As others have noted -- today there was a major fallout of migrants -- the best I've seen locally in many years.
I was first alerted to the action by an early morning text from my newest neighbor, Jy McGowan -- thanks Jay! For about an hour starting at 6:30 AM, waves of migrants, including many singing warblers, were moving through the trees on our block, feeding in flowering crab-apples, newly leafing oaks and locusts, and spruces -- many were low and gave excellent views. With some help from Jay, who came and went from other birding spots, I counted roughly 50 warblers of 17 species, with highlights being 2 CANADA, 1 singing MOURNING, 3 BLACK-THROATED BLUE, 4 BLACKBURNIAN, 10 MAGNOLIA, 3 BAY-BREAST, 2 CAPE MAY, and 15 TENNESSEE WARBLERS. A female NORTHERN PARULA, a female YELLOW, and a NASHVILLE were new yard birds for me as well. I also saw a PHILADELPHIA VIREO, and another late-migrant BLUE-HEADED VIREO, 2 WHITE-CROWNED and 1 LINCOLN'S SPARROW (Jay had 2), 2 INDIGO BUNTINGS, and at least 5 SWAINSON'S THRUSHES, some of them singing. (At 1 PM, I can still hear singing Bay-breasted, Magnolia, Chestnut-sided, Redstart, and Swainson's Thrush around my yard, and a White-crowned Sparrow is under the feeder) With all this activity, I took a swing around behind the Ithaca airport (my "eBird patch") and had lots of migrants there too, but not as concentrated -- highlights were many singing BLACKPOLL WARBLERS, 1 MOURNING, 1 CANADA, 1 WILSON'S, 3 NORTHERN PARULA, 2 more PHILADELPHIA VIREOS (has Mark come up with a poetic description for their perfect yellow wash?), 1 ALDER and 1 WILLOW FLYCATCHER, and some newly arrived BOBOLINKS (still no Grasshopper Sparrow). The day is young! KEN Ken Rosenberg Director of Conservation Science Cornell Lab of Ornithology 607-254-2412 607-342-4594 (cell) [email protected] -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
