Morning Flight - August 3-4, 2019

The past two mornings have featured very little in the way of active migration due to poor winds. Hopefully that will change in the near future, but in the meantime at least we have plenty of Yellow Warblers to keep us company! Their buzzy "zeep" calls are certainly one of the most iconic sounds of early fall migration.

Yellow Warblers are still our most numerous migrant by far

Diversity is slowly increasing; yesterday we added our first Prothonotary Warbler of the season, and American Redstarts are a daily occurrence in small numbers. Both Waterthrushes are also trickling through, but it won't be long now until the floodgates are opened and Northern becomes one of our most common migrants! Bobolink and Eastern Kingbird will also be coming through in much larger numbers in just a few short weeks.

Our first photographed American Redstart of the fall! There's a couple thousand more where that came from!

While migrant songbirds are slowly picking up, there are still plenty of locals to enjoy! This morning a Yellow-billed Cuckoo (certainly one of my favorite birds) sang for a solid ten minutes from the woods below the Dike. Indigo Buntings sing their cheerful songs from seemingly every other reed, and Swallows of various species continue to feed on the plentiful insects. 

Beautiful Indigo Buntings are abundant in the Phrag surrounding the Dike

With south winds predicted for the next few days we'll probably have a few more low-density days before any sort of larger movement, but they're coming for sure! Fingers crossed that the NW winds forecast for next weekend make it through!

See you in the field!

Jerald Reb