Morning Flight Sunday October 17, 2010

With clear skies and light to moderate west northwest winds overnight, this morning saw one of the fall's biggest flights go past the Higbee Dike. About 14,500 total birds were counted, primarily American Robins and Yellow-rumped Warblers. That doesn't even include tons of swallows, blackbirds, and some finches (lots of goldfinches and House Finches were on the move today). Additionally, 352 Sharp-shinned Hawks and smaller numbers of other raptors headed by going north, a flight that largely skipped the Point. Highlights today included 109 Purple Finches, 29 Pine Siskins, 3 Dickcissels, and lots of happy birders in the field.

Bald Eagle. Higbee Beach (Tom Johnson).

Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Higbee Beach (Tom Johnson).

Blue Jay. Higbee Beach (Tom Johnson).


Location: Cape Island--Higbees Beach SWA--Dike
Observation date: 10/17/10
Notes: only individuals/ species that appeared to be engaged in morning flight behavior are included on this list
Number of species: 28

Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 3
Northern Flicker 69
Eastern Phoebe 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 40
Brown Creeper 6
Golden-crowned Kinglet 22
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 31
American Robin 6440
American Pipit 10
Cedar Waxwing 265
Tennessee Warbler 1
Nashville Warbler 2
Northern Parula 10
Black-throated Blue Warbler 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler 5740
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 79
Blackpoll Warbler 31
Bay-breasted/Blackpoll Warbler 1
warbler sp. 1535
Chipping Sparrow 8
Savannah Sparrow 14
Dark-eyed Junco 38
Dickcissel 3
Bobolink 1
Eastern Meadowlark 5
Purple Finch 109
Pine Siskin 29

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