Morning Flight - 16 September 2012

After four days of negligible movement, today's flight was welcome relief.  The flight showcased a good diversity of warblers (18 species of 479 individuals) and American Redstarts (61) were outdone by Northern Parulas (107), the first time that redstarts haven't been the most numerous warbler in a sizable flight.  Two Connecticut Warblers, including another close flyby, highlighted the warbler flight, but today also featured a season-high for Tennessee Warblers (12).  It is hard to fathom prior fall maxima for Tennessee Warbler at Higbee Beach: 250 (11 September 1988) and 120 (29 August 1982; The Birds of Cape May (Sibley 1997)); seasonal high counts for this species in the past decade have only crested 100 twice.

The day also featured the first Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Chipping Sparrow for the fall as well as a nice flight of Indigo Buntings (17).  However, the species highlight for the day was not one, but three, Summer Tanagers (season total = 4).  In fact, Summer Tanagers outnumbered Scarlet Tanagers - a true oddity.       

Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Northern Flicker - 32
Eastern Wood-Pewee - 1
Eastern Phoebe - 1
Eastern Kingbird - 4
Red-eyed Vireo - 30
Red-breasted Nuthatch - 41
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 4
American Robin - 23
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Cedar Waxwing - 526
Tennessee Warbler - 12
Nashville Warbler - 2
Northern Parula - 107
Yellow Warbler - 17
Magnolia Warbler - 5
Cape May Warbler - 5
Black-throated Blue Warbler - 19
Black-throated Green Warbler - 2
Blackburnian Warbler - 2
Pine Warbler -3
Palm Warbler - 42
Bay-breasted Warbler - 1
Blackpoll Warbler - 10
"Baypoll" Warbler - 2
Black-and-white Warbler - 24
American Redstart - 61
Worm-eating Warbler - 1
Northern Waterthrush - 20
Connecticut Warbler - 2
warbler sp. - 142
Scarlet Tanager - 2
Summer Tanager  - 3
Chipping Sparrow - 1
Indigo Bunting - 17
Dickcissel - 1
Bobolink - 135
Baltimore Oriole - 1

Total =1306

Adult male (with black auriculars) Black-and-white Warbler (Photo by Sam Galick)

Pine Warbler (Photo by Sam Galick)

Summer Tanager (1 of 3 today; photo by Sam Galick)

Ramsay Koury and I scoured Cape May Point looking for songbirds during the remainder of the day and were not disappointed.  We added four additional species post-Morning Flight (Blue-winged Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Prairie Warbler, and Common Yellowthroat) and managed 15 species (~170 individuals) between Cape May Point State Park and the vicinity of Lily Lake.  No Yellow-rumped Warblers or Ovenbirds could be found and Chestnut-sided Warbler (total = 1) and Black-throated Green Warbler (total = 2) were particularly scarce.  Surprisingly, we only found a single Blackpoll Warbler.  On-the-ground, the warblers were dominated (in decreasing abundance) by American Redstart, Yellow Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Palm Warbler, and Common Yellowthroat.