Morning Flight - Thursday, October 4, 2018


They're heeeeeeeeere!!! We had our first multi-hundred Yellow-rumped Warbler day this morning as at least 242 of them flew south past the dike. They were moving right across and above the observation platform on light southeast winds and relatively muggy temperatures. That's just about what everything else was doing this morning too, including the kestrels lifting off from the trees this morning after arriving on yesterday's big day at the HawkWatch.

Blackpoll Warblers continued to move in force but were barely edged out for top billing (228 southbound). Tomorrow's frontal action and NE winds should be really interesting for them! Overall diversity and abundance in the warbler flight was on the low end, but man, what a spectacle to see Yellow-rumps and Blackpolls moving in those numbers. It's certainly plenty to count!


Although we "only" had 77 Northern Flickers this morning, 218 Blue Jays took advantage of the conditions to move south onto the island. But after all of this, arguably the rarest bird of the morning was an *actively migrating* southbound Tufted Titmouse!! That's certainly not something you see every day.

As always, you can find our official count totals on Trektellen here, and our complete eBird checklist of the day’s observations here.


Bring on the next day!

No comments:

Post a Comment