The evening skies above the Rondout have been filled with high fliers, with new arrivals each few days joining in, making even estimating their numbers almost impossible at this point. It began a month or so ago with about 25 Tree and Rough-winged Swallows arriving the same evening. A couple weeks later in frenzied flight an uncountable number of Chimney Swifts joined them -- guessing over 50++. Then, just a few days ago, their landing unseen to me, a group of 14 Barn Swallows had perched behind my house along the creek's flood wall, close to each other - shoulder to shoulder watching the may lay above them. They stayed there looking up at the scene for about 20 minutes then rose to become part of the evening's dance. The winds of the last weeks have been gusty and strong, winding through the Rondout Creek valley here. Two evenings ago, a few new large darker birds were holding their own in the wild winds, but with their speeds coupled with the amazing gusts that seemed to be throwing them in all directions, it was impossible to hold my eyes on anything long enough to count! This morning I followed a hunch and went down stream to the Purple Martin complex along the berm.....they're back. They are hard to count, even without the wind, because their nesting house is two storied, with six apartments on each side....making it difficult to see who's who with all their comings and goings -- but, around 20 seem to have arrived to join in the nightly flights and to nest as well in this village again. This mix of fliers from the tip of South American to Panama and throughout Central America, much to my pleasure, find their way to this spot, according to my notes, amazingly within the same few days on the calendar each year after year after year.
