Monday, August 31, 2009

Nearly 6,000 kingbirds!

This afternoon, Kashmir, Mercy and I counted nearly 6,000 Eastern Kingbirds migrating over the city of Cardel, Veracruz!

In the morning, I had high hopes of a big Swallow-tailed Kite flight, because conditions were similar to those that triggered a big flight last year around this time. That, and the fact that we're currently about 150 short of where we might be with this species in this part of the season, had me scanning the sky for this gracious bird. However, we only got one! A few more Mississippi Kites, but their numbers too remained much lower than we've been seeing recently.

Instead, we got a magnificent Eastern Kingbird flight, of which I have no pictures, because I was too busy counting them...

Pretty decent shorebird migration too, with mostly White Ibis, some White-faced Ibis, and two small groups of Solitary Sandpiper. We also had decent looks at both Great Black-Hawk and Common Black-Hawk - both resident species here. Another enjoyable hawk-watching day...

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