Enjoy Fall Migration
I have been coming down to St. Marks NWR every few days to monitor Fall migration. I generally arrive at the refuge early and, over the last week or so, I have been looking at the moon in the clear pre-dawn sky. About a week ago, I saw a pair of Screech Owls silhouetted against the bone-white full moon as they sat trilling on a pine branch. On subsequent mornings, the moon climbed the sky as it shrank down to a half moon. Over the next week it will shrink further and become a thin crescent as it approaches the sun. Then, it will disappear, only to appear again as a thin and growing crescent in the evening sky.
The natural year at St. Marks is made up of endlessly repeating and overlapping cycles; lunar, daily and seasonal. Fall migration is part of an ancient cycle of seasonal bird movement that may have been set off at the end of the last Ice Age when the retreat of the glaciers created new habitat. Each Fall migration is always similar, but never the same, like a jazz riff on a familiar melody.
This year, an early cold front carried a strong wave of migrants to the refuge and brought with it the first of our wintering Northern Harriers. Over a dozen species of warblers have been reported in the last two weeks, along with Baltimore Orioles, Scarlet and Summer Tanagers, Yellow-billed Cuckoos and a half dozen species of flycatchers. Shorebirds are continuing to move through Peregrine & Merlin Falcons are at the refuge hunting them. I had my first Painted Bunting of the season, a beautiful lime green and pale-yellow female, and earlier today I had a silent Tropical/Couch’s Kingbird on the Lighthouse Levee Trail. Things are getting interesting.
Our first rush of migratory ducks, Blue-winged Teal, have moved on to South America. October will bring the refuge its first wintering ducks as Blue-winged & Green-winged Teal, Northern Shovelers, Gadwall and Wigeon arrive. Next month will also bring other wintering birds; Virginia Rail, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Blue-headed Vireo and Hermit Thrush.
Fall brings better conditions to the refuge with cooler temperatures and fewer biting insects. The Red Maples are providing splashes of color along East River and Fall wildflowers are moving toward their Autumn peak. Purple Blazing Stars bloom along Lighthouse Road as you drive in and, within the refuge, False Foxglove, Golden Aster, Shepherd’s Needle and Horsemint are attracting Gulf Fritillaries, Cloudless Sulphurs and other butterflies. Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Swainson’s Thrushes and Gray Catbirds have stripped all the fruit off of Virginia Creeper, but the Yaupon and Dahoon Hollies have fruit that is just beginning to ripen and there is an abundant crop of still-green Cabbage Palm berries in reserve.
The other night I watched the silhouette of a late-flying migrant bird cross through a full moon that hung low in the Western sky. The flight calls of thrushes; Swainson’s, Gray-cheeked and Veery, were filtering down from above. A unique version of Fall migration is happening right now. It will never be repeated. Come down to St. Marks or just step outside and enjoy it.