Strong northwest winds were blowing past the Eastern Shore today, with a chilly start to the morning and rough chop out on the bay. Forward migration was overall quite slow, as many birds seemed not to want to cross the bay in the rough conditions. Some of the more numerous in-season passerines engaged in strong northbound morning flight. Waterfowl were moving in decent numbers in diversity as well.
At Sunset Beach, highlights of a nice waterfowl flight included 33 Wood Ducks, 31 American Wigeon, two first-of-season Gadwall, six Mallards, 44 Black Scoters, and four first-of-season Buffleheads. The songbird flight was heavily dominated by Yellow-rumped Warblers with 2,803 counted in a steady northbound flow all morning. American Robins also had a good showing with 1,453. Blackbirds were more strongly northbound than usual and for the first time this season many were dropping in to the campground to feed in a large wandering group dominated by Brown-headed Cowbirds.
The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch had a decent handful of raptors led by 17 Sharp-shinned Hawks, seven Bald Eagles, and seven Red-shouldered Hawks. A Ruby-throated Hummingbird continues to visit the platform feeder. A few nice passerine migrants included a late Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and a Baltimore Oriole. Evening flight at Kiptopeke yielded a nice flock of 82 American Pipits and a steady river of Tree Swallows totaling 2,996, likely birds going to roost.
Southwest winds build tomorrow becoming strong by the evening before switching to northwest overnight. Northwesterly winds in November following low pressure systems sweeping across the Great Lakes are strongly associated with the arrival of Cave Swallows on the east coast, and such a movement appears to be underway in the Lakes region and farther north along the mid-Atlantic coast. With westerlies dominating the forecast for the next week and more cold fronts in store, it seems a good bet that these wandering southwestern swallows will pop up on the Eastern Shore soon!
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/3748/20251104
Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20251104
