Date: 8/16/25 7:44 am From: Liz Pease <lizpease...> Subject: Re: [MASSBIRD] August 15, 2025 Parker River NWR, Newburyport, Tree Swallow Bonanza..10K Flock!
Matt,
Thank you for this wonderful description (and for your beautiful post the
other day about the waning summer days -- I found it spot-on and very
poignant). I live in Salisbury near the beach, and after having breakfast
with my mom this morning, we did our usual drive through the Salisbury
Beach State Reservation and had a pretty good show of swallows there as
well, particularly along the edge of the campground across from the
playground. I remarked to my mom how I love this spectacle each year
because, as you mentioned as well, it makes even nonbirders stop and take
notice of nature. They simply have no choice!
Does anyone have any insight into what makes these certain areas prime
spots for these premigratory swallow gatherings?
Thanks,
Liz
<lizpease...>
Salisbury
On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 10:28 PM Matt S. <accipiter22...> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> It’s mid-August so it was time for my annual tree swallow trip to Parker
> River. Really, it’s one of the two or three highlights of my year. Somehow
> after I go and see the swallows I feel like the year is “complete”, which
> may sound odd for a mid-August trip, but it just does. Maybe it’s that,
> for me, this is the greatest natural spectacle I see every year, or somehow
> it feels like a book-end to spring migration. Or maybe because it feels
> like a cap on summer. I don’t know. I suppose one of the advantages of
> living close now is that I can have this cap a few times without the long
> drives.
>
> Today as soon as I was pulling in to the refuge I had a good feeling.
> There were swallows right along the road as I pulled in, and then Lot 1 had
> a few hundred in it. Some years I come and there’s not a ton, still a lot
> by almost any other standard, but not a ton by August Parker River
> standards. Today I had a feeling it would be good. It was probably the
> best flight I have ever seen. They were all along the road as I drove up,
> and just as I got to the maintenance sheds there were about 1000 to the
> north of that, and then to the south the field was boiling with swallows. I
> headed to North Pool Overlook since they seemed to be massing there, and
> they were coming up over the water and then riding up and over the dike,
> almost like they had mini thermals carrying them. Another guy was there
> watching them, and in the distance we saw something approaching, and
> realized it was this gigantic…mass…of tree swallows. It was probably close
> to 4000 in that one mass alone. It started at Hellcat and was moving
> towards us, almost like this orb or something floating along. As it got
> nearer it broke up and they started to careen all around us, above us,
> skimming the pool, skirting over the dike, festooning the trees. It was
> one of the coolest experiences I have had at Parker, or anywhere.
>
> After that I headed to Hellcat, and the shore-side had another 1500 or so,
> though the dike there was bereft of swallow, likely since they had all
> moved to NPO. There were plenty of dowitcher around, and some lesser and
> greater yellowlegs right next to each other. It really drives home the
> point that lesser are roughly killdeer sized and greater…are much larger.
> After that I worked farther down, sometimes I have good luck at stage, and
> there was a smattering there of swallow, but not much else. An
> oystercatcher had been spotted at Emerson Rocks, so I headed over there and
> had some folks that were on it with scopes let me have a peak. Always nice
> to see the clowns of the shore.
>
> At that point I figured things were settling down, I had 7500 swallows,
> not a bad haul, and I started heading out, retracking through the areas
> that were mobbed with swallows. As I pulled through the curves, I came
> around a bend just south of Lot 1 and let out a surprised expletive. Just
> ahead of me, maybe 200 yards, there was a cloud of swallows that was unlike
> anything I have ever seen. This conglomeration looked like a living
> organism made of thousands, just hovering in mid-air, and then, to the
> right, another cloud lifted off, and then another, each of them had several
> thousand swallows in it. It began streaming towards me, and I was holding
> my cellphone taking a video, forgetting that I had all my camera gear. I
> was stunned. They streamed around and behind me and the other people
> there, even people that were not there birdwatching just stopped, the birds
> literally stopped traffic. The swallows went around us, behind us, swirled
> behind, enveloped us. I am almost positive it felt like the air cooled as
> they clouded the air. I set up my camera to take video, and what I got
> does not do it justice as they flock was already thinning as it streamed
> by. I would estimate that this flock alone had 10,000 on the low end and
> maybe 13,000 on the high end. I have never seen anything like this in my
> life. After I saw that, then I felt that sense of completion and headed on
> out, smiling the whole way home, and looking forward to picking through my
> video footage.
>
>
> https://ebird.org/checklist/email?subID=S267403877 >
> That's all for now,
>
> Matt s.
> Newton, NH
> <Accipiter22...>
>
> ----------------
>
> Parker River NWR, Essex, Massachusetts, US
> Aug 15, 2025 7:49 AM - 11:53 AM
> Protocol: Traveling
> 8.905 mile(s)
> 44 species
>
> Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) 3
> Gadwall (Mareca strepera) 4
> Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) 14
> Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) 2
> American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) 1
> Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus) 4
> Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus) 6
> Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) 10
> Willet (Tringa semipalmata) 1
> Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) 2
> White-rumped Sandpiper (Calidris fuscicollis) 3
> Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla) 3
> Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis) 2
> American Herring Gull (Larus smithsonianus) 3
> Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) 1
> Least Tern (Sternula antillarum) X
> Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) X
> Double-crested Cormorant (Nannopterum auritum) 2
> Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) 14
> Great Egret (Ardea alba) 3
> Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) 4
> Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) 1
> Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) 1
> Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) 6
> Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) 3
> Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) 3
> Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) 17500 4500 npo..1000 north of
> maintenance sheds...1500 hellcat and surrounding seashore...500 along road
> aa i drove theough....then...10,000 north of lot 1!!! Tons of videos.
> Purple Martin (Progne subis) 4
> Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 1
> Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris) 1
> European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) 73
> Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) 7
> Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) 3
> American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 2
> Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) 10
> American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) 4
> Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 2
> Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) 3
> Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula) 6
> Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) 1
> Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) 1
> Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) 1
> American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla) 2
> Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) 1
>
> View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S267403877 >
> This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (
> https://ebird.org/home)
>
>
>
