Hi, I was interested to check the status of the Cliff swallow along Pelham Bay shore this year. A kayaking trip there this week revealed the presence of at least 19 Cliff swallows along the shore, active in 10 completed or ongoing nests on 2 sites:
- 14 adults active in 7 completed nests on the South-West side of the City Island temporary bridge, close to Pelham Bay shore. I assumed for that count that the same swallow don't enter more than one nest. - at least 5 adults building 3 nests on the East side of Pelham Bridge (2 pairs on the South-East side, and at least one individual building a nest on the North-East part). These ongoing "nests" are in a very early stage. As last year, the flying adults give great views from the side walk of that bridge. So if the 2 nests found by Jack Rothman on the Orchard Beach buildings are still active, there are 11 or 12 active Cliff swallow pairs in the Pelham Bay area. This is still modest compared to some colonies upstate but it seems it keeps increasing: 2 pairs in 2010 (Richard Aracil and Jared Cole, first e-bird nesting account for the location), 7 pairs in 2015 (J. Rothman and myself, second nesting account). The main change this year is the successful adoption of the new City Island temporary bridge. Hopefully the future City Island bridge will provide similar nesting opportunities as the current one. ebird checklist with some pictures here: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S30488854 Matthieu PS. By the way some of the confirmed (and expected) breeding bird I got in Pelham Bay park include Common tern, Brown trashers, Orchard orioles, Eastern kingbirds, Tree swallows (in particular 2 nests boxes are occupied and 1 pair curiously nested in an horizontal traffic light tube over Pelham Bay bridge), Willow flycatchers, Blue-gray gnatcatchers, Yellow warblers (abundant), Barn swallows, Killdeers. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
