Clear and calm conditions overnight these past two nights have allowed the migrant floodgates to open. There was a big movement overnight Wednesday into Thursday morning. And, could the weather this entire week be any nicer? (Although for hawkwatching, a few clouds would be welcome!) In fact, temperatures on Friday rose into the 70’s for the first time since October!
Here’s the 10:00pm radar and velocity images:

12:00am (but I am not sure as to what all of that clutter of the Mid-coast is; I don't think birds are producing those strong echos):

2:00am:

5:00am:

Although my time in the field was very limited Thursday morning, I was able to “ground-truth” this flight. Old Townhouse Park produced three “first of years” for me: Ruby-crowned Kinglet (3), Savannah Sparrow (1), and Northern Rough-winged Swallow (2). 16 “Yellow” Palm Warblers were tallied, as well as an increase in Dark-eyed Juncos and Song Sparrows. Streams of northbound American Robins were moving overhead.

There was a lot less activity at Yarmouth’s Sligo Road Property, but nonetheless, I added a Hermit Thrush, 3 Purple Finches, and a smattering of other migrants to the morning list – plus a fly-over Evening Grosbeak, my first in multiple months. Then, at the store’s feeders, 4 Savannah Sparrows and a Swamp Sparrow had arrived overnight.

Meanwhile, raptors have been on the move as well. 137 raptors were tallied on Wednesday and 97 on Thursday, putting the season count, as of the end of at 1,120. (Daily totals can be found here, via hawkcount.org) – over ½ way to last year’s tally!

Birds were on the move again on Thursday night, but this time, more birds departed than arrived. Here’s the 10:00pm image:

And the 4:00am image from this morning:

Purple Finches have definitely arrived now. 6 were on our feeders in Pownal this morning, after being absent for at least 3 months. I didn’t detect too many migrants at Florida Lake Park, however, but I did have my first Yellow-rumped Warbler of the spring. I’m a big fan of the beauty of breeding plumage male Yellow-rumps, and I think that this bird would be more people’s favorite if they weren’t so common! More Tree Swallows have arrived there, but the ducks have been rapidly departing, although 8 Common Mergansers, 10 Hooded Mergansers, and 6 Ring-necked Ducks were still present as of this morning.

Then, sticking with the duckage theme for at least one more day, I headed up to the mouth of the Abby in Bowdoinham. Although overall quantity was way down from our recent visit here on Tuesday, I did count almost twice as many Green-winged Teal – 588, to be exact, plus one hybrid “Eurasian” Green-winged Teal x “American” Green-winged Teal that showed a very nice, bold horizontal bar, a much-reduced-in-length – but still fairly thick – vertical bar, and a wide white border below the eye.

Here’s the count from the morning (compare to Tuesday’s numbers):
588 “American” Green-winged Teal
300+ American Black Duck
83 Canada Geese
50+ Mallards
23 Lesser Scaup
39 Ring-necked Ducks
12 Northern Pintail
3 Gadwall
2 Bald Eagles
1++ Mallard x American Black Duck hybrid (aka “Mack Duck,” or “Blallard!”)
1 Blue-winged Teal
1 “Eurasian” x “American” Green-winged Teal hybrid

Finally today, I spent a little more than an hour at the Bradbury Mountain Hawkwatch. Light north winds and a little high, thin – and very welcome – clouds were good conditions, but surprisingly little was in the air during my brief stay. My guess is that things will have picked up later in the morning. But, I was up there more to play with a new spotting scope that I am reviewing for Birding Magazine, so the local Cooper’s Hawks were sufficient fodder. And, I did hear my first Pine Warbler of the year.

So, it looks like we have a beautiful weekend – albeit a bit cooler – in store. There’s still some uncertainty with the models, it seems, but if the current forecast holds, it should be a pretty good weekend for passerine and raptor migration. And, it may be just a perfect evening on Saturday for my re-scheduled “Woodcocks Gone Wild” walk at Pineland Farms! (see www.yarmouthbirds.com/travels for more info).