Spring Migration - Keeping Track

Spring migration is certainly well under way now and new arrivals are being reported daily. The very nature of this major natural event produces an overload of information flooding in from all corners of the region and keeping on top of this information and pulling it all together into something useful has always been a big problem for anyone interested in keeping long-term data. It seems to me to be somewhat unfortunate that, as we gain more and more useful technology to record such events, the dissemination of such data appears to get more and more difficult. Time was when your local bird club or society would have someone (often a faithful volunteer) saddled with the job of collating all the information into a readable report but, in recent years, we somehow seem to have lost that centralization and now I seem to have to trawl through any number of websites, data storage locations, text messaging services, twitter links and email chat forums (or is it fora, or fori?!!) just to try and keep up with it all - and still any number of birds turn up locally and manage to fly under my radar (excuse the pun).

It seems to me that if I am having trouble keeping on top of it all, then other people surely are too so, in an attempt to address this, I spent some time today pulling together a list of first arrival dates for spring migrants in the three counties of Cape May, Atlantic and Cumberland. Setting this data out in a readable table does present some interesting results; look how many species make a general arrival into the three counties on the same or at least a very similar date. This is something of a selective list as some species' arrival dates are blurred by regular overwintering individuals so these species have been omitted. Species that have blanks are those for which I have heard no reports - so do let us know if you think you can plug a gap - but be prepared to have the Spanish Inquisition visit you if you've seen anything really amazing!! I'll aim to post an update to this table periodically as Spring continues.

One thing to always bear in mind is that first arrivals are not always a true representation of what the bulk of birds are doing. There often seems to be a hasty individuals that pushes on ahead of the pack, so don't worry if it looks like you're missing all these birds, the main arrival for most species is still yet to come.

	2013 Arrival dates	Atlantic Co	Cape May Co	Cumberland Co
	Cory's Shearwater
	Great Shearwater
	Sooty Shearwater
	Wilson's Storm-Petrel
	Brown Pelican		Feb 3
	Least Bittern
	Little Blue Heron	(Feb 26) Apr 6	(Jan 1) Apr 11	Apr 10
	Tricolored Heron	Apr 13	(Jan 28) Apr 4	Mar 31
	Cattle Egret		Apr 1	Apr 15
	Green Heron		Apr 11	Apr 16
	Yellow-crowned Night Heron	Apr 11	Apr 1
	Glossy Ibis	Mar 31	Mar 31	Mar 30
	White-faced Ibis
	Swallow-tailed Kite		Apr 20
	Mississippi Kite
	Broad-winged Hawk	Apr 14	Apr 13	Apr 13
	Black Rail
	King Rail
	Sora		Mar 30
	Common Gallinule
	American Golden Plover		Apr 2	Apr 12
	Semipalmated Plover		(Jan 1) Mar 30	Apr 13
	Piping Plover	Mar 21	Feb 27
	Black-necked Stilt			Apr 12
	American Avocet
	Spotted Sandpiper		Apr 21
	Solitary Sandpiper	Apr 21
	‘Eastern’ Willet	Apr 10	Apr 10	Apr 13
	Whimbrel	Apr 13	Apr 17	Apr 13
	Hudsonian Godwit
	Red Knot		Jan 1
	Semipalmated Sandpiper			Apr 12
	Least Sandpiper	Apr 8	Apr 17	Mar 30
	White-rumped Sandpiper
	Baird's Sandpiper
	Pectoral Sandpiper		Apr 7	Mar 29
	Stilt Sandpiper			Apr 15
	Short-billed Dowitcher	(Jan 11) Apr 13	(Jan 11) Apr 13	Apr 10
	Long-billed Dowitcher
	Wilson's Phalarope			Apr 19
	Black-headed Gull		Jan 11	Mar 21
	Laughing Gull	Mar 16	Mar 8	Mar 30
	Least Tern
	Gull-billed Tern
	Caspian Tern	Apr 7	Feb 1	Apr 15
	Black Tern
	Roseate Tern
	Common Tern		Apr 17
	Royal Tern
	Sandwich Tern
	Black Skimmer		Apr 2	Apr 18
	Parasitic Jaeger (p)
	Yellow-billed Cuckoo
	Black-billed Cuckoo
	Common Nighthawk		Apr 20
	Chuck-will’s-widow
	Eastern Whip-poor-will		Apr 9
	Chimney Swift	Apr 10	Apr 9	Apr 19
	Ruby-throated Hummingbird		Apr 19
	Eastern Wood Pewee
	Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
	Acadian Flycatcher
	Alder Flycatcher
	Willow Flycatcher
	Least Flycatcher
	Great Crested Flycatcher	Apr 15	Apr 13
	Eastern Kingbird	Apr 19	Apr 13	Apr 17
	White-eyed Vireo	Apr 21	(Jan 6) Apr 10	Apr 13
	Yellow-throated Vireo
	Blue-headed Vireo		Apr 8
	Warbling Vireo
	Philadelphia Vireo
	Red-eyed Vireo
	No. Rough-winged Swallow	Apr 4	Mar 30	Apr 12
	Purple Martin	Apr 1	Apr 1
	Tree Swallow	Mar 20	Mar 1
	Bank Swallow		Apr 20	Apr 13
	Barn Swallow	Apr 1	Mar 30	Mar 30
	Cliff Swallow		Mar 15	Apr 14
	Cave Swallow		Mar 15
	House Wren	Apr 19	(Jan 2) Mar30	Apr 11
	Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	Apr 7	(Jan 5) Apr 9	Apr 10
	Veery
	Gray-cheeked Thrush
	Swainson's Thrush
	Wood Thrush		Apr 22	Apr 20
	Ovenbird	Apr 17	Apr 10	Apr 10
	Worm-eating Warbler		Apr 14
	Louisiana Waterthrush		Mar 20	Apr 8
	Northern Waterthrush
	Golden-winged Warbler
	Blue-winged Warbler
	Black-and-white Warbler	Apr 13	Apr 10	Apr 13
	Prothonotary Warbler		Apr 20
	Tennessee  Warbler
	Nashville Warbler		(Jan 1)
	Connecticut Warbler
	Mourning Warbler
	Kentucky Warbler
	Common Yellowthroat	Apr 14	(Jan 1) Apr 11	Apr 11
	Hooded Warbler
	American Redstart	Apr 21
	Cape May Warbler
	Cerulean Warbler
	Northern Parula	Apr 14	Apr 13
	Magnolia Warbler
	Bay-breasted Warbler
	Blackburnian Warbler
	Yellow Warbler	Apr 19	Apr 13	Apr 16
	Chestnut-sided Warbler
	Blackpoll Warbler
	Black-throated Blue Warbler
	Palm Warbler	(Jan 5) Apr 11	(Jan 6) Apr 13
	Pine Warbler	Mar 22	Jan 9	Mar 16
	Yellow-throated Warbler	Apr 8	Apr 1	Apr 8
	Prairie Warbler	Apr 21	Apr 13	Apr 19
	Black-throated Green Warbler
	Canada Warbler
	Wilson's Warbler
	Yellow-breasted Chat		Jan 13
	Summer Tanager
	Scarlet Tanager
	Rose-breasted Grosbeak	Apr 18
	Blue Grosbeak		Apr 17
	Indigo Bunting
	Bobolink
	Orchard Oriole		Apr 19
	Baltimore Oriole		(Jan 1) Apr 19

Migrants can and do turn up in surprising places! I received this photo of a Prothonotary Warbler in Arlington, Virginia last Friday - not a bird you normally see clinging to the side of a brick building! [Photo by Lambert Orkis]