Morning Flight - 22 August 2012

Today's flight brought a number of firsts for the fall, including Red-bellied Woodpecker, Red-eyed Vireo, and Black-throated Blue Warbler.  In fact, although the flight was rather light and protracted, we ended up with a nice diversity of warblers (9 species).  And among those warblers, we were afforded some fantastic in-flight looks, lit up beautifully with the morning sun to our backs (eventually that same sun would make things uncomfortably toasty).  Red-breasted Nuthatches finally flew in numbers greater than one - a promising sign of a fall flight for that species.  But despite all of this, the day's highlight was certainly not a passerine or near-passerine (read on).    

Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 7
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Empidonax flycatcher - 1
Eastern Kingbird - 14
Red-eyed Vireo - 3
Red-breasted Nuthatch - 8
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 26
American Robin - 4
Northern Mockingbird - 2
Cedar Waxwing - 14
Yellow Warbler - 19
Black-throated Blue Warbler - 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 1
Blackburnian Warbler - 2
Prairie Warbler - 4
Black-and-white Warbler - 8
American Redstart - 101
Worm-eating Warbler - 2
Northern Waterthrush - 13
warbler sp. - 10
Indigo Bunting - 2
Bobolink - 10
Baltimore Oriole - 3

Total = 261

Northern Waterthrush (left) and Blackburnian Warbler (right; photo by Sam Galick)

At 7:51 AM, a Hudsonian Godwit was spotted over the Delaware Bay, heading north.  It appeared to land on the beach just north of the Cape May Canal, but despite a long walk on the beach a few hours later, it could not be re-found.  Other highlights for the day include a nice flight of north-bound Snowy Egrets (26), a Whimbrel, and a single Black Tern.