Morning Flight – 4 September 2014

Once again T. Reed reported a good flight over the hawkwatch but it wasn't to be a sunrise thing at Morning Flight today... or was it, sorta. Early on, I gave it a "sorta", but then a surge started at 45 minutes after sunrise and lasted into the third hour with almost 400 warblers and good diversity being counted. 1,724 out of 2351 birds tallied were southbound Bobolinks.

Soon after official dawn, at 6:31, Bobolink and warbler flight calls could be heard high overhead. BOBOs were headed south, but also were the warblers. Who knows how many could have slipped through undetected? I estimate that many of these early first hour birds flew over us at 1000 feet or more. While this hard-to-detect southbound flight seemed to diminish and die out the small swarm of 'neotrop' numbers and diversity headed our way. With the very low wind I though that the northbound flight could happen all over the place, but it looked mostly contained to the area around the dike. The all-around the diversity of flycatchers, vireos, and warblers was very good with highlights like Olive-sided Flycatcher, Warbling and Philadelphia Vireo, Ovenbird, Worm-eating, Tennessee, Bay-breasted, Blackburnian, Palm, and Wilson's Warbler. A Buff-breasted Sandpiper flew very high to the northwest after an equally altitudinous juvenile and parent pair of Caspian Terns drove toward the bay.

       Weather and time: sunny and humid; 66–82 ºF; winds calm, variable or ESE at 1-2 mph; 25% cloud cover H1-H2 0% cc H3-H4; very good visibility; 0631 sunrise; 4.25 hours.
   
       Morning Flight Count totals: 

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris)  5
Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)  1
Eastern Wood-Pewee (Contopus virens)  1
Empidonax sp. (Empidonax sp.)  1
Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus)  57     25 north, 32 south
Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus)  1
Philadelphia Vireo (Vireo philadelphicus)  1
Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus)  4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea)  2
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)  57
Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)  99
Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla)  1
Worm-eating Warbler (Helmitheros vermivorum)  2
Northern Waterthrush (Parkesia noveboracensis)  28
Black-and-white Warbler (Mniotilta varia)  12
Tennessee Warbler (Oreothlypis peregrina)  2
American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla)  234
Cape May Warbler (Setophaga tigrina)  3
Northern Parula (Setophaga americana)  26
Magnolia Warbler (Setophaga magnolia)  6
Bay-breasted Warbler (Setophaga castanea)  2
Blackburnian Warbler (Setophaga fusca)  2
Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia)  8
Chestnut-sided Warbler (Setophaga pensylvanica)  2
Blackpoll Warbler (Setophaga striata)  4
Bay-breasted/Blackpoll Warbler (Setophaga castanea/striata)  3
Black-throated Blue Warbler (Setophaga caerulescens)  14
Palm Warbler (Setophaga palmarum)  2
Prairie Warbler (Setophaga discolor)  1
Black-throated Green Warbler (Setophaga virens)  2
Wilson's Warbler (Cardellina pusilla)  2
warbler sp. (Parulinae sp.)  61     26 north, 35 south
Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea)  2
Blue Grosbeak (Passerina caerulea)  1
Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea)  3
Dickcissel (Spiza americana)  1
Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus)  1731     7 north, 1724 south
Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula)  1
House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus)  39

Today's full list can be viewed at: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S19715359

Continue below the photos for today's hourly breakdown.

The bird with the impossibly green-colored back (Chestnut-sided Warbler) says roll the tape on today's flight shots of American Redstart and Black-and-white Warbler. This bird also says "ziiih". 

(Photos by: Glen Davis)

The following data show only north for EAKI and warbler sp. and only south for BOBO. Also note that it is out of taxonomic order.

Species -15 H1 H2 H3 H4 Total Ruby-throated Hummingbird 3 2 5 Downy Woodpecker 1 1 Eastern Wood-Pewee 1 1 Empidonax sp. 1 1 Eastern Kingbird 15 3 7 25 Warbling Vireo 1 1 Philadelphia Vireo 1 1 Red-eyed Vireo 1 1 2 4 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2 2 Cedar Waxwing 75 18 6 99 Tennessee Warbler 1 1 2 Northern Parula 3 10 13 26 Yellow Warbler 4 4 8 Chestnut-sided Warbler 1 1 2 Magnolia Warbler 2 3 1 6 Cape May Warbler 1 2 3 Black-throated Blue Warbler 1 4 8 1 14 Black-throated Green Warbler 1 1 2 Blackburnian Warbler 1 1 2 Prairie Warbler 1 1 Palm Warbler 1 1 2 Bay-breasted Warbler 1 1 2 Blackpoll Warbler 3 1 4 "Baypoll" warbler 2 1 3 Black-and-white Warbler 2 6 4 1 13 American Redstart 5 38 116 66 9 234 Worm-eating Warbler 1 1 2 Ovenbird 1 1 Northern Waterthrush 1 7 13 6 1 28 Wilson's Warbler 1 1 2 warbler sp. 12 10 4 26 Scarlet Tanager 1 1 2 Blue Grosbeak 1 1 Indigo Bunting 2 1 3 Dickcissel 1 1 Bobolink 595 974 112 43 1724 Baltimore Oriole  1 1 European Starling 12 8 25 12 57 House Finch 4 16 13 6 39 Total 7 778 1204 286 76 2351