Morning Flight - 22 August 2013

Today's flight was, well, non-existent. A light shower predawn with intermittent drizzle during the count did not produce any sort of passerine movement. While there wasn't a flight, I was able to appreciate and be entertained by the meteorological events in front of me that I cherished as a kid growing up watching John Bolaris on NBC 10 out of Philadelphia (I once wanted to be a meteorologist just like him before I really got into birding!). Through a brief break in the clouds the sun produced a magnificent rainbow with the first ferry in the foreground bound for Delaware. That quickly faded as the sun rose and hid behind the clouds, but it was very nice to live in the moment of the 3-4 minutes it was there. The clouds were fantastic and ever-changing throughout the morning.

I'm very excited for this coming weekend, particularly Saturday which if the forecast stays true, could produce and excellent flight at the dike. The current forecast are for the winds to go NW by 10AM tomorrow morning, switch to N then NNE by dawn which can produce a huge flight. Coupled with the fact that we haven't really had a good movement in several days, this could be a big one (dare I say/want 1k+ American Redstarts on Saturday?!).

But for now... here are the mega totals from today! ;-)

72° F
W @ 5-10 MPH
Muggy conditions with drizzle

Total: 0...zip. zlich. zoo da.

Good structural characteristics of a Northern Waterthrush(left) and an American Redstart(right).
The Northern Waterthrush is heavy chested, broad tailed, and generally stocky. While the American Redstart is more streamlined, with a proportionally longer tail, and a bit smaller in overall size. Of course, being the bigger bird the Waterthrush bullies and chases the Redstart back into the bush dashing any of my hopes in counting at least one bird in Morning Flight today.