The Turkey Point Morning Flight Count’s first day began with seasonally cool temperatures, east winds, and a light misty drizzle. The birds didn’t seem to care as 635 Bank Swallows, 448 Purple Martins, and dozens of other passerines made their way past the point with 1,374 individuals counted, the highest daily total so far.

This is an interesting phenomenon as last year’s counter, Daniel Irons, noted similar numbers of swallows with these conditions coming by the point from the southeast into an east wind, the same as this year. Whether these are actually migrants and not birds leaving a roost is the problem. Swallows prefer to fly into the wind, and if they were migrants, it begs the question of why they were all going east and why there are fewer on days with winds from any other direction. However, if you count from anywhere along the bay with these conditions, there are always loads of swallows. Hopefully, there are more days ahead with these conditions so we can attempt to better understand a swallow’s obsession with rainy conditions and an easterly breeze.

A high-pressure system eventually pushed out the clouds and precipitation, allowing some dryer air and light winds to seep in from the north. This brought several goodies, including an extremely early Nashville Warbler, 3 Prothonotary Warblers, Tennessee Warbler, and a Yellow-throated Warbler. The Orchard Orioles and Yellow Warblers also took advantage of the desirable conditions, with 104 and 72 counted since August 1st.

The pleasant N winds didn’t last long, and the temperature and humidity readings have risen for the past five days. The dawn temperature has been hovering close to 80F, but birds are still trickling by Turkey Point, seemingly unfazed by the blazing heat or the stiff SW winds. Luckily, a pattern change is looming and will bring the morning temps to the lower 60s and steady north winds for the latter half of this week.

Stay up to date on what’s been flying by visiting the Turkey Point Count project page or Trektellen for live updates every morning, or come out to The Point and see it go down in real life!

Thanks for reading, and happy birding!

Jonathan Irons