As I mentioned in my earlier post, a strong cold front was expected to blow through around 08/12 and bring favorable winds from the NW and much cooler temps for the days ahead. To put it in perspective, the dawn temps mid-week were around 80F and had fallen by Friday, 08/19, to the low 60s.

Gusty NW Winds the morning of 08/12 brought loads of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers to the Point with 172 counted in 3 hours. Clear and cooler conditions prevailed over the next several days and brought a nice assortment of warblers past Turkey Point. Including first for the season Pine, Cape May, Worm-eating, Myrtle, Blackburnian, Blue-winged, and several others. Both orchard and Baltimore orioles also took advantage of the pleasant conditions, with 331 and 112 counted since August 1st.

The fun thing about Turkey Point is you never know what to expect! That is what keeps you scanning even once most things have settled down after the 7 am rush hour. A perfect example of this was a White Ibis that headed up the Elk River with a flock of cormorants on 08/08. A few other notables include an early Myrtle Warbler, Bonaparte’s Gull, and Cliff Swallow.

Speaking of Swallows, the past 2 weeks have brought lots of them, but their behavior has altered. However, there haven’t been any days that match the conditions of August 1st. Some have come close with showers and a SE wind instead of ENE, but the swallows didn’t seem to like that slight change in wind direction. For unknown reasons, on August 18 and 19th, waves of Purple Martins passed the point heading NW. On 08/18, nearly 1,500 were counted, most within a half hour. The next day, 08/19, brought a similar flight with 433 counted going NW. The conditions? Perfectly clear with hardly a breath of wind from the NW. Weird because there have been countless days with these exact conditions and no Martins.

Check out this radar snapshot from a few days ago at 6 am showing a massive liftoff of what are likely swallows from a roost near Pooles Island. These are probably the source of most of the swallows and martins that come by the point. Look at that roost near Easton too!

One thing that’s nice about using trektellen to enter data is that it allows for migrating insects to be counted as well. Believe it or not, many dragonflies and butterflies migrate in one way or another. Besides our beloved Monarch, several other butterflies like Red Admirals, Red-spotted Purples, and even Silver-spotted skippers are on the move. Let’s not forget about the dragonflies either, Black Saddlebags, Green and Comet Darners, Wandering and Spot-winged Gliders, and Great Blue Skimmers are moving.  Their movements are poorly understood, so many of these species’ final destinations are a total mystery.

Be sure to check in on trektellen every day to see what’s been flying, and stay tuned for more updates here on MBPs blog. Looking forward to what the last 10 days of August will bring!

Jonathan