Morning Flight Sunday September 5, 2010

After yesterday's mega-flight following the frontal passage, today was a bit of a step back in numbers, but conditions were great for viewing. Good flight views of Buff-breasted Sandpiper could be had, and many observers (up to 40 on the dike alone!) were there to enjoy the birds. 220 individual warblers of 18 species were tallied in morning flight today. Reports from others and my own observations seem to show that the Higbee Dike location is actually missing a great majority of Bobolinks, and that sites along the eastern and southern edges of Cape Island have been much better. If you want to see lots of Bobolinks before they're all gone, the hawkwatch at Cape May Point State Park is a place as good as any.

Speaking of Cape May Point State Park, there were 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls over there the night before Hurricane Earl declined to drop any hurricane waifs on our fair beaches (Thursday night). Here is one.

Easily the most abundant warbler in Cape May for the last several weeks, American Redstarts are also one of the easier warblers to identify in flight, due in no small part to the contrasting pattern of the long tail (Higbees Beach, Tom Johnson).

Location: Cape Island--Higbees Beach SWA--Dike
Observation date: 9/5/10
Notes: ~15 mph WNW wind, clear - many visitors to the dike today, fewer birds than expected. Only birds that appeared to be engaged in morning flight behavior are included on this list.
Number of species: 30

Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Eastern Kingbird 250
Red-eyed Vireo 10
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
American Robin 6
Northern Mockingbird 2
Cedar Waxwing 10
Tennessee Warbler 6
Nashville Warbler 4
Northern Parula 8
Yellow Warbler 8
Chestnut-sided Warbler 4
Magnolia Warbler 9
Cape May Warbler 3
Black-throated Blue Warbler 2
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 3
Palm Warbler (Western) 12
Bay-breasted Warbler 2
Blackpoll Warbler 7
Bay-breasted/Blackpoll Warbler 9
Black-and-white Warbler 11
American Redstart 97
Ovenbird 2
Northern Waterthrush 11
warbler sp. 21
Scarlet Tanager 1
Blue Grosbeak 2
Dickcissel 1
Bobolink 98
Baltimore Oriole 12

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