Interpretive naturalist Jerald Reb was called up to the big leagues this morning! It was my regular day off, and since Tom Reed will be filling in for Erik Bruhnke this weekend (who is away at a birding festival), Jerald got to fill in for TR at Morning Flight! Jerald has been a notable help on some of the big flight days and an NFC aficionado for some time now, so he was fully prepared for the challenge. -- Andrew
Here's Jerald's commentary from the morning:
Today was a fun, albeit sometimes chaotic late-season morning at the Dike. With strong winds shifting to the east right at sunrise, the potential for any large passerine movement was effectively shut down. The smaller flight that resulted was disorganized, with no clear flight lines, which made for a somewhat challenging count. The passerines struggling past the dike this morning were low in both diversity and numbers, with three species (American Goldfinch, American Robin and Red-winged Blackbird) making up about 80% of the flight.
Despite poor songbird movement, the raptor and waterbird flights were interesting. 13 Northern Harriers were a nice treat, as was a single Red-shouldered Hawk.
The bay was filled with Scoters, many either on the water or too far out to count. 8 Lesser Scaup were nice to see, tucked into the last Scoter flock before the end of the count period. Bonaparte’s Gulls were moving south en masse, with 121 tallied throughout the count. The largest single flock of Bonaparte’s contained 72 individuals.
The forecast for tomorrow is looking great, with northwest winds overnight and continuing all day. Here’s hoping some more winter finches make it down!
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!
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