With the winds still out of the southwest and the heat index climbing for the past few days, expectations for today’s flight were once again low. But birds and birding are always full of surprises! Although not abundant by any means, there was some nice diversity in today’s flight.
A good movement of Bobolinks (233 south) constituted most of the abundance this morning. The diversity side of things was highlighted by a cooperative Dickcissel, a few Cape May Warblers, a Yellow-rumped Warbler (small numbers pass through in an early window before the big arrival later on), and the first Black-throated Blue Warbler of the season. Flight calls of warblers and other songbirds are rightly considered the toughest earbirding challenge in North America, but if you want to learn your first warbler flight call, Black-throated Blue is a good one to start with! They give a “chip” that’s very different from the “seeps” and “zeeps” other warblers, and they tend to call several times in a row. With that in mind, I should point out that the classic Evans & O'Brien Flight Call CDRom material is freely accessible online at this link. It’s a fabulous resource!
As always, you can find the link to the official count on Trektellen here and the complete eBird checklist here. More photos can be found below and in the eBird checklist.
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