Morning Flight, 17 September 2015

The birds keep on coming at the Higbee dike.  This past Thursday, 350 warblers of 17 species is not to shabby for a morning with just the slightest of northwest winds.  These conditions placed many of the birds high and well-dispersed across the counting area.  Bobolinks continued with a southbound movement and were likely missed and under-counted to a degree.  CMBO hawk counter Cameron Cox joined me this morning, and at 7:37 AM spotted a yellow-bellied kingbird flying east from us.  We both got a 8-10 second look (which is a pretty long time at the dike) and took a few distant photos of a big, thick-winged, stout-billed, and bright kingbird-- either Couch's or Tropical Kingbird which would constitute a first NJ state record!

I've now decompressed enough from Monday and Tuesday to describe the experience three of us had with a very briefly-seen flyby warbler on Tuesday amidst the fray of >10,000 warblers and tons of other cool and rare birds.  A stocky warbler came from the south tree-line and crossed to the east about 50 feet above the southwest corner of the dike.  Head-on, it appeared stocky and I muttered "what's this?"  One other observer heard what I said (Mike Lanzone) and one other had gotten on the bird as well (Don Freiday).  The bird turned right and that's when my perception locked onto features: a "scooped" shape with a soft, round chest and belly abruptly flattening out in the undertail coverts; solid yellow from the head to lower belly; white undertail coverts; dark head in back in side profile. But what got my brain firing really rapidly was the curious pattern of dark markings on the chest. There were small dots on the front, leading to streaks at the side.  I think I saw a flash of white in the undertail as it tracked away.  I couldn't believe it but I had just seen what I think to be a Kirtland's Warbler!  Along with that announcement follows a sincere apology for not cueing in the greater birding community, at large, about it at the time.  I elected at the time to let that one go, at least for the moment.  Things were crazy this week.  The birding was overwhelming.  I'm still collecting my thoughts and the bird was seen, you know, for a few seconds, in flight.

Here's the action from Thursday:

Species	Number
Ruby-throated Hummingbird	1
Belted Kingfisher	1
Northern Flicker	9
Eastern Kingbird	7
Couch’s/Tropical Kingbird	1
Red-eyed Vireo	4
Blue Jay	1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	14
Veery	1
European Starling	20
Cedar Waxwing	65
Northern Waterthrush	12
Black-and-white Warbler	26
Tennessee Warbler	3
Nashville Warbler	2
Connecticut Warbler	1
Common Yellowthroat	2
American Redstart	95
Cape May Warbler	16
Northern Parula	87
Magnolia Warbler	3
Blackburnian Warbler	1
Yellow Warbler	9
Blackpoll Warbler	23
"Baypoll" warbler	3
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2
Palm Warbler	2
Prairie Warbler	1
Black-throated Green Warbler	4
warbler sp.	58
Blue Grosbeak	1
Indigo Bunting	1
Bobolink	39
Baltimore Oriole	2
House Finch	1
Total warblers	350
Total	518