29 August 2011 - Morning Flight

Today's morning flight was weaker than I expected, but it was interesting anyway. Last night, there were light northwest winds following the clearing of Hurricane Irene to the northeast, and I expected a big flight. It wasn't bad though, with 183 individual warblers and some great shorebird highlights, including Hudsonian Godwit and Red-necked Phalaropes.

Yellow Warblers are early season migrants at Cape May, with most individuals of this species passing before September 15th (many were even gone by mid August).


Not seen from the Dike, these White-tailed Tropicbirds were part of the remarkable hurricane flight witnessed on 28 August from Cape May Point. Check out Tony Leukering's writeup of this spectacular event at View from the Cape.



Cape Island--Higbees Beach SWA--Dike, Cape May, US-NJ
Aug 29, 2011 6:10 AM - 9:25 AM
Protocol: Stationary
Comments: day after the passage of Hurricane Irene along the Jersey shore; winds light and NNW overnight
87 species (+5 other taxa)

Mallard 2
Blue-winged Teal 4
Double-crested Cormorant 10
Great Blue Heron 1
Snowy Egret 9
Plegadis sp. 2 presumably Glossy
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 5
Northern Harrier 1 molting male
Peregrine Falcon 1
Black-bellied Plover 3
Semipalmated Plover 6
Killdeer 1
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Greater Yellowlegs 2
Willet 1 distant flyby
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Whimbrel 2
Hudsonian Godwit 1 *rare - adult
Ruddy Turnstone 2
Sanderling 45
Semipalmated Sandpiper 20
Western Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 5
Red-necked Phalarope 13 flying over bay, viewed with scopes; one overhead late morning
shorebird sp. 20
Laughing Gull 40
Herring Gull 3
Great Black-backed Gull 10
Least Tern 2
Caspian Tern 2
Black Tern 2
Common Tern 15
Forster's Tern 20
Sterna sp. 75
Royal Tern 4
Rock Pigeon 9
Mourning Dove 6
Common Nighthawk 1 high at dawn, heading south
Chimney Swift 6
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Empidonax sp. 2
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Eastern Kingbird 125
White-eyed Vireo 1
Philadelphia Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 4
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 2
Fish Crow 4
Purple Martin 180
Tree Swallow 30
Bank Swallow 2
Barn Swallow 110
Carolina Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 1
Carolina Wren 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 10
Veery 1
American Robin 1
Gray Catbird 2
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 90
Cedar Waxwing 155
Northern Waterthrush 26
Black-and-white Warbler 4
Common Yellowthroat 1 *chipping in phragmites (not in morning flight)
American Redstart 62
Cape May Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 54
Chestnut-sided Warbler 2
Black-throated Blue Warbler 3
Prairie Warbler 3
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Canada Warbler 1
warbler sp. 23
Clay-colored Sparrow 1 flyby - thin short flight call
Northern Cardinal 3
Blue Grosbeak 5
Indigo Bunting 8
Dickcissel 1
Bobolink 200 *estimate - 123 counted in northbound flight, others flying around too
Red-winged Blackbird 250
Common Grackle 9
Brown-headed Cowbird 6
Baltimore Oriole 16
House Finch 20
American Goldfinch 3
House Sparrow 10

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