Winds were steady out of the west today with mostly clear skies at Sunset Beach. An average night of migration did not yield much in the way of reorientation morning flight, though there were a few nice birds in the mix as always. Totals of 34 species and 463 individuals were counted.
The westerly winds had a few birds up over the Chesapeake
Bay throughout the morning including two southbound Parasitic Jaegers, one of
which gave excellent views and made detours to harass Laughing Gulls. Sandwich
Terns were moving in their highest numbers so far this season (21), and several
more hung around off the beach to fish.
Land bird migrants were generally slow, though the season’s
third Olive-sided Flycatcher was seen briefly crossing the campground
northbound later in the morning. Warblers were very slow with only six American
Redstarts, three Northern Yellow, one Black-and-white and one Pine Warbler
counted. All but two Bobolinks counted today were in a single distant flock of
110. Other migrants included 82 Eastern
Kingbirds, 53 Purple Martins, and 45 Barn Swallows.
A large liftoff of migrants in the Delmarva area is
indicated by radar, though many of these will surely leapfrog the Eastern Shore
come dawn without many birds lifting off farther north. However, tomorrow’s
conditions appear ideal for an active day of migration with light north winds
to kick of the first day of CVWO’s Kiptopeke Hawkwatch!
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/3748/20260824
