When I made trek to the top of the dike this morning, I was immediately met by a worrying sign: no wind and the circling of thirsty mosquitos. If anyone needed confirmation that the birding gods are capricious and fickle, this was it. Had the forecasted coldfront died on the doorstep? Birds were up on the radar last night, but had the winds done enough to push them here? For new readers of this blog, stronger NW winds => more drift for nocturnal migrants => more abundance and diversity migrants engaging in northbound “re-oriented” morning flight (along the Atlantic Coast in fall, at least). In fact, the paper that demonstrated this effect used data from the Morning Flight Songbird Count right here in Cape May!
That clearly wasn't the case this morning. Redstarts were a trickle compared to yesterday’s morning flight, and Yellow Warblers went both directions in what seemed more like localized movement than any real sort of migration. Despite the lower abundance than expected, we managed to have a fairly diverse early season flight, with the first official Cerulean Warbler and Dickcissel of the count, a few of Black-and-White Warblers giving their hissy flight calls, an Ovenbird, and a good showing from both waterthrushes, with 11 Northerns, 2 Louisianas, and 4 “waterthrush spuhs.” This fresh diversity means we had some new arrivals, but the abundance component was missing. Had there been a great morning flight somewhere else in southern NJ, Delaware, or Maryland? That sort of insight will require more birders out in the field searching for visible migration.
Although today didn’t turn out how we expected, the added diversity was a welcome sight, and as always, the morning presented a great lesson on visible migration and in-flight identification, both of which can always be honed. Such are the trials and tribulations of monitoring migration. Nothing lost, nothing learned I suppose!
As always, you can find the link to the official count on Trektellen here and the complete eBird checklist here. Photos from the morning below!
Bring on Day 11!
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| Dickcissel: owner of the most elegant flight call. |
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| Not a Lark Sparrow: this exceptionally pale Carolina Wren has been hanging out on the dike lately. |
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