the tip of the peninsula, and made another pass northbound past the hawkwatch late afternoon. Hopefully it will make another appearance on our counts tomorrow!
The cold front pushing through this evening will bring westerly winds tomorrow and Saturday. Westerlies are some of the most interesting winds on the Eastern Shore, and we’re excited to see what tomorrow brings!
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/3748/20251030
Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20251030
