South-southwesterly winds were blowing off the bay this morning at Sunset Beach. The slight westerly element infused a bit more diversity and life to the flight overall, though forward migrants were on the slow side. Regardless, there were some nice surprises, and totals of 34 species and 243 individuals were counted.
This morning featured a bit more warbler diversity with
three American Redstarts, one each of Louisiana and Northern Waterthrush along
with two unidentified waterthrushes, and the season’s first Yellow-throated
Warber. Two southbound groups of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers totaled 13, and swallows
were represented by 55 Barn, 18 Northern Rough-winged, and 22 Purple Martins. Dragonflies
were also moving a bit this morning including 16 Common Green Darners.
The major highlight came in the second hour when five Brown Boobies were spotted way out on the horizon over the Chesapeake Bay in a small feeding frenzy of terns! All five showed well but distantly for several minutes before flocking up and vanishing somewhere out in the bay. Brown Boobies are a rare but regular and increasing summer and fall visitor to the upper Chesapeake, though they are seldom seen from land in Virginia. All previous records of this species at Sunset Beach have occurred alongside Northern Gannets in later fall, and it is also worth noting that five is the new state high count for the species!
Other bay activity included a close southbound Wilson’s
Storm-Petrel as well as seven Black Terns stopping to feed with other tern flocks
as they worked their way south. There seems to be an abundance of food at the
moment in the bay, and it will be interesting to see if this keeps providing foraging
opportunities for seabirds. Steady southwest winds will continue tomorrow, and
it could be another interesting day!
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s daily migration update on CVWO blog and social media, and follow along with the count live every morning on Trektellen: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20260806
