Winds were steady out of the northeast this morning with intermittent drizzle and rain. Birds took advantage of the brief gaps in the rain, and both of our counts had decent diversity.
Waterfowl were trickling through over the bay at Sunset Beach including 18 Ring-necked Ducks, seven Green-winged Teal, and a Lesser Scaup. Two northbound Wilson’s Snipe were nice to see. Red-winged Blackbirds and Brown-headed Cowbirds were moving in small flocks in both directions, and 1658 American Robins were counted northbound. Five Cape May Warblers and a Northern Parula were a nice reminder that there’s still a just a few non-Yellow-rumped Warblers moving.
Rain kept most of the raptors down this morning at the Kiptopeke Hawkwatch, but there was a handful of the expected species after the finally rain let up. A nice first-of-season for the hawkwatch, a Clay-colored Sparrow appeared by the platform in the early afternoon and spent the next couple hours foraging on the ground with a mixed sparrow flock. There was another nice evening flight in the final two hours of the count with 1,378 Tree Swallows, 5,704 American Robins, and 68 Wood Ducks. Three American Woodcocks also picked up right as light was fading.
Northwest winds pick up significantly tonight continuing overnight and into tomorrow, with lots of potential for another significant flight of American Robins and other late season songbird migrants. Strong northwesterly winds also tend to push waterfowl migrants closer to the bayshore. Winds shift to the southwest by Wednesday before northwest returns later in the week.
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/3748/20251103
Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20251103
