Perhaps the greatest mystery remaining in field ornithology is what nocturnal migration physically looks like in the moment, something that captures the imagination of birders across the globe. I feel like I got a glimpse of what that spectacle must look like this morning, as a stupendous “onward” migration occurred across Cape May this morning.
The radar was boldly illuminated along New Jersey, Long Island, and New England last night, but the winds were light out of the south. Presumably, the birds that had been pushed to the coast by the prior night’s cold front and WNW winds, full of migratory restlessness, were now moving en masse along the coast despite the light headwind.
Before sunrise, my curiously eager expectations and I were greeted by clear orange skies and scattered flight calls. Soon, high American Robins began streaming south overhead towards the point (remember, birds tend to fly into the wind at Morning Flight). Yellow-rumpeds joined them in short order. This soon became layers upon layers of birds spread out across a broad front from the shoreline to the far eastern treeline. The laser calls of Pine Siskin, the drips of Purple Finches, and the twitter of American Goldfinches punctuated the chorus of robins chuckling and Yellow-rump chip-sipping, although it was exceedingly difficult to pick out the finch flocks in the organized chaos of a massive morning flight.
To beautifully complicate matters, flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds and Brown-headed Cowbirds began pouring by in fast-flying pulses, accompanied by group of Cedar Waxwings bouncing and shimmering their way south (2,600, 505, and 678 for the day, respectively). A harsh gurgle overhead alerted me to the first Rusty Blackbird of the morning, and soon, relatively distinct groups were headed south! We had seen worryingly few this October despite good weather, so this was a welcome surprise. We ended with 226 south, a great showing given their uncommon and declining status.
It was at this point in the morning that I was officially overwhelmed, as I picked up on a large line of Yellow-rumps and finches out *over the Delaware Bay,* some low but many high, streaming south. I was forced to abandon the hordes of robins, Yellow-rumps, and who-knows-what-else to the east in order to focus my full attention on the western line, which was overwhelming enough in its own right. The multi-layered menagerie made it extremely difficult to count by large numbers, so I continued clicking Yellow-rumped Warblers and American Robins by 5s (somehow, my thumb is still attached to my hand).
My forcibly brief and understated text of “Need some help at MF” from shortly after the count commenced was once again answered by Brett Ewald, our program director (who I think appreciates any chance to leave the office). He heroically picked up the eastern line, rescuing the totals for American Robin and Yellow-rumped Warbler.
A continuous trickle of Northern Flickers provided a continuous backdrop to the day, and a few even joined the line of Yellow-rumps out over the Delaware Bay! That may have been a new maximum distance record on flicker identification for me. The supreme highlight of from this line were three EVENING GROSBEAKS headed south along the dune line/just over the water, followed by another three somewhat later on. This is an entirely new species for the Morning Flight count, since the only prior Evening Grosbeak irruption to occur in the history of the official count was in 2012, but those birds pretty much did not arrive in Cape May until November, after the official count had ended. While exciting, the looks I got left something in the way of documentation to be desired, so here’s hoping for some closer ones during the extended count period in November!
We had 13 heard-only southbound Eastern Bluebirds, which are an uncommon (but awesome) species to see visibly migrating. That fact is a good reminder that with no cloud ceiling to speak of, there were likely many birds we missed up in the blue ether as they stayed high on the headwind! A southbound Hermit Thrush late in the morning was the third Turdidae representative in morning flight today, quite the respectable number for Cape May.
*Phew,* what a flight it was. We ended the day with 14,758 American Robins and 26,817 Yellow-rumped Warblers. Although these still aren't *mega* flight numbers, the sustained breadth of abundance and diversity, loosely organized in Charlie Harper-esque fashion, astounded the vizmig veterans of Cape May, who are always a reliable barometer of awe. I should note that both of these species totals are provisional, since I will have to go back and do a little bit of proportion-based extrapolation for the hour that I wasn't able to do anything with the east line, in order to get the totals somewhat closer to the real magnitude that actually passed by the count.
And so we close the books on an incredible, multiple record-breaking October, full of cold fronts, NW winds, a strong boreal flavor, and somewhere around 270,000 total birds counted. The final day of October perfectly encapsulated the essence of morning flight in so many ways; it was the kind of day that forces you to surrender to the awesome spectacle of migration, ignites your passion and your imagination, and reminds you what is known, unknown, and what demands to be conserved in their rightful place on the planet. Here’s to the extended count period into November! May finches and blackbirds continue to be plentiful. Regardless of what happens, it will be novel, informative data!
As always, you can find our official count totals on Trektellen here, and our complete eBird checklist of the day’s observations here. I will add photos to this blog entry once I get some sleep (it's 12:45 AM) and some time to edit them!
Bring on the next day!
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