Overnight rain cleared out completely before this morning, and a clear, calm day with light westerlies delivered a diverse flight of migrants this morning at Sunset Beach. Totals of 49 species and 514 individuals were counted this morning.
There was a solid push of overnight migration resulting in a
moderate early season northbound morning flight. As expected for the early
season, American Redstarts were the most numerous reorienting migrant with 64
counted alongside a fair bit of other warbler diversity including 13 Northern
Yellow Warblers, five each Black-and-white Warbler and Pine, three Northern
Waterthrushes, an early Tennessee Warbler, and another very early Yellow-rumped
Warbler. As is typical with westerlies, the flight line this morning was largely
overhead and continued late into the morning with lots of good warbler views
throughout.
Forward migrants had a strong start dominated by the
majority of the 136 Eastern Kingbirds, though the flight fell out quickly, possibly
due to the very calm winds. Purple Martins had their first significant
northbound movement of the season; 88 of 96 counted were moving north. Other notable
migrants included two Northern Harriers, an American Kestrel, three Red-headed
Woodpeckers, one Traill’s Flycatcher, two Red-eyed Vireos, and the first
Orchard Oriole in some time, typically one of the earliest migrants to depart the
area. Three juvenile Eastern Bluebirds were also a first-of-season for the
count, making a southbound pass before returning north shortly after.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s daily migration update on CVWO
social media and the CVWO blog: https://vawildliferesearch.org/cvwo-blog
And follow along with the count live every morning on
Trektellen: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20260818
