Southwesterlies brought increased humidity and warmer temperatures to the Eastern Shore, with limited migration as a result. A wind shift in the afternoon with a weak cold front passage improved the raptor flight, holding promise for tomorrow. At Sunset Beach, totals of 21 species and 199 individuals were counted.
Northbound American Robins in the first and second hour accounted for the significant majority of birds today, totaling 141. Many of these birds may have been departing a local roost, but it is a significant uptick in numbers compared to what has been around. Very little morning flight took place today in the first two hours with a southbound Northern Waterthrush and a northbound Northern Yellow Warbler, though in the third hour there was a surprising push of four Nashville Warblers and several other poorly seen Leiothlypis sp. Nashvilles are one of the more uncommon warbler on the Eastern Shore in fall, so to have them being the most numerous warbler species on a very slow day is anomalous.
The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch saw a trickle of migratory raptors throughout the day, though things really picked up in the later afternoon and evening after the northerly wind shift. Many darners and saddlebags including Black, Carolina, Red, and Striped Saddlebags in the evening were feasting on the ample gnats. The dragonflies in turn provided targets for afternoon Merlins and Kestrels as well as the lingering Mississippi Kite that showed nicely throughout the evening. Of the raptor totals, American Kestrels led with 54, followed by 48 Osprey and 22 Merlin.
The front tonight will give way to northeast winds tomorrow, which should deliver a continuation of this evening’s raptor flight. Songbird numbers should be much improved with the frontal passage, and there should be some good morning flight potential.
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/3748/20260915
