Morning Flight - 10 October 2012

Recent mornings have kept me guessing about whether or not a large flight will materialize.  Despite west winds and heavy nocturnal flight calls over Cape May Point last night, this morning's flight was relatively light compared to counts during the past week.  The highlight was the season high count for Eastern Meadowlarks (9), which included a flock of 8 birds.   

Red-bellied Woodpecker - 7
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 5

Northern Flicker - 21
Eastern Phoebe - 1
Red-eyed Vireo - 2

Red-breasted Nuthatch - 7
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 2

American Robin - 48
American Pipit - 9

Northern Parula - 11
Yellow Warbler - 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler - 1

Yellow-rumped Warbler - 347

Palm Warbler - 33
Blackpoll Warbler - 13

warbler sp. - 69

Savannah Sparrow - 6
Indigo Bunting - 5
Eastern Meadowlark - 9
Rusty Blackbird - 3
Purple Finch - 1

Pine Siskin - 48

Total = 649

A graphical representation of Eastern Meadowlarks tallied at Morning Flight over the past decade (2003- 2012, with data incomplete for the current year).  Although a relatively short timespan in the grand scheme of things, this declining species has noticeably tailed off in just the past five years here.  The average for the first five years (2003 - 2007) of the count was 411 individuals, but dropped to an average of only 111 birds in the past four years (2008 - 2011).