The latter part of July is the time for one of the year’s most striking and abrupt shifts in bird occurrence in coastal New York. As the big initial pushes of the earliest shorebird species pass beyond us, juveniles of these species, and adults of many additional species, begin arriving. Meanwhile the young of our locally breeding gulls and terns fledge, greatly augmenting the overall abundance of visible birds along the coast. Curiously, the non-breeding loafers (e.g., first-summer Common and Arctic Terns) seem to disappear just as abruptly as the local juveniles fledge, and at precisely the same time. If ever there were a year for Arctic Terns to persist past mid July, I thought this would be it, but they appear to have bailed out in just the same manner as in previous years. A much more conspicuous disappearing act is that of our adult Eastern Willets, whose vociferous throngs vanish almost completely during this interval, to be partially replaced by smaller numbers of timid local juveniles, emerging from the grass, and Western Willets, arriving from afar (hmm, this phenomenon could offer an excellent test of eBird’s ability to quantify changes in frequency and abundance of common species).
Sandwich Terns, too, seem to ebb away during late July. At least in the absence of hurricanes, this species has developed a very stereotyped pattern of occurrence on LI, from early June to late July, with a pronounced peak around the end of June. It’s probably not a coincidence that our Elegant Tern showed up during this window, just as a Cayenne Tern did more than a decade ago. And, of course, late July is when many kinds of landbirds begin moving south in numbers, including both nocturnal migrants such as Yellow Warblers and Northern Waterthrushes, and diurnal migrants such as swallows. This morning featured the biggest morning flight I’ve seen so far this fall, with diverse species, such as Great Blue Heron and a variety of shorebirds, moving westward with the passerines. The following are some of Pat’s and my observations from the last ten days or so, illustrating some of the transitions described above. Last Arctic Terns: 2 (adult/second-summer & first-summer) 8 July, Cupsogue. Last Sandwich Tern: 27 July, Cupsogue (PJL). Withdrawal of adult Eastern Willets: between 27 July and 3 August. First juvenile Least Sandpiper: 28 July, Jam Bay. First juvenile Black Tern: 3 August, Cupsogue. First juvenile Lesser Yellowlegs, Greater Yellowlegs, Western Willets, and Marbled Godwit: 4 August, Cupsogue. First good push of Yellow Warblers this fall: 49 today, Fire Island. Ditto, Northern Waterthrush: 9 today, Fire Island. Personal August high count for Orchard Oriole: 6 today, Fire Island. Best swallow flight to date: 8 Purple Martin, 678 Tree, 773 Barn, 59 Bank, 20 Cliff today, Fire Island. Odds and ends: Non-breeding aspect Western Sandpiper: 27 July, Cupsogue Non-breeding aspect Least Sandpiper: 4 August, Cupsogue 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls 4 August, Jones Beach Lots of these are depicted in the latter part of this album: https://picasaweb.google.com/109808209543611018404/LongIslandMiscellany2013# Shai Mitra & Patricia Lindsay Bay Shore ________________________________ Washington Monthly<http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2012/features/americas_bestbangforthebuck_co039461.php> magazine ranks the College of Staten Island as one of “America’s Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Colleges” -- 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/[email protected]/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/ --
