View from the Field: Morning Flight

The second highest count at Morning Flight so far was a surprise this morning! Bobolinks put in a fantastic show- all flying south directly overhead. At one point Mike Crewe said, "hey, what's that black one?" Thinking it was a still alternate Bobolink, I snapped a few photos of it and through my viewfinder I swore I saw white wing patches. I mentioned it but we got distracted with other things and I couldn't review the photos well with the bright sun on the screen. Looking at the them at home now, it appears I photographed a Yellow-headed Blackbird!

When I was leaving I almost stepped on something bright and red moving about on the ground- oh cool, a velvet ant!! The Mutillidae family is comprised of thousands of hairy ant-imitating wasps, in the field you could easily see it's antenna pulsing like other wasps' typical behavior. It crawled into the ground and thankfully after poking the hole like a chimp with a phragmite I was able to pull it out and photograph it before it went back into another hole.

The winds started out slightly from the SW but then continued westward and by the time I ended the count, it started switching to the NW- good migration conditions to come tomorrow morning! I have a feeling tomorrow will be a big day, perhaps the biggest of the season so far! If you have the time get out and about tomorrow, it'll be interesting for sure!! Maybe I'll see a few of you in the morning on the dike!

73° F
SW @ 0-5 MPH
Muggy conditions

Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 3
Eastern Kingbird - 2
Red-eyed Vireo - 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 1
American Robin - 1
Cedar Waxwing - 6
Tennessee Warbler - 1
Yellow Warbler - 9
Chestnut-sided Warbler - 4
Magnolia Warbler - 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler - 1
Prairie Warbler - 1
Blackpoll Warbler - 1
Black-and-white Warbler - 5
American Redstart - 94
Northern Waterthrush - 10
warbler sp. - 37
Chipping Sparrow - 1
Blue Grosbeak - 1
Bobolink - 1,379
Baltimore Oriole - 1
Yellow-headed Blackbird - 1

Total: 1,564