As Jose notes, Bank Swallows are pretty versatile breeders and will take advantage of vertical scarps along the ocean beaches, when these form from time to time (they nested in such a setting at Cupsogue back in 2007). But apart from these occasional occurrences, they tend to be completely absent from the sandy outer beaches during the breeding season. This absence, in conjunction with their great overall abundance and mobility, makes them an excellent indicator species of diurnal landbird migration in late spring and early "fall." Thus, in late May, they prove even more convincingly than the similarly late-migrating Barn Swallows that northbound migration* continues long past the dates when local breeders are already far along in their schedules. And in July, they illustrate the early start to southbound migration. During our birding this weekend at places like Fire Island Inlet, Cupsogue, and Shinnecock, we repeatedly observed migrating Bank Swallows. I would predict that tomorrow's northwesterly winds should produce flights of hundreds or thousands of Bank and Barn Swallows, as well as locally good numbers of Cliff Swallows, along Long Island's outer beaches. Purple Martins and even a few Rough-winged Swallows might also be on the move, but note that the last species is quite scarce on the barrier beach, even in big swallow flights, and is perennially one of the most misidentified species in this context. Depending on when the front passes, we might also see nocturnal migrants, such as warblers, gnatcatchers, RB Nuthatches, and icterids tomorrow as well.
An example from this date four years ago: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S19133748 *Curiously, in spring, northbound swallows are almost always observed flying east to west here! Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________________ From: bounce-122700996-11143...@list.cornell.edu [bounce-122700996-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Jose Ramirez-Garofalo [jose.ramirez.garof...@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2018 11:14 AM To: Joshua Malbin Cc: Andrew Baksh; nysbirds-l Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] East Pond ( & Breezy Point Queens Co... Hi all- Bank Swallows have been nesting on the Bayside beach in some numbers since at least last year. I think we may band them before the summer is over- Jose On Tue, Jul 17, 2018 at 11:09 Joshua Malbin <joshuamal...@gmail.com<mailto:joshuamal...@gmail.com>> wrote: I think Bank Swallows are nesting at Breezy Point. I saw a few going into burrows on the bay side about halfway back from the jetty a couple of weeks ago. On Tue, Jul 17, 2018 at 11:03 AM Andrew Baksh <birdingd...@gmail.com<mailto:birdingd...@gmail.com>> wrote: Yesterday morning, I hiked the East Pond doing a complete shorebird survey. Overall, the number of shorebirds were down. Especially the Yellowlegs and Short-billed Dowitchers. 12 Stilt Sandpipers were mostly up around the north end along with my first observation of Semipalmated Plovers on the pond for the season. American Oystercatchers continue to show up on the pond in good numbers. 27 were loafing on the Raunt before taking off as I made my way north. The duckage continue to hold a few Summer surprises. Green-winged Teal, American Wigeon and RED-BREASTED MERGANSER were all observed. Two continuing BONAPARTE’s GULLS were also seen comfortably feeding on the pond edges. On Sunday 7-15) at Breezy Point the highlights were two storm driven WHIMBRELS (put down in the rain & left just as the rain paused), two 2CY Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 1 Banded Adult Herring Gull and two BANK SWALLOWS. Also notable was a juvenile Ring-billed Gull (RBGU). I have not seen too many juvenile RBGU at Breezy so that was a treat. This one I would deem to be the brown-type. Where the general appearance is of a brown chocolate color showing the distinctive feature of large scapulars with solidly dark centers. About 1,000 Sanderlings dotted the shoreline along with Semipalmated Sandpipers, Least Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plovers. Some Piping Plovers were also active with a few juveniles indicating successful nesting. A decent number of Terns (few hundred) were offshore but nothing outside of the expected Common, Forster’s and Leasts in various age classes. A link to Phone scoped images of the Lesser Black-backed Gulls. https://twitter.com/birdingdude/status/1019234656896634880?s=21 Cheers, -------- "I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence." ~ Frederick Douglass �L Swift as the wind 林 Quiet as the forest 火 Conquer like the fire 山 Steady as the mountain Sun Tzu<http://refspace.com/quotes/Sun_Tzu> The Art of War<http://refspace.com/quotes/The_Art_of_War> (\__/) (= '.'=) (") _ (") Sent from somewhere in the field using my mobile device! Andrew Baksh www.birdingdude.blogspot.com<http://www.birdingdude.blogspot.com> -- NYSbirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> ABA<http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- NYSbirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> ABA<http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- José Ramírez-Garofalo Research Assistant College of Staten Island -- NYSbirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> ABA<http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
