Morning Flight - 7 October 2012

The cold front remained true to its namesake and provided brisk morning temperatures, along with, unfortunately, rain.  What I thought was supposed to be primarily a rain-free morning, becoming rainy in the midday or early PM, ended up being steady rain at dawn with intermittent drizzles throughout the count.  Although my company largely cleared out due to the weather, the birds did not.  Yellow-rumped Warblers flew in good numbers, mostly sandwiched between bouts of rain.  In all, 2604 individuals of 14 warbler species were identified. 

However, the real story this morning were the finches.  After making a big deal about the 300-odd Pine Siskins that had already passed this fall, today's flight (1129, including a 655 bird hour) put those figures into perspective.  Jumbled swarms of siskins bounded northward this morning, including a group of ~170 individuals!  Today's figure alone is more than has been recorded in any prior season (2003-2011); in fact, today's passage nearly eclipsed the cumulative sum of Pine Siskins during the past nine years (1238)!  The 23 Purple Finches today was also a season high count.    

Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 3

Northern Flicker - 141
Eastern Phoebe - 1
Red-eyed Vireo - 2

Red-breasted Nuthatch - 82
Brown Creeper - 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 7
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 4

American Robin - 26
American Pipit - 16

Cedar Waxwing - 408
Tennessee Warbler - 3
Nashville Warbler - 4
Tennessee/Nashville Warbler - 6
Northern Parula - 23
Magnolia Warbler - 1
Cape May Warbler - 12
Black-throated Blue Warbler - 15

Yellow-rumped Warbler - 1717
Black-throated Green Warbler - 6
Pine Warbler - 2

Palm Warbler - 62
Blackpoll Warbler - 48

Black-and-white Warbler - 2
American Redstart - 4

Northern Waterthrush - 2

warbler sp. - 697
Scarlet Tanager - 2
Chipping Sparrow - 1
Savannah Sparrow - 5
Dark-eyed Junco - 1
Bobolink - 4
Purple Finch - 23

Pine Siskin - 1129

Total = 4473