A light flight occurred overnight Wednesday into Thursday, with some birds leaving, but few arriving. On the 10pm image, you can see that there are birds in the air, but by 4:00am, not much was moving ahead of a small line of showers.

10pm radar, Wednesday night:

4am radar, Thursday morning:

But, there were still plenty of birds around – at least where I was birding in Cape Elizabeth on Thursday morning. I began with 2 hours of seawatching at Dyer Point (see totals below) , which was quite productive on an increasing northeast breeze. 171 Northern Gannets was a nice tally, and the 13 Laughing Gulls were a good count for this late in the season. And, ducks are really now beginning to move – as expected by the second week of October.

The next stop was Kettle Cove, where I scoured the trails for scrubby migrants. Handfuls of sparrows were around, but the highlight was my first Orange-crowned Warbler of the fall, which was foraging in the same bush as a lingering Nashville Warbler. I also studied a White-throated Sparrow showing the bright orange lores of a bird that has been feeding on rhodoxanthin-rich berries, likely one of the bush honeysuckles (An article in the recent Birding discussed this increasingly-common phenomena).

Next I birded the sparrow-rific Crescent Beach State Park. Once again, White-crowned Sparrows were the most numerous migrant of the morning (43), outnumbering my combined count of White-throated and Song Sparrows – which is really remarkable. The volume of White-crowned Sparrows around the entire state this fall is amazing. I’ve never seen so many White-crowns; the place is simply filthy with them. Sparrows are not irruptive species, so this defies a simple (relatively speaking) explanation. There are oodles of immatures, so there was definitely a productive breeding season, but even the adults are much more numerous than the norm. I don’t even have a guess as to what is up.

21 “Yellow” Palm Warblers were the most that I have seen so far this fall, and Yellow-rumped Warblers were common as well. A single immature Peregrine Falcon passed overhead, and three Rusty Blackbirds were present as well.

The last, and strongest, in a series of low-pressure systems that has been bringing us cool and wet conditions for the past few days should be coming to an end this afternoon. Heavy rain fell last night and this morning, and I doubt any birds at all were in the air. As the low pulls out today, a strong northwesterly flow will develop, and continue into tonight.

After two days with virtually zero passerine migration (and only a little three nights ago), I would expect a big flight tonight. Birds have been backed up, and clearing skies and a northwesterly wind should allow them to really get going. I think tomorrow could be a great morning. The question marks, however, include how quickly the storm clears out today; when the winds shift to the NW, and then when do they shift again. Also, will the winds be too strong this evening to get things up in the air? Probably not, but perhaps. Also, another weak low to our west could produce some rain in the mountains, and clouds elsewhere, which could hamper the arrival of birds to our area.

But, I think tomorrow is a day to hit the bush. The extent and duration of overnight NW winds will dictate whether or not Sandy Point is a good bet, but I would check every migrant trap around – especially the ones with good sparrow habitat. I think we’re due for a big flight of Dark-eyed Juncos, White-throated, and other sparrows, and our first really big wave of Yellow-rumped Warblers should be coming. Plus, the active weather pattern has the potential to bring rarities to our area. At the very least, make sure you have plenty of White Proso Millet on hand, as the ground underneath the feeders should be very busy for the next few days.

Well, know that I’ve gone out on a limb to make predictions, I better get out into the field to fulfill my own prophecies!

Meanwhile, here are the totals from Thursday morning’s bout of seawatching:

Location: Dyer Point
Observation date: 10/11/07
Notes: 7:10 - NE 9.2mph, Overcast, Seas 1-2. 55.2F. Good
visibility.
9:10 - ENE 14.4mph, Overcast, Seas 1-2. 56.1F. Good visibility.
Number of species: 22

American Black Duck 2
Common Eider 615
Surf Scoter 12
White-winged Scoter 8
Black Scoter 29
Red-breasted Merganser 4
duck sp. 11
Red-throated Loon 4
Common Loon 39
Northern Gannet 171
Double-crested Cormorant 361
Great Cormorant 9
Semipalmated Plover 5
Laughing Gull 13
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Great Black-backed Gull X
American Crow X
Yellow-rumped Warbler X
Savannah Sparrow X
Song Sparrow X
House Sparrow X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)