Shorebirder

Last year (2025) I began to toy around with observing spring diurnal migration at Lighthouse Point in New Haven, CT. Well-known as one of the premier coastal autumn hawkwatches in New England, Lighthouse gets little attention in spring. This is understandable, as Connecticut's east-west coastline (land to north, water to south) is really set up for southbound migration, as Long Island Sound acts as a barrier to birds that prefer to migrate over land.  Last spring I made a few visits on northwest winds, just to see if any overland birds might be pushed to the coast. I did observe some migration , which was pretty cool, but what really surprised me was the direction of the movement. Just about the entire flight of raptors, swallows and swifts was westbound down the coast. This is the direction that our autumn (southbound) migrants usually take. a spring migrant American Kestrel at Lighthouse Point typical direction of southbound diurnal migrants through Connecticut during autumn To b...

I spent a couple hours this morning at Lighthouse Point in New Haven on a light NW breeze in hopes of turning up some diurnal migrants, such as raptors and swallows. At this time of year, the big prize would be a reorienting Swallow-tailed Kite. These master areialists are prone to drifting with the wind, and northbound birds in spring occasionally overshoot their southern breeding grounds and end up in New England, especially on a tailwind from the south. Over the years a bit of a pattern has emerged: kites that have overshot their migration have been seen reorienting back southward along the coast when the wind comes from the north. This is similar to the mechanism that brings Cave Swallows to our coast in the late autumn. This has been recorded with Swallow-tailed and Mississippi Kites a few times in CT in recent memory, but a better observed pattern comes from Cape May, NJ, where up to 5 individual STKIs have been recorded on a single spring day with NW winds. As luck would have it...

From our trip to Utqiagvik last October, here's some Ross's Gull footage. Slo-mo is the better watch, but full speed will give you some idea of the conditions. Enjoy! - Nick

The last few years have been rather underwhelming for late winter/early spring gulling in Connecticut. Traditionally, this has been peak time for gull numbers and diversity, as the annual bloom of barnacle larvae on Long Island Sound draws thousands of gulls to our western and central coast. But the event has dwindled over recent years. For whatever reason, numbers have been down. I had theorized that perhaps the lack of cold and snow for a few winters in a row had somehow affected the event, either by altering the volume of the larval bloom or the timing of the gull migration. This past winter was the coldest locally in 11 years. That early spring of 2015 ended up being a particularly good one for gulls. Connecticut's first Kamchatka Gull appeared, as did many Little Gulls, including a high count of seven at Southport Beach. So, I was hoping this past winter's weather would lead to an uptick in spring gull activity. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The plankton event stay...

From the perspective of a North American birder, the island of Aruba, which lies adjacent to Curaçao and Bonaire and merely 15 miles from Venezuela, may not be the sexiest of island birding destinations. Why not? Well, perhaps the biggest draw of island birding is the high degree of endemism that one usually encounters. There are, sadly, no bird species that are endemic to Aruba. But arguably the second most appealing reason to get excited about island birding is the disproportionately high density of vagrants that might be found. Islands serve as terra firma oases surrounded by uninhabitable ocean. Birds that accidentally find themselves over water will take refuge anywhere, and islands present irresistible opportunities for much-needed rest and refueling. Aruba is well-located for vagrants, positioned to receive birds from multiple directions. Vagrants may be migratory species from North America, or they may stray from nearby mainland South America. I would also imagine that certain...