Southwest winds brought humid southern air to the Eastern Shore on Saturday, and the warm sunny day felt much more like a day out of the early season than November. Winds remained southwesterly overnight and low cloud cover blanketed the area in the morning keeping birds low.
On Saturday, the Sunset Beach Morning Flight Count logged 37 species and 11,190 individuals including the season’s first Orange-crowned Warbler. A significant flight of Cedar Waxwings also occurred with 1,129 southbound individuals counted. This morning was again dominated by 26,402 American Robins. The season’s first Cave Swallow was great to see amid the ongoing irruption of the species on the Eastern Shore, and four Cape May Warblers were also notable for the late date.
The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch had a good diversity of raptors yesterday including 19 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 10 Red-tailed and seven Northern Harriers. The low misty cloud today was not the most ideal weather for raptor movement, but 24 Sharp-shinned Hawks were still moving as well as the season’s first “northern” subspecies Red-tailed Hawk. A flock of eight Long-tailed Ducks migrating overland was a very exciting sight for the Hawkwatch platform.
Today was defined by a truly staggering southbound flight of 117,358 American Robins at Kiptopeke, as wave after wave of birds poured through the sky throughout the morning and into the early afternoon with another massive evening liftoff pushing the day’s tally well past six figures. Though fewer in number overall, today marks the third day in a row the Hawkwatch has exceeded the Virginia record high count for Cedar Waxwings with an incredible 2,237 counted southbound. It will be fascinating to see where numbers of these two flocking species will peak this season as they continue to surge in volume.
This weekend’s rarity roundup event was well-attended and a handful of notable species were detected around the shore including a few more scattered Cave Swallow sightings and a nice Western Kingbird near Smith Beach, the first for the Eastern Shore this fall. The kingbird continued through today providing nice views for many birders.
A true arctic blast arrives on the Eastern Shore overnight bringing a major plunge in temperatures as well as possible rain tomorrow morning with a wind shift to the northwest. Frigid westerly winds are forecasted for Tuesday as wind chill temperatures sink into the teens. This major weather shift introduces thoughts of northern species that may move in with the front, and the aftermath of the system with continued westerly winds this week will certainly be interesting.
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
