It was a relatively “tranquil” morning up on the dike today, as our Hawk Counter Erik Bruhnke might say. Another day of warm south winds produced another scattered flight with not much to show for abundance or diversity of migrants. At least there were shorebirds on the dike pool and coursing swallows overhead to keep me company! Best to appreciate them in the moment while they’re here because although it doesn’t feel like it, winter is coming.
Although today was on the slow side, it did feature a Prairie Warbler as well as the first Black-throated Green Warbler and Hooded Warbler of the fall season. Hooded is another one of those southern breeding songbirds that breed in the northern part of Cape May County but we don’t see all that much of in morning flight. They aren’t even recorded annually, and the all-time daily high count is one! Hopefully we can change that in this early count period experiment of ours.
Perhaps Hooded Warbler’s above-average levels of skulky behavior for a New World warbler makes them less likely to engage in morning flight? Morning flight is a spectacle ultimately rooted in migratory behavior after all, so differences in migratory behavior should mean differences in morning flight. With any luck, we’ll get a few more before they all depart for Central America and the Caribbean. We still have our eyes gleefully trained towards Thursday and Friday when a nice cold front is expected to roll through.
As always, you can find the link to the official count on Trektellen here and the complete eBird checklist here. More photos from today below!
Bring on Day 7!
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| Warblers in “torpedo mode” will never get old. |
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| A juvie starling begins to sport some flashes of color. |
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