Despite Sunday's lake effect snow (or perhaps because of it...), migration activity was pretty high at my house on Sunday morning. I woke up to 2 inches of snow on the ground, with steady snow falling until mid-morning, when the snow band moved north. By noon, most of the snow on the ground had melted away, but the snow band stayed just to the north of my yard, peppering me with random snow showers for the rest of the day, but with no additional accumulation.
I was outside by 7 AM to fill my feeders, and it was immediately evident that the falling snow would not impede the movement of birds headed south. AMERICAN ROBINS made a significant movement yesterday. They were coming through in multiple waves exactly like the Blue Jays were a few weeks ago. In the 3 1/2 hours that I spent outside yesterday morning, I was able to count 1590 of them as they passed overhead. I saw more than I was able to count, and I am sure that many more passed than I saw. BLUE JAYS were also still moving through, but in much smaller numbers. I counted 31 Jays migrating yesterday. Also notable were 55 EASTERN BLUEBIRDS, a flock of 47 BRANT, 3 flocks of CANADA GEESE totaling 41 birds, 7 EASTERN MEADOWLARKS, 1 migrating NORTHERN FLICKER, and 2 GREATER YELLOWLEGS. There were flocks of blackbirds flying overhead throughout the day, and I heard at least 2 RUSTY BLACKBIRDS in the mix. I also had flyover groups of PINE SISKINS numbering 7,8,7 and 2 - but I could not be sure if I was seeing the same birds or not.
After seeing a circling RED-TAILED HAWK through my kitchen window, I was back outside at 1:30 for the ensuing raptor show. In the next hour and a half, I saw 10 other RED-TAILED HAWKS, 32 TURKEY VULTURES, 1 COOPER'S HAWK, an adult BALD EAGLE, and 1 AMERICAN KESTREL. There was one bird that I thought may have been a Rough-legged Hawk, but it did not stay in my binocular field long enough for me to confirm its ID. Another flock of 75 BRANT and a pair of COMMON RAVENS really giving it to one poor Turkey Vulture were other highlights of the afternoon.
On the local scene, 2 CHIPPING SPARROWS spent some time at my feeders in the afternoon, The HERMIT THRUSH that I saw feeding in my cherry trees on Saturday was still present yesterday, but the GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH that was feeding with him the previous day was not.
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