Friday, October 1, 2010

Epic Tomorrow? + Winter Finch Forecast

In contrast to what we expect for tomorrow (Saturday), I think I set a record this morning, along with the folks along on the Higbee Beach walk: lowest species total EVER (18) on a Higbee walk, and probably lowest number of individuals (51), although the little flock of Blue-winged Teal fighting their way through the wind skewed the numbers upward.  Ahh, but tomorrow. . .should be somethig else. We did see a very nice Black Racer, which coiled, struck at me when I stepped near, and vibrated his tail like a rattlesnake.

Multiple American Golden-plovers were reported around Cape May in the rain and gale this morning, and a few Peregrines were flying. Tony Leukering told me the wigeon flock on Lighthouse Pond is up to something like 80, but no Eurasians have been detected.

When I entered today's massive Higbee list on eBird, I noticed Ron Pittaway's Winter Finch Forecast is now up. He predicts a Common Redpoll flight, along with Red-breasted Nuthatches (which we've already seen plenty of) and Purple Finches, the first of which were detected at Morning Flight this week and I'm betting some number more will be in Cape May tomorrow..

The weather still seems to be lining up for a very large flight tomorrow, of just about everything (maybe not herons, too windy). A big part of this equation is the number of days recently without much migration, putting more and more birds in the pipeline to come south when the weather opens up. Keep your fingers crossed.

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