Today was the North American Migration Count. I was at work and ready to go on the walk by 8 am. We had a pretty exciting day full of waders, warblers, and shorebirds. We saw a total of 540 birds, 54 species in all. My normal weekly counts afford me around 30 species but the NAMC takes 3 hours to my normal 1 hour walk. The highlights for me were definitely the warblers. Fall coloration proved to be a little tricky on a couple but we had 6 warbler species in total, which is 6 more than we had two weeks ago. I guess migration is offically open for business. This means I will be taking all my lunch breaks on the board walk for the next few weeks. My 3 lifers of the day were: Chestnut-sided Warbler, Cape May Warbler, and Red-eyed Vireo. We also had a few more interesting birds for Green Cay including Prothonatory Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, and Least Sandpiper. My Chestnut-sided Warbler looked like the first year bird you see in the picture.
15 September 2007
NAMC
Today was the North American Migration Count. I was at work and ready to go on the walk by 8 am. We had a pretty exciting day full of waders, warblers, and shorebirds. We saw a total of 540 birds, 54 species in all. My normal weekly counts afford me around 30 species but the NAMC takes 3 hours to my normal 1 hour walk. The highlights for me were definitely the warblers. Fall coloration proved to be a little tricky on a couple but we had 6 warbler species in total, which is 6 more than we had two weeks ago. I guess migration is offically open for business. This means I will be taking all my lunch breaks on the board walk for the next few weeks. My 3 lifers of the day were: Chestnut-sided Warbler, Cape May Warbler, and Red-eyed Vireo. We also had a few more interesting birds for Green Cay including Prothonatory Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, and Least Sandpiper. My Chestnut-sided Warbler looked like the first year bird you see in the picture.
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Sounds like a good day! Cool lifers. We didn't see any warblers... we heard a lot of white-eyed vireos and saw a couple gnatcatchers, but that was it for small tree birds. We saw a couple of vulture roosts in the morning, and saw >150 of each type... still not as many vultures as cattle egrets though!
They don't call them confusing fall warblers for nothing. Since I'm in south Florida, I am waiting for the gnatcatchers and catbirds to return. That will mean that fall is on the way.
We go to Merritt Island in the fall and see all sorts of migrating flocks. It's a great place to see great things.
I have kept a bird diary for a long long time. I list when certain migratory birds arrive each year. It's amazing how close those dates are year after year. I can come within a week or two of knowing when each species will arrive.
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