Morning Flight 9/11/10

This morning I did a morning flight count in Kunkletown with Terry Master. We counted migrating birds, starting at sunrise (6:37am) and ending two hours later. After the large migration last night (see previous post), the birds were definitely moving. We found 43 species, 23 of which were in morning flight. We ended with a total of 184 morning flight birds.

Species in bold were observed in morning flight:

American Kestrel 2
Mourning Dove 2
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 3
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 2
Pileated Woodpecker 4 
Eastern Phoebe 1
Red-eyed Vireo 10
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 3
Black-capped Chickadee 8
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
House Wren 1
Veery 1
Swainson's Thrush 15
Wood Thrush 1
American Robin 6
Gray Catbird 1
Cedar Waxwing 25
Tennessee Warbler 1
Northern Parula 1
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Magnolia Warbler 6
Cape May Warbler 1
Black-throated Green Warbler 4
Blackburnian Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 1
Bay-breasted Warbler 4
Blackpoll Warbler 3
American Redstart 3
Common Yellowthroat 1
Hooded Warbler 1
Canada Warbler 1
Eastern Towhee 2
Field Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 4
Indigo Bunting 2
Bobolink 14
Purple Finch 4
American Goldfinch 16

Unidentified warbler 66
Unidentified passerine 2

Many of the warblers were flying high today, but some allowed for photos.  This warbler shows a yellow underside and an all-dark tail.  These characteristics, combined with other observations in the field, help identify this Tennessee Warbler.

Many field marks are visible on this Northern Parula, including the bluish head, strong white wingbars, and yellow throat.

A few Rose-breasted Grosbeaks were in the trees during the morning, but near the end of the count, I spotted this one flying west.  Note white crescents and the pink under the wings.

One of the last birds of the count was this Cape May Warbler.  Note the face pattern and the streaking on the side.

This is a spectrogram of the flight call that an American Redstart uttered while flying over during morning flight.

This is a spectrogram of a Chestnut-sided Warbler's flight calls from this morning.