Winds were roaring out of the northwest this morning, but southwesterlies all night stifled overnight migration and made for a slow morning. Totals of 24 species and 209 individuals were counted.
Despite the strong northwesterlies, the lack of overnight liftoff made for very light morning flight overall for the date. Most birds were northbound into the wind as expected, including the majority of the day’s 51 Yellow-rumped Warblers, nine Blackpoll Warblers, four Northern Parulas and one Cape May Warbler. An Eastern Meadowlark was also nice to see moving north, the second sighting this season. A few raptors were moving around including 12 Cooper’s Hawks and 10 Osprey. Five Great Blue Herons were seen moving south high up.
The Kiptopeke Hawkwatch was likewise slow with 74 raptors counted, and 18 Sharp-shinned Hawks being the most numerous species followed closely by 14 Cooper’s. A high flock of 45 scoters far out to the east of the count site over the seaside was a first-of-season for any of the three scoter species.
Up in Cape Charles, two early north Atlantic waterbird species have frequented the harbor over the past two days, a Common Eider and up to two Great Cormorants. Both of these species are scarce away from their usual wintering areas around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel islands at the mouth of the bay. The strong easterlies may have brought them farther up the bay yesterday, and it will be interesting to see how long they hang around.
Tomorrow holds much more promise following a strong liftoff tonight and light northwesterlies overnight and into the morning. Tomorrow could be one of the last days of some modest warbler diversity in morning flight before the truly staggering Yellow-rumped Warblers drown out the others. Hawkwatching will probably also be good given the lighter winds and clearer skies.
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/3748/20261012
