Morning Flight Monday August 31 2009

A minor internet snafu delayed the posting of yesterdays totals.

The winds shifted east too soon severely limiting what I expected would be a great flight. While the volume of birds was far less than expected the diversity was excellent in the first hour then dropped off. Small morning flight tip: the first two hours after sunrise are when the bulk of the flight occurs. Particularly early in the season virtually all the birds move early and visitors arriving at 9:30 get a tiny taste of what a flight is like at best. The highlights were a Whimbrel that flew directly over our heads and a Louisiana Waterthrush that nearly slipped by as a Northern.

Totals below are for all birds seen and include species or individuals not participating in morning flight.

Mallard 6
Northern Shoveler 1
Double-crested Cormorant 28
Great Egret 1
Snowy Egret 1
Osprey 8
Bald Eagle 2
Semipalmated Plover 8
Spotted Sandpiper 3
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 14
Whimbrel 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper 30
Least Sandpiper 12
White-rumped Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 2
Laughing Gull 65
Herring Gull 3
Great Black-backed Gull 15
Least Tern 1
Common Tern 3
Forster's Tern 8
Royal Tern 3
Rock Pigeon 8
Mourning Dove 12
Chimney Swift 9
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 5
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Alder Flycatcher 2
Eastern Kingbird 300
White-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 6
American Crow 4
Fish Crow 6
Purple Martin 8
Tree Swallow 15
Barn Swallow 35
Carolina Chickadee 3
Carolina Wren 8
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
American Robin 14
Gray Catbird 12
Northern Mockingbird 8
European Starling 400
Cedar Waxwing 90
Northern Parula 1
Yellow Warbler 12
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Cape May Warbler 3
Black-throated Blue Warbler 8
Black-throated Green Warbler 3
Blackburnian Warbler 2
Prairie Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 5
American Redstart 49
Northern Waterthrush 13
Louisiana Waterthrush 1
Common Yellowthroat 12
Northern Cardinal 15
Blue Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 2
Bobolink 450
Red-winged Blackbird 600
Common Grackle 5
Brown-headed Cowbird 3
Baltimore Oriole 15
House Finch 6
American Goldfinch 8