Riding off the excitement of yesterday's flight, I was hoping for another big flight this morning. While overall numbers were down from yesterday, diversity was fantastic! Once again the flight was dominated by American Redstarts, which contributed 275 individuals to our overall total. Yellow Warblers were also fairly numerous with 56 northbound, and a handful of Northern Waterthrush and Black-and-White Warblers rounded out the more common Warbler migrants. We had a few notable single birds as well, including Canada (our 3rd of the season; a nice change from 2018 which had none), Prothonotary and Blue-winged Warbler.
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| Our third Canada Warbler of the season! Photo by Daniel Irons |
We had a handful of new arrivals today, including our first of season Baltimore Orioles and Scarlet Tanager. A couple Red-eyed Vireos dipped across the gap, and some Empidonax flycatchers gave brief views as they darted through the Phragmites on the Dike. Slightly more notable were three Great Crested Flycatchers. This species is scarce as an active migrant past the dike, and most years only get two or three. This morning was another good day for Gnatcatchers, with 65 total. We're well over 350 of these little blue puffballs for the season, it'll be interesting to see how many we end up with in September.
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| Baltimore Orioles made their first appearance this morning. Photo by Daniel Irons |
Rounding out the count today were Eastern Kingbird and Bobolink, both showing up in numbers once again. Massive swarms of Kingbirds can be a challenge to count, but there's nothing quite like watching hundreds of them swirl over the trees to the south. Numbers today were similar to yesterday, with about 180 total kingbirds. Bobolinks were less numerous than yesterday but still showed up, with about 50 total northbound birds.
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| Eastern Kingbirds put on quite a show this morning! Photo by Daniel Irons |
Tomorrow is looking like another solid day, with more northerly winds and a fantastic radar setup already.
See you in the field!
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