Hello all,
When I first went out the door yesterday morning, I was disappointed that the alleged cold front had not really changed the weather that much. It was still hot and humid, only about 6 degrees cooler (high and low) than before the front. As I expected, the day began slowly though I did find a FOY immature Chestnut-Sided at the back of my farm along with one other active mixed flock. But it seemed more like summer doldrums than a good fall migration day.
But then activity actually increased between 9:30 and 11 AM. Very odd. During this time I four different very active mixed feeding flocks. The highlight was a Blue-winged Warbler in the woods on Kinder Rd (southern tip of Caroline). This was a county bird (#213 as my Caroline list is the only one I can brag about) and only my second for the home list (the other was in 1993 when I first started birding). In all, I wound up with 8 warbler species - B&W (5), Prairie (2) and 1 ea Pine, Yellowthroat, Ovenbird and Redstart, plus the Blue-winged.
The other highlight was a fly-over Kingfisher, a first for the year. Kingfish is always an unknown. I usually get one each year, but can never predict when. At dusk, I scanned for Nighthawk, but had no luck. A total of 62 species was totally unexpected given the weather. It made my second-best August day to 65 species on 8/22/00 which had a strong cold front plus shorebirds.
Good Birding,
Glen Lovelace III
Seaford, DE |