Morning Flight - 19 August 2013

This morning was surprisingly awesome given the current run of less than ideal migration conditions! A nice slug of American Redstarts made up a majority of the flight, while Yellow Warblers came in second. Eleven species of warbler were tallied with first of the season Cape May Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, and Golden-winged Warbler!!! for the dike. I was lucky enough to have my camera on the right bird at the time and was able to capture it in flight! We all were very surprised and happy with our fortune.

A Yellow-bellied Flycatcher paused briefly in the cherry tree before ducking back down into the trees at the bottom of the dike. Laughing Gulls continue to pirate unsuspecting cicada killer wasps of their prey, leaving one to question whether they garner sustenance from them or perhaps get some sort of higher mental state from the neurotoxin pumped into the food from the cicada killer's stinger... oh the things you ponder on slower days...

66° F
WSW @ 0-5 MPH
Clear conditions

Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 6
Eastern Kingbird - 11
Red-eyed Vireo - 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 17
American Robin - 3
Cedar Waxwing - 10
Yellow Warbler - 45
Chestnut-sided Warbler - 1
Cape May Warbler - 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler - 1
Blackburnian Warbler - 1
Prairie Warbler - 1
"Baypoll" Warbler - 1
American Redstart - 125
Worm-eating Warbler - 1
Northern Waterthrush - 15
warbler sp. - 16
Scarlet Tanager - 1
Blue Grosbeak -1
Bobolink - 4
Golden-winged Warbler - 1
Orchard Oriole - 1

Total: 264

A full eBird checklist is here: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14957975

You never know what another day will bring in Cape May- as I was stepping out of the car I said to myself, "something interesting is going to happen today..." I was not disappointment!

Chestnut-sided Warbler giving chase to a Black-and-white Warbler

Male Golden-winged Warbler in flight- A very rare photograph if there are any in existence. 

Black-and-white Warbler in flight