Mid-March is a relatively fun, birdy time in an otherwise bleak month. This is when some of our most celebrated and/or dreaded coastal birds start to return from wintering grounds somewhere between Florida and South America. Ospreys, Piping Plovers, and American Oystercatchers have all been reported in the last week, most a few days ahead of schedule compared with years past. But the headline this week was stolen by some birds that didn’t mean to come this far north, at least not this early. These are the annual whoopsies of early spring, the “spring overshoots,” and at least one Swallow-tailed Kite is the marquee bird kicking off that annual blooper-reel of migration fails.
Though it sure feels wintery as I type this on the first day of astronomical spring, blustery and high 30s, the season of spring overshoots began with a tropical hawk, a Swallow-tailed Kite ultimately photographed over Orleans on Monday by Abby Hipp. Likely that same bird was first seen on Saturday over Eastward Ho golf course in Chatham, right at the start of the strong southerly weekend winds. These most striking and graceful of hawks don’t nest within eight states of here, but somehow there are 11 March records for New England, 7 of those here on the Cape and Islands. I looked at recent sightings in eBird, and this is the only Swallow-tailed Kite this side of Kitty Hawk North Carolina right now.
What happens is, in much warmer places well to our south, like the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and South Florida, birds are already starting their annual journey north. Though most of these are warmth-loving species who leave this area for a reason each fall, or don’t even nest anywhere close to this far north, some of them get swept up in southerly winds and end up here or even Nova Scotia at this often-unforgiving time of year.
You know that awful blast of cold air you get at the start of the jetway when you step off the plane from your Florida vacation? I assume that is what it feels like when these southern species arrive in New England in March – a rude awakening, to say the least. I always say these are likely male birds, unwilling to stop for directions, forcing them to admit they missed the exit seven states ago.
Along with that lost Swallow-tailed Kite, there was a very early Purple Martin over the weekend, the earliest ever for the state, as well as a few Barn Swallows at least a month ahead of schedule. It’s likely that all three of these species were on their way back from South America and maybe got caught over the water somewhere off Florida before the winds brought them here. What happens next – do they go back south? Or do they do what the rest of us do in March – mill around complaining and waiting for the weather to get better?
We’ll see. These seeming migration fails are not always evolutionary dead-ends. A few Swallow-tailed Kites have been on the Cape through the summer in recent years, including a pair seen in Sandwich a couple of summers ago, hinting that they may even want to nest here. Some spring overshoots about 15 years ago turned into new nesting populations of Mississippi Kites in New Hampshire and Connecticut, well north of their typical breeding range in the deep south.
So maybe these early birds aren’t bloopers and fails after all, but rather brave pioneers seeking their fortunes in a cold, unforgiving new world, willing to risk it all to stake the first claim in a northern state. At least that’s what they’ll say to avoid admitting they missed their exit back in Jacksonville.
