(Reprinted from the Summer 2024 issue of New Hampshire Bird Records)
While we humans are busy enjoying summer, fall migration has already begun for some birds! The first southbound shorebirds start arriving in July, so keep an eye out. Meanwhile, many of our favorite backyard birds are still busy nesting and feeding young. Enjoy everything this active season has to offer.
- Watch and listen for both Yellow-billed and Black-billed Cuckoos wherever there are caterpillar outbreaks, especially the Spongy Moth (formerly called Gypsy Moth). Cuckoos are some of the few species in New Hampshire that eat hairy caterpillars.
- Hummingbird numbers increase at feeders as youngsters fledge and feed on their own.
Cory’s Shearwater by Benjamin Griffith, 7-26-2024, Jeffreys Ledge, NH. - Great Shearwaters, and sometimes Manx, Sooty, and Cory’s Shearwaters join the Wilson’s Storm-Petrels in offshore ocean waters. A whalewatch or fishing boat is the easiest way to see them.
- Tennessee Warblers nest in northern New Hampshire and Canada but sometimes show up well to the south in early July.
- Southbound shorebird migration starts in early July with the first species to arrive being Least Sandpipers, Short-billed Dowitchers, and Lesser Yellowlegs. They are most common on the coast, but Least Sandpipers and Solitary Sandpipers are common inland.
- Watch for an influx of Bonaparte’s Gulls at the coast in late July, with adults arriving first. Check coves anywhere along the coast, especially the cove north of the Seacoast Science Center at Odiorne Point State Park in Rye and the Piscataqua River off Fort Constitution in New Castle.
- The first Great Egrets appear inland in late July. This is post-breeding dispersal and birds can show up anywhere.
- Most swallows finish nesting early and begin to stage in large flocks at ponds and lakes and along the coast.
- Chimney Swifts start to gather in large flocks, often in cities and towns, roosting in large chimneys.
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