Cape Codder
· 10/6/2014
Friday, October 6, 2014
Ask the Bird Folks
Dear Bird Folks,
So, we know that summer is officially over. What group of birds is the last to migrate south?
-Donna, Marshfield
Good idea Donna,
I like that you want to base the seasonal changes on which birds are leaving. Most people base the passing of summer on the changing color of the leaves, the amount of daylight, or the length of the line at the ice cream shop. I usually feel summer is over when those wonderful yellow buses take the kids back to school, where they belong. Or when the town stops charging $35 an hour to use the beach parking lot. (Believe me, I’m not being critical of parking lot fees – as long as the money is used to keep the school buses running, I’m all for it.)
Fall is obviously the time of a great bird migration. Birds of all shapes and sizes get out of town while the getting is good and before the getting is not so good. Which bird signals the end of summer depends on where you live and which species of birds you pay attention to the most. Here on the coast, many birders look forward to seeing the large flocks of terns staging up before they head south. Most backyard bird watchers, on the other hand, don’t even notice the terns. They are too busy counting down the days until the grackles leave.
Other people feel that summer is over when the orioles and hummingbirds stop showing up at their feeders. When the weather turns cooler, they go out and collect their sugar water and jelly feeders. They give them a good cleaning and put them away in a special location that they will totally forget about when spring returns.
For me, two species of birds signal the end of the summer. The first birds that I notice packing up to leave are the tree swallows. Somewhere around mid-August, I begin to see a dozen or so of these handsome green and white birds resting on the power lines. Seeing the swallows form into small flocks is a sign that if I can just hang on a few more weeks I might actually make it through another Cape Cod summer.
Forming a small flock is just the beginning for tree swallows. Some birds, such as the kingfisher, hate each other’s company. They migrate alone and like it that way. Other birds, particularly waterfowl, feel very comfortable being with their friends. They usually head south in flocks that may number in the hundreds. But when it comes to finding friends to migrate with, it’s hard to top the tree swallow. During migration, tree swallow flocks can reach into the hundreds of thousands.
The East Coast is a major flyway for the swallows because they are one of the few birds that are able to eat the fruit of the bayberry bush. If the insects aren’t flying, the swallows will chow down on the fragrant bayberries, which also explains why tree swallows are our best smelling swallow.
Toward the end of every summer, I receive dozens of calls from beachcombers who come upon one of these huge flocks of swallows. Some callers are in a state of panic, thinking that the end is coming. In a way, they are right, the end is coming – the end of summer
