[Maine-birds] Beal’s Island Morning Flight, 8/28

Hi all,

On vacation for the week here in Washington County, I finally had the chance to check out the morning flight at the bridge between Beal's Island and the Jonesport mainland this morning. I was stationed in the south end, on Beal's, but bridge construction has eliminated most of the adjacent vegetation save for a few isolated spruces. With near-calm conditions, few birds were landing, and those that did were in tall spruces about 100 yards to the west- too far to identify most species. Otherwise, birds were usually quite high, and construction noise (especially when the jackhammer started) impacted my ability to sort through flight calls.  

Therefore, I counted warblers on a clicker and mostly estimated abundance. The volume of Red-breasted Nuthatches, however, was quite significant and is further evidence of a major irruption underway - which usually portends a good "winter finch" season.

5:50-8:30am

42F, clear, calm to vy lt NW to vy lt SW

-527 warblers of 9 species. Approximately 60-70% American Redstarts and 10-20% Northern Parulas. (Other species in very rough order of abundance: Yellow-rumped, Yellow, Magnolia, Black-throated Green, Cape May, Black-throated Blue, 

• Non-warblers:

84 Cedar Waxwings

73 Red-breasted Nuthatches**

8 Tree Swallows

5 Purple Finches

4 Eastern Kingbirds

2 Common Loons

2 American Goldfinches

1 Merlin

1 Least Flycatcher

1 Philadelphia Vireo

1 Red-eyed Vireo

1 Pine Siskin

T=710

-Derek

Sent from my iPhone