Once again, I must apologize for the lack of recent posts; the past week has been very quiet, with nothing notable to blog about. The tide is shifting now though, with a fresh cold front rolling in tonight, so here's hoping for plenty of busy mornings to come!
Winds were somewhat northerly last night, though a bit more out of the east than I would have liked. The potential existed for a decent flight, but I wasn't sure if the birds would follow through. Fortunately they did, and today was the best morning of the season so far! The first half hour was relatively slow, with just a handful of Yellow Warblers and Northern Waterthrush, but things kicked into high gear about twenty minutes after sunrise. A calling Upland Sandpiper flew by at close range around 6:45, and the Warblers weren't far behind!
Over the course of the morning we counted over 650 northbound American Redstarts, with some striking adult males mixed in among the more subtly beautiful female types. While Redstarts were the stars of the show for sure, Yellow Warblers also showed up with a total of 46 counted. Mixed in with the big two species were a few less common Warblers, the most notable being singles of Worm-eating (our third for the season) and Canada.
Diurnal migrants are moving through in large numbers now, and we had flocks of both Eastern Kingbird and Bobolink numbering in the hundreds. The Warblers will always be my favorite morning flight species, but there's nothing quite like the spectacle of a Kingbird flock swarming over the forest!
More north winds are forecast tonight, this time with a solid cold front. Looking forward to another hopefully fantastic morning tomorrow!
See you in the field!
Jerald Reb
No comments:
Post a Comment