Morning Flight - Sunday, August 26, 2018

Today I had the pleasure of being joined on the dike today by the full seasonal crew of counters and interpretive naturalists for the fall, who are just getting ready to start their season. I’ve been waiting eagerly for them to arrive for a whole month now! The warm temps and southwest winds made for a slow flight, but the big perk of a day like that is it can be a great learning opportunity since you have more of a chance to focus on individuals as opposed to being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers and diversity of abundance of a big flight day. A good first experience for the enthusiastic interpretive naturalists!

Starting September 1st, there will be an interpretive naturalist stationed at the observation platform each morning to greet visitors, introduce them to the awesome spectacle that is morning flight in Cape May, and assist with identifications. They’re a fabulous resource (especially for beginners), so please, take advantage of their presence!

As for the birds we watched together, we had a brief burst of 353 southbound Barn Swallows, a southbound Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and our first-of-the-season Northern Parula and Scarlet Tanager! Northern Parulas are one of my favorite warblers, and they’re among the more obvious species we see past Higbee. In addition to having a distinctive color pattern and uniquely downward “seep” call, they have a notably squat and short-tailed look relative to other warblers, which contrasts especially sharply with sleek and slender redstarts. They are one of the more abundant warblers of the count too, so I look forward to seeing more of them soon!

Barn Swallows continue to provide an entertaining spectacle. 

The rest of the week is looking toasty warm with southwest winds until Friday, when scattered thunderstorms throughout the area will at least lower temperatures and hopefully trigger some migration.

There's always things beyond birds moving past the dike too.
I bet songbirds wish they were toxic to predators. 

As always, you can find the link to the official count on Trektellen here and the complete eBird checklist here.

Bring on Day 27!