With gratitude in my soul to all of the Joe Hills that died to make America a better place for workers, I took a Labor Day trip to the coast this morning to see what had changed since Saturday. In short, a lot had. There was no eye level swallow surge along the beach this morning, Caspian Terns were in big flocks, gnatcatchers were in single digits in all of the stops I made combined, I saw my first Marsh Hawk of the fall, Baltimore Orioles were passing through in groups, blackbirds seemed to be bunching up, and warbler diversity was down. Compared to Dan O'Malley's report from Maurepas Swamp where he noted major songbird movement, such movement was sparse in Cameron Parish. Perhaps his area was in last night's windstream and mine in a doldrum?
Best birds were this White-tailed Hawk...which I was thinking was a juvenile based on buff feather edgings on the mantle and the white markings around the eye, but need to bone up on to see if juves should have that bay patch on the shoulder...
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| Spot the hawk. |
...and a Bell's Vireo.
But as with any good day, there were plenty of nice things to look at.
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| Blue Grosbeak |
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| Olive-sided Flycatcher |
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| Long-tailed Skipper? |
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| Swainson's Hawk |
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