I spent about 3.5 hours at Montrose this morning, May 1, and it was worth just about every minute. Passerines were in in good numbers; I had a number of goodies and FOSs. Shorebirds, however, were disappointing. I woke up extra early and made it the beach just before sunrise, but all I could muster were a few Spotted Sandpipers, probably the nesting birds, and a couple Killdeer, again probably the local breeding birds. I ended up with 78 species, highlighted by<\/p>\n
Virginia Rail – 1 in the eastern panne
\nSora – 3
\nForster’s Tern – ~60, strong movement
\nMerlin – 1
\nGreat Crested Flycatcher – 1
\nEastern Kingbird – 5
\nAll 5 regularly occurring swallows
\nSedge Wren – 1 singing in the eastern panne
\nGray-cheeked Thrush – 1
\nWood Thrush – 2
\nVeery – 1
\n11 species of warblers, Blue-winged being the best
\nClay-colored Sparrow – 1, thanks Phil
\nLark Sparrow – 1
\nBlue Grosbeak – 1 immature male
\nBobolink – 1<\/p>\n
Bird of the day goes to the immature male Blue Grosbeak. I’ve only seen 2 or 3 BLGR at Montrose in my 35+ years birding there, so I was fairly excited. Link to my eBird checklist below.<\/p>\n