from the south

The presence of a white-winged gull at Cupsogue -- Glaucous or Iceland, whichever it might turn out to be -- is a rare case of a northern bird south of its range (all the white-winged gulls are arctic in range and are rare even in winter which is when they usually show up). But a lot of the birds seen on Saturday's ELIAS walk were southern species, some of them caught in the act of moving into our area. In fact, a case can be made that most of the changes in birdlife in recent years have been due to southern birds expanding their range to the north. Here's a list of some examples with my notations:

Brown Pelican: occasionally seen in recent years in the Moriches and Shinnecock Inlet areas; now breeding as far north as the Virginia/Maryland border and perhaps still advancing.
Great & Snowy Egrets, Tricolored & Little Blue Herons, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron: all except the Tricolored now breed in our area (the egrets are common; the Tricolored breeds on western LI)
Glossy Ibis: like the egrets and herons, this fabled species has moved northward along the coast as a breeding bird
Oystercatcher and Willet: big increases of breeding populations in recent decades (both these species have now reached Canada)
Stilts and Avocets: still rare on Long Island but both are increasing north of their southern breeding ranges
Laughing Gull: this southern gull is still relatively uncommon on the East End but increasing both as a nesting bird and as a post-breeding wanderer
Royal Tern: big increases in post-breeding dispersal every summer; now breeding as far north as Virginia (perhaps further north by now)
Sandwich Tern: still rare but increasing as a vagrant in our area
Forster's Tern: fresh juveniles at Cupsogue and Pike's Beach suggest birds that were born here; these birds are now fairly common throughout the spring and summer
Gull-billed Tern: rare but increasing on Long Island; has bred on Western Long Island
Black Tern: a midwestern (not southern) marsh species; increasing in number on the coast for unknown reasons
Black Skimmer: a southern species that has increased as a breeder over recent decades
Boat-tailed Grackle: first appeared in our area at Shinnecock a few decades ago; now extemely common at Cupsogue marshes

Among land birds, the most notable recent increases of southern birds have included Yellow-throated Warbler and Blue Grosbeak. The warbler, not to be confused with the Common Yellowthroat, was extremely rare even as a vagrant but has increased noticeably in recent years. Blue Grosbeak is a southern species now breeding in the Calverton/Manorville area

Going back half a century or more to the mid-twentieth century, we see an amazing list of southern species, formerly rare or even non-existant on Eastern Long Island which have become common residents. These include:

Chuck-will's-widow: the southern equivalent of the Whip-poor-will; turned up on our place in the 1970s when it was almost unknown hereabouts; has bred in East Quogue on and off ever since
Red-bellied Woodpecker: hard to think of it, but this bird was unknown around here before the 1970s or so.
Willow and Acadian Flycatchers: the Willow is more of a midwestern than a southern species; the Acadian increased and then has decreased in our area
White-eyed Vireo and Yellow-throated Vireo have increased somewhat in our area
Fish Crow: big increases although still not keeping up with Common Crow (the appearance of Northern Raven as a breeding bird in Hampton Bays is a dramatic exception to the south-to-north trend)
Tufted Titmice, Carolina Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and Northern Mockingbird: all formerly rare or uncommon; all have had big increases in recent decades
other southern warblers on the increase include Prothonotory and Hooded
Blue-winged, Pine and Prairie were all formerly uncommon here but are now among our most common breeding warblers

Climate Change? Global Warming? Something is going on; birds, with all their mobility, are quick to react to environmental change.

Eric Salzman