Observations from counter Daniel Irons

The first couple weeks of the Turkey Point Count are off to a good start.

The first week of August was cool with primarily light northerly and southerly winds. There was a steady trickle of migrants moving through including many Orchard Orioles, Yellow Warblers, American Redstarts, and a few Northern and Louisiana Waterthrushes.

Orchard Orioles made a strong showing in the first week of the count, with 106 counted between August 1st and 7th. Highlights included two Worm-eating Warblers, an early Tennessee Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, and on August 3rd was the first Prothonotary Warbler of the season.

Temps heated up into the 90s during the second week of August with light winds primarily from the south and east. Usually, these conditions are not the best for fall migrants, but Turkey Point seems to be surprisingly productive on hot sticky days with light easterly winds that push migrants against the edge of the Bay.

August 9th brought a nice push of migrants off a night with light easterlies. On this day, the season’s first Dickcissel and Least Flycatcher were noted along with another Tennessee Warbler. Based on this early movement of Tennessee’s locally and north of here in southern Canada, it’s looking to be a big fall for the species.

August 10th was another productive morning with light south winds. 15 Yellow Warblers were tallied along with 3 Black Terns flying south over the bay. Chimney Swifts made a particularly strong showing with 417 counted during the morning. All were departing south over the bay from the point into a light headwind.

August 13th brought a nice mix of warblers set up by light northwest winds. 11 species of warblers were counted that morning with highlights including the season’s first Blackburnian and Cape May Warblers.

After a week of hot temps and southerly winds, a small cold front on August 14th was a welcome sight. The following morning produced a noticeable uptick in Blue-gray Gnatcatchers (67) and American Redstarts (27). Other goodies from the morning included Dickcissel, the season’s first Chestnut-sided Warbler, and an Olive-sided Flycatcher. Two more Cape May Warblers were also noted. It’s early for Cape Mays locally, with several moving through the locally and loads on the move to the north it’s likely to be a good fall for them.

It’s getting to be that time of the year when every day brings new arrivals to the area, especially with a nice cold front. The weather in the coming week doesn’t look promising with hot temps and southerly winds, we will have to wait and see what happens.

Thanks for reading!

Daniel

Visit MBP’s Turkey Point Bird Count project page for more information.