Great Flight at Sandy Point - Thursday morning 6:40 to 8:45

[Becky Marvil]

Lots of birds correcting back to the mainland from Cousins Island this morning after the W then NW winds overnight.  I focused mostly on birds in the trees by the bridge and occasionally looked up to see droves of birds flying overhead (estimating 500+ unidentified warbler types).  In small trees, there would be 10+ in waves that I could see (meaning there were probably twice that many) only a few feet away from where I stood.  John Lawrence joined me for a while, and Stella viewed the birds from the parking lot. 

 

Derek, I don't know how you keep track of all those birds! Missed having you there!

 

Here are my best estimates:

 

30 Mallard

25 Common Eider

40 Double-crested Cormorant

1 Great Blue Heron

4 Snowy Egret

4 Laughing Gull

6 Ring-billed Gull

30 Herring Gull

3 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)

1 Belted Kingfisher

1 Downy Woodpecker

1 Hairy Woodpecker

4 Northern Flicker

1 Merlin -- Watched it flying over water trying to catch migrants. Hit a few and continued the chase down to the water, but the prey got away, barely. I think it was a redstart.

2 Eastern Phoebe

9 Blue-headed Vireo

17 Red-eyed Vireo

4 Blue Jay

30 American Crow

29 Black-capped Chickadee

4 Tufted Titmouse

18 Red-breasted Nuthatch

8 Ruby-crowned Kinglet

1 Swainson's Thrush -- Stella saw

2 American Robin

6 Gray Catbird

5 European Starling

6 Black-and-white Warbler

24 American Redstart

46 Northern Parula -- Many littering the tree by the bridge. Came in waves of 5-10 at a time.

1 Magnolia Warbler

1 Blackburnian Warbler

15 Yellow Warbler -- Seen from bridge in trees and bushes, one or two at a time mixed with other warblers.

8 Blackpoll Warbler

6 Black-throated Green Warbler

2 Wilson's Warbler

500 warbler sp. (Parulidae sp.) -- My best guess of all small birds flying over toward mainland. Warblers mostly, but probably vireos and kinglets, etc too.

1 Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)

12 White-throated Sparrow

1 Song Sparrow

1 Lincoln's Sparrow

1 Scarlet Tanager

3 American Goldfinch

 

Number of Taxa: 43

 

 

-Becky Marvil

Yarmouth