November started off with a bang at Dans Rock with the best flight of the season on November 1st! Over 5,000 birds migrated past the rock over the course of the morning with the vast majority of them being Cedar Waxwings and American Robins. This day alone tallied more birds than the entire month of August! November 2nd delivered an even bigger day of migration, once again with waxwings, robins, and now Common Grackles being the main components of the flight. The first Evening Grosbeak of the season was also detected on the 2nd. This is a highly irruptive species of finch from the boreal forest and most winters they are not recorded in Maryland. This has been a good irruption year for this species and one that I was anxiously awaiting here at the rock.

November 3rd made it three straight days of great flights at Dans Rock. An impressive number of Eastern Bluebirds were mixed in with the robins and waxwings with a season-high of 42 being tallied throughout the morning. Black-capped Chickadees, like Red-bellied Woodpeckers and White-breasted Nuthatch, are another resident species that many people do not think of as migratory. But some winters chickadees do move south in good numbers and the ten obvious migrants that moved down the ridge this morning were a season-high. Another notable count from today was the season-high 1,415 Cedar Waxwings which is a top ten count for this species in the Trektellen database. Interestingly, almost all of the other comparable counts for this species occurred during August and early September.

After the big first three days of the month, the flights went from great to good with around 1,000 individuals being tallied most mornings for the next week. One of the highlights of the season came in the form of a light morph Rough-legged Hawk that migrated by the rock on the morning of November 5th. This was an extremely early record for this Arctic raptor in Maryland which does not normally show up until winter has firmly taken its hold on the state. Another raptor first for the season came on November 3rd with a much anticipated Golden Eagle, a species that I am looking forward to seeing more of in the weeks to come. The primary migrating raptor of November has been Red-tailed Hawks with 35 counted so far this season and a daily high of 8 on November 7th.

The Winter Wren that shot by on November 6th was extra notable as it was the 100th bird species to be identified as a migrant at Dans Rock this season! A Ring-billed Gull two days later on the 8th was another new addition to the count. The 8th was a notable finch day as both an Evening Grosbeak and a Red Crossbill were detected that day. Purple Finches have been moving in good numbers all season with 342 counted to date. All three of these finch species are irruptive and detected in varying numbers (or not at all) depending on the winter in Maryland.

The count was rained out by the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole on November 11th. Since then not many birds have been moving, but a count of four Evening Grosbeaks on November 12th was a highlight. It will be interesting to see what will still be moving out here as we enter into the last two weeks of the count. I am hoping for more finches, Golden Eagles, and maybe even a Goshawk. Remember that you can always follow along with the count on Trektellen or by checking back in on the blog page!

Carl Engstrom