26 October 2011 - Morning Flight

Morning flight today was great! Lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers and American Robins were flying west and then hooking north along the Delaware Bay; additionally, there was a southbound movement of Yellow-rumps early in the morning. An almost all white Eastern Phoebe gave us a quick startle - the bird was almost totally white except for a bit of gray in the face. Species highlights came from Red-headed Woodpecker, Rusty Blackbird, Eastern Bluebird, and Purple Finch.

American Robins are a late fall fixture in the morning skies above Cape May.

Rusty Blackbirds are fairly uncommon migrants in Cape May, but a perusal of the blackbirds during October and November mornings can often reveal a moderate number of this declining boreal breeder. The elongated, club-tipped tail, slim belly, and deep chest (best viewed in profile and not really visible in the above photo) are all good field marks for Rusty Blackbird.


Full eBird list for the day is below:

Canada Goose 40
Wood Duck 15
Mallard 4
Common Loon 1
Northern Gannet 5
Double-crested Cormorant 110
Turkey Vulture 5
Osprey 3
Bald Eagle 2
Northern Harrier 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk 105
Cooper's Hawk 14
Red-tailed Hawk 1
American Kestrel 30
Merlin 5
Killdeer 25
Sanderling 1
Short-billed/Long-billed Dowitcher 1 - probably LBDO - flyby
Laughing Gull 50
Herring Gull 3
Great Black-backed Gull 15
Forster's Tern 12
Royal Tern 2
Rock Pigeon 10
Mourning Dove 4
Red-headed Woodpecker 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 3
Downy Woodpecker 1
Eastern Phoebe 3
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 8
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 8
Tree Swallow 10
Carolina Chickadee 2
Brown Creeper 1
Carolina Wren 1
Winter Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 8
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 30
Eastern Bluebird 4
American Robin 3200
Brown Thrasher 1
European Starling 90
American Pipit 4
Cedar Waxwing 165
Northern Parula 4
Blackpoll Warbler 20
Palm Warbler 17
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2250
warbler sp. 8
Eastern Towhee 1
Chipping Sparrow 26
Field Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 16
Song Sparrow 4
White-throated Sparrow 12
Dark-eyed Junco 8
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird 220
Eastern Meadowlark 10
Rusty Blackbird 3
Purple Finch 8
House Finch 10

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)