West-southwest winds shut down overnight migration, and few forward migrants were moving against the crosswinds today. It was a very slow morning overall at Sunset Beach, with 20 species and 52 individuals counted.
Very few birds were moving at Sunset Beach overall. Sandwich Terns were the most numerous migrant of the morning totaling 17 southbound individuals out over the bay. Two American Redstarts and one Northern Yellow Warbler were the only warblers and five Osprey, one American Kestrel, and a Merlin were the only raptors. Diligent scans of the Chesapeake Bay yielded little other than gulls and pelicans surrounding the menhaden trawlers. The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch was fairly slow overall, though a few raptors were on the move including 43 Osprey. A brief evening watch at Ramp Road at Eastern Shore of Virginia NWR did not yield any migrants moving into stronger south winds at dusk, though 25 Boat-tailed Grackles were nice to see commuting to roost, typically an uncommon sight on the lower Eastern Shore this time of year away from the barrier island marshes where they go to molt.
Without much in the way of migration to update on, this slow day presents a good opportunity to compare a full month of August Sunset Beach data between 2025 and 2026. This year, many more total individual migrants have been counted, with 29,812 individuals counted in August 2026 compared to 17,345 in August 2025. Southbound migrants have pushed 2026 ahead, while reverse northbound migrants have trailed by 2,431 individuals compared to 2025. The top five migrants this August were Purple Martin (8878), Eastern Kingbird (7308), Barn Swallow (3454), Red-winged Blackbird (2100), and Bobolink (1229), all of which primarily behave as forward migrants at Sunset Beach.
Strong south-southwest winds overnight will certainly stall out most overnight migration. The windier conditions could make for good bay watching, but it is very unlikely that much in the way of visible active migration will be occurring tomorrow.
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/3748/20260909
