Light southwest winds overnight and into the morning translates into a strong southbound morning flight on the morning of Nov 7. A handful of notable late migrants and rare visitors were likely attributable to this wind setup, and overall species diversity for the day was high.
With the light southerly winds, forward migration was by far the dominant movement at the Sunset Beach Morning Flight Count. Yellow-rumped Warblers had a significant resurgence in numbers with a “living river” of 7,119 southbound warblers counted. Good diversity of other songbirds were mixed in including a late Blackpoll Warbler and a Northern Parula. Waterfowl had a strong showing with over 300 total ducks counted, most in very distant flocks out to the east. Four more White-winged Scoters were good to see.
At the Kiptopeke Hawkwatch, a good handful of raptors were moving including seven Northern Harriers. The raptors were outshone by the excellent songbird diversity for the day, including an excellent southbound flight of 1,656 Cedar Waxwings, 7,091 American Robins, and 10,438 Yellow-rumped Warblers, and a small uptick in Purple Finch numbers with 29. The star of the show was a Lark Sparrow that dropped in from the south and hung out in front of the platform the rest of the day, an incredibly tame individual that provided awesome views for many! A Vesper Sparrow and a late Blue Grosbeak and Nashville Warbler were also nice to see.
The big news of the day was the anticipated arrival of Cave Swallows on the Eastern Shore. Three were spotted at the hawkwatch in the morning, and a nice little push developed in the late afternoon and evening with a total of 10 for the day with several more likely candidates seen in the fading light. With the continued westerly winds it is likely more Caves will be around in the days to come!
Southwest winds continue overnight and into the morning, shifting to west and northwest and calming in the afternoon. This weekend is the annual Rarity Roundup on the Eastern Shore, and it will be exciting to see what birders are able to discover in their territories!
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/3748/20251107
Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20251107
