There was a decent Blue Jay flight over my house this morning along the north shore of Oneida Lake. I made it outside by 6:45 am to 50 degrees, clear skies and light north winds. There was an obvious fog bank over the lake that slowly expanded itself throughout the morning, but eventually cleared out by 9:00 or so. The fog made it sometimes easier and sometimes harder to see the birds that were moving. Sunrise was at 6:52 and the first migrant Blue Jay passed at 7:01. By the time I went inside at 10:22, I had counted 2,339 Jays. Breaking the count down to hours after sunrise, I had:
401 Blue Jays in the first hour (6:52 to 7:52) 214 the second hour (7:52 to 8:52) 1407 the third hour (8:52 to 9:52) 317 in the next half hour, ending at 10:22. I should note that the fog bank was busy expanding itself during the second hour and I am assuming the low Blue Jay total during this time was a direct result. Here is a list of other birds that appeared to be migrating this morning: Black-capped Chickadee - 23 White-breasted Nuthatch - 8 Red-breasted Nuthatch - 10 Northern Flicker - 2 Red-bellied Woodpecker - 2 Scarlet Tanager - 2 Cedar Waxwing - 18 Rose-breasted Grosbeak - 1 American Robin - 5 Blackburnian Warbler - 1 Tennessee Warbler - 1 Magnolia Warbler - 1 Turkey Vulture - 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk - 3 Monarch - 7 A few other notable birds from this morning: 1 local juvenile Bald Eagle that was flying very low up the road from Oneida Lake, but made a quick U-turn when I believe it saw me standing in my driveway 1 Common Raven 2 Merlin - I believe this is the pair that nested across the street from my house. I hadn't seen them since the end of July, and I thought they had moved on. They were both calling and chasing each other around. If it wasn't September, I would think that they were getting ready to breed again. Mickey Scilingo Constantia, Oswego County [email protected] 315-679-6299 -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
