Morning Flight - Monday, September 3, 2018



Despite the hot and humid conditions, we had a surprising number of American Redstarts this morning with 50 northbound individuals. With the arrival of September, it's apparent that diversity is trickling through even on slow days, even if abundance is lacking. Northern Waterthrush, Northern Parula, Chestnut-sided, Blackburnian, Black-throated Blue, Yellow, Black-and-white and Prairie Warblers were all tallied moving past the dike today. There were even a few Common Yellowthroats inching north through the Phragmites (which appears to be as close as they get to morning flight behavior).

Not the greatest photo, but look-- it's calling! 

In the "oddball" section two juvenile Red-bellied Woodpeckers and a single Hairy Woodpecker bounded south past the dike. With the wonderful exception of Northern Flickers, migrant woodpeckers are scarce around Cape May in the fall.


The Delaware Bay: not your average backdrop for a Hairy Woodpecker view!

Better woodpecker coverage courtesy of Tom Johnson.
Better woodpecker coverage courtesy of Tom Johnson. 
Tomorrow's forecast of light westerly winds and clear skies will hopefully bring about a fun flight, but we'll just have to see! As always, you can find the link to the official count on Trektellen here and the complete eBird checklist here.

Bring on Day 35!

A Snowberry Clearwing sipping from Japanese Honeysuckle.
Quite a few other flying organisms can be found on the dike! 
Don't worry-- the juvie kingbird caught a different moth.


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