Flight after Front Part 2 - Higbee Beach and a bit of the State Park

I was a little surprised to climb the dike at Higbee this morning and find south winds - it had seemed like the high pressure system that created yesterday's northwesterlies was big and strong enough to persist into today, but it apparently wasn't. There was no morning flight to speak of, just occasional flurries of 1-5 warblers popping out of the woods, flying over the dike, and mostly returning to the woods.

A walk about revealed that a few birds had come in overnight, mostly redstarts, Black-and-white Warblers, Yellow Warblers and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, but a tiny smattering of this's and that's led to a decent list of birds with some quality. What was more interesting, perhaps, was that each encounter with another birder would add a species or two to the morning list for Higbee, if not to ours. Different people were finding scattered migrants at different places and different times, and each would say "it was best at thus-and-such spot," but each thus-and-such spot was a different place!

Our better birds included Worm-eating Warbler and both cuckoos, and our best spot was near the lot in the first field. Paul Guris reported a Blackburnian and, if I remember correctly, a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher back by the pond. Richard Crossley turned up a Golden-winged. Other birders reported Blue-winged, Nashville, Black-throated Green, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Canada. . .there were at least 15 species of Warblers at Higbee, but I doubt any single person found them all.

A quick stop at Bunker Pond at the State Park revealed even fewer shorebirds than yesterday - 2 Stilt S.P., 2 dowitchers, maybe 40 peep, Semi-plover, Spotted S.P. , etc. Which still isn't bad for 15 minutes of checking. Sadly, a one-legged Lesser Yellowlegs remains at the pond, he's been there for a few days.

The list below is just ours for Higbee.


Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 8/19/07
Notes: A little bit of the dike, mostly first field. 2nd day after front, wind s, overcast, occ. v. light rain.
Number of species: 46
Great Blue Heron 1
Snowy Egret 5
Osprey 2
Semipalmated Plover 2
Lesser Yellowlegs 5
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Laughing Gull 25
Great Black-backed Gull 5
Mourning Dove 10
Black-billed Cuckoo 1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Least Flycatcher 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Eastern Kingbird 50
White-eyed Vireo 2
Blue Jay 1
Purple Martin 10
Tree Swallow 5
Barn Swallow 3
Carolina Chickadee 5
Tufted Titmouse 5
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 5
House Wren 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 15
European Starling 2
Cedar Waxwing 25
Yellow Warbler 10
Prairie Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 10
American Redstart 25
Worm-eating Warbler 1
Northern Waterthrush 5
Northern Cardinal 5
Indigo Bunting 1
Bobolink 15
Red-winged Blackbird 20
Common Grackle 5
Brown-headed Cowbird 20
Orchard Oriole 2
Baltimore Oriole 5
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 10
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)