As radar indicated, last night a small push of migrants were on the move. The Cape May Point State Park had a decent dawn showing of warblers with 150-200 estimated by Tom Johnson. The Higbee dike, however, did not have this number of moving or recently arrived songbirds. Perhaps it's that the majority of the birds moving were accomplishing their feats of mass relocation with great success. It's possible that only the birds in the more open habitats near the beaches were spurred on to a Morning Flight activity. The southwest tip of the Cape May peninsula lies by the State Park. It marks the end of the road if crossing water, especially in the daytime, isn't your thing. Higbee Beach WMA lies a couple miles to the north of this tip. How can songbird behavior at sunrise be so different at the same time in two only closely separated locations. We have a lot to explore on this topic!
Weather and time: light rain at sunrise and afterwards cloudy; 62-61 ºF; winds SE at 3 mph; 85% cloud cover; excellent visibility; 0654 sunrise; 2.25 hours.
Morning Flight Count totals:
Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) 1
Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus) 169 south
Northern Waterthrush (Parkesia noveboracensis) 7
Black-and-white Warbler (Mniotilta varia) 1
American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla) 1
Northern Parula (Setophaga americana) 2
Blackpoll Warbler (Setophaga striata) 23
Palm Warbler (Setophaga palmarum) 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata) 1
warbler sp. (Parulinae sp.) 7
Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) 1
Today's full list can be viewed at: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S19992000
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