Maybe I’m jumping the gun on this and good numbers of Cave Swallows will be seen along the Atlantic coast of NY this weekend, but I find it puzzling that so many have been seen down in Cape May recently and only a handful here thus far. Even taking into account Cape May’s history of hosting substantial November incursions of Cave Swallows, and it’s penchant for concentrating large numbers of southbound migrants in general, the disparity between the numbers seen there over the past week (~400, Wed. -- today) relative to the rest of the NE U.S. (16, 11 in only 6 eBird reports plus Isaac Grant’s Staten Is. birds today) is striking. I don’t think even the greater density of birders in Cape May would account for such an imbalance. My understanding of past Cave Swallow invasions (correct me if I’m wrong) had the birds being transported to the NE by prolonged SW winds (like we’ve had recently) and first being seen in numbers along the shores of the Great Lakes, then subsequently (1-2 days later) along the Atlantic coast after the wind shifted NW. Any hypotheses on how/why so many swallows have reached Cape May while eluding detection by savvy birders elsewhere? Whatever the explanation, I’ll be out early tomorrow looking for some — and Franklin’s Gulls too!
-- 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/ --
