Light west-southwest winds allowed a large flight of forward migrants today, though reorientation migration remained slow. At the Sunset Beach Morning Flight Count, totals of 30 species and 1534 individuals were counted.
It was a good day to see large flocks of birds moving high
overhead, and 46 Common Terns in a tight pack shooting southwest to the
Chesapeake Bay before sunrise were a nice early highlight. Flocks of Bobolinks and
Eastern Kingbirds soon began to stream over early on as well with totals of 444
and 333 counted respectively, and Purple Martins took first place for the
morning with 640.
Reorientation morning flight remained slow with only 14
American Redstarts counted, though a male Cape May Warbler late in the morning
was a nice first-of-season for the count. The Chesapeake Bay was calm overall, and
conditions were ideal to spot two Wilson’s Storm-Petrels moving north a good
way out. The new Sunset celebrity Bell’s Vireo continued for a second day and put
on several nice appearances throughout the mid and late morning, still working
the shrubs right around the bay view.
An all-day effort at the Kiptopeke Hawkwatch yielded a few
nice raptors including 15 Osprey, one Red-shouldered Hawk and 5 Mississippi
Kites, a good count for this uncommon early migrant. A surprise northbound American
Bittern was unexpected and rather early. Forward passerine migrants stole the
show at the hawkwatch today and staggering totals of 6323 Barn Swallow, 2575
Purple Martin, 2163 Bobolink, 1901 Eastern Kingbird, and 45 Bank Swallows were
counted.
These impressive totals highlight the phenomenon of southbound
diurnal migration into headwinds. While raptors and nocturnal migrants utilize
favorable tailwinds for migration, many of these diurnal passerine species move
in much higher volume during the day into light southerly headwinds as they
reach the tip of the Delmarva Peninsula. Many flocks of kingbirds and Bobolinks were still streaming south towards Fisherman Island this evening at Ramp Road at Eastern Shore of Virginia NWR.
Steady south winds continue into tomorrow with a chance of
showers in the afternoon. It will be interesting to see how many more
southbound migrants are still “in the pipeline” following today’s massive
flight.
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:
Sunset Beach: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/3748/20260826
Kiptopeke Hawkwatch: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/4022/20260826
