Morning Flight Thursday August 26, 2010

As David La Puma suggested they would, conditions fell into place for a nice flight at the Higbee dike this morning. Clearing skies and westerly winds (with NW higher up in the sky) resulted in a decent number of birds flying out heading north. 565 warblers of 16 species flew out (that 565 number includes 105 unidentified warbler species), and we also tallied 3 Dickcissels which gave their amusing flight calls from somewhere up in the ether. Just as interesting as the northbound flight was the movement of 1485 southbound Bobolinks.
Other neat birds this morning included a flyover Whimbrel and the continuing waves of sandpipers and plovers roosting and chasing small flies on the dredge spoil (at least 1 White-rumped joined in today). I heard that the woods and fields were good this morning as well - it will be nice to see what else turns up on the Cape today.

Location: Cape Island--Higbees Beach SWA--Dike
Observation date: 8/26/10
Notes: A light to moderate west wind led to the best morning flight count of the season so far. 565 warblers (105 sp.) and 3 Dickcissels = highlights. Shorebirds included lots of Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers, 1 White-rumped Sandpiper, and a flyover Whimbrel. Only birds that appeared to be engaged in morning flight behavior are reported on this checklist.

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Number of species: 27

Ruby-throated Hummingbird - Archilochus colubris 12
Eastern Wood-Pewee - Contopus virens 1
Eastern Kingbird - Tyrannus tyrannus 13
Red-eyed Vireo - Vireo olivaceus 5
Red-breasted Nuthatch - Sitta canadensis 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - Polioptila caerulea 24
Northern Mockingbird - Mimus polyglottos 1
Cedar Waxwing - Bombycilla cedrorum 42
Blue-winged Warbler - Vermivora pinus 1
Tennessee Warbler - Vermivora peregrina 5
Yellow Warbler - Dendroica petechia 52
Chestnut-sided Warbler - Dendroica pensylvanica 2
Magnolia Warbler - Dendroica magnolia 5
Cape May Warbler - Dendroica tigrina 4
Black-throated Blue Warbler - Dendroica caerulescens 7
Blackburnian Warbler - Dendroica fusca 3
Prairie Warbler - Dendroica discolor 3
Black-and-white Warbler - Mniotilta varia 12
American Redstart - Setophaga ruticilla 297
Worm-eating Warbler - Helmitheros vermivorum 1
Ovenbird - Seiurus aurocapilla 3
Northern Waterthrush - Seiurus noveboracensis 62
Wilson's Warbler - Wilsonia pusilla 2
Canada Warbler - Wilsonia canadensis 1
warbler sp. - Parulinae sp. 105
Dickcissel - Spiza americana 3
Bobolink - Dolichonyx oryzivorus 1485
Baltimore Oriole - Icterus galbula 1

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)