21 September 2011 - Morning Flight

Morning flight at Higbee Beach was slow again today; observations from Michael O'Brien and others at Cape May Point (~2 miles south of the Higbee dike) suggested a slightly stronger flight lasting later into the morning there, but it did not extend north through Higbee. Approximately 30-40 warblers "flew out" of the woods; these were dominated by Northern Waterthrush and Blackpoll Warbler (notice the trend away from the early season flights dominated by Yellow Warbler and American Redstart?), but also included a Bay-breasted Warbler and a Pine Warbler. Most exciting to me were the two Wild Turkeys that popped up over the woods before dawn and landed on the road next to my car! While there are breeding turkeys on the island, they are not numerous and typically not in Higbee Beach proper, but a bit further east along New England Rd.