Morning Flight Wednesday October 13, 2010

Even though the wind continued to swing past north to the northeast, there was no putting a stop on morning flight today given the huge liftoff of migrants overnight. The flight was dominated by Yellow-rumped Warblers, as expected, but strong numbers of Red-breasted Nuthatches and Blackpoll Warblers were noted as well. Purple Finches, Pine Siskins, and Rusty Blackbirds have continued to fly by on a daily basis, adding some more welcome northern flavor to the boreal warblers and nuthatches.
Steve Bauer mentioned seeing lots of Song Sparrows around today, and I noticed the same thing from the dike, mostly as single birds calling and making short flights in the phragmites.
Even with over 5,000 warblers and 100 nuthatches going by, the standout highlight was a Brown Creeper that bounced up out of the woods and landed on my leg as the flight slowed in the late morning. I felt honored and overall quite pleased to have been considered, albeit briefly, an acceptable tree trunk on which to land.

Song Sparrow. Higbee Beach (Tom Johnson).

Location: Cape Island--Higbees Beach SWA--Dike
Observation date: 10/13/10
Notes: NE 5-10 mph; clear
Number of species: 33

Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 11
Northern Flicker 6
Red-eyed Vireo 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 100
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Brown Creeper 3
Golden-crowned Kinglet 6
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 4
American Robin 240
American Pipit 5
Cedar Waxwing 195
Tennessee Warbler 3
Nashville Warbler 2
Northern Parula 23
Yellow Warbler 1
Magnolia Warbler 2
Cape May Warbler 2
Black-throated Blue Warbler 29
Yellow-rumped Warbler 4215
Black-throated Green Warbler 6
Palm Warbler 60
Blackpoll Warbler 88
Bay-breasted/Blackpoll Warbler 2
warbler sp. 1323
Chipping Sparrow 5
Savannah Sparrow 8
Dark-eyed Junco 19
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 5
Bobolink 1
Rusty Blackbird 6
Baltimore Oriole 1
Purple Finch 15
Pine Siskin 2

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