The Swallows Return, Big Time, To Goose Island On The Connecticut River
Whoosh! ... Whoosh! … Whoosh! …
As the sun dipped toward the western bank of the Connecticut River the other day, the first flurry of tiny birds flitted by only inches above the water, swooping, diving, spinning and whirling in a kaleidoscope of feathers.
This was the first wave of migrating tree swallows, back at one of their favorite haunts, low-lying Goose Island off Lyme, where early each evening this time of year they go on a feeding frenzy of insects before roosting en masse.
“Here they come!” I called to the kayakers in our small group who had paddled out to witness the spectacular natural spectacle.
Their response: A collective “Wow!”
But as they say on Broadway, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Soon, great clouds of swallows swarmed and swirled amid the cattails and phragmites, filling the air with a chorus of high-pitched cheeps.
“Amazing!” exclaimed Cathy Carolan of New London, paddling with her grandson, Liam, nestled in the bow. Also joining us were her husband, Paul, a friend, Steve Kurczy, and my wife, Lisa, who paddled with me in our tandem kayak. We were among a flotilla of small vessels, mostly kayaks and canoes, drawn to Goose Island for the show.
The late Roger Tory Peterson, one of the nation’s most celebrated naturalists, ornithologists, artists and bird guide authors who lived not far from Goose Island, once remarked, “I have seen a million flamingos on the lakes of East Africa and as many seabirds on the cliffs of the Alaska Pribilofs, but for sheer drama, the tornadoes of tree swallows eclipsed any other avian spectacle I have ever seen.”
I first learned about the swallows a year ago and loyal readers may recall reading my account of the experience or watching a video by The Day’s Peter Huoppi and Tim Cook:
http://www.theday.com/article/20141008/MEDIA0102/141009733/0/search
I wound up returning to Goose Island several times last year, and plan to revisit several more times this year before the swallows migrate farther south in a few weeks. It never gets old because the phenomenon, called a “murmuration,” is always different.
Last year the birds – up to a half-million of them – tended to form a giant cloud and circle high in the air before descending in seconds in a cascading vortex: Whoosh!
The other night, though, they repeatedly swooped to the island and then took off in an explosion of tiny, flapping wings, treating us spectators to a protracted, stellar performance of avian maneuvers.
“You never know what they’re going to do,” Bill Yule, educator/naturalist with the Connecticut River Museum in Essex, said when I called him the next day.
Yule explained that the swallows, which migrate from points as far north as Canada to as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, appear to respond to an imperceptible signal that directs them to swoop or soar all at once.
“Scientists call it ‘hive mind’ – a collective-intelligence, decision-making process,” he said.
He theorized the birds move in unison to thwart such predators as merlins, peregrine falcons and sharp-shinned hawks, and noted schools of small fish behave in a similar manner.
The museum (ctrivermuseum.org) is sponsoring a group paddle to watch the swallows on Monday, Sept. 14, and there also are companies that offer power boat rides, but anyone with a canoe or kayak can reach Goose Island very easily from a small launch site at the end of Pilgrim Landing Road, which is off Route 156 less than a mile north of the Baldwin Bridge.
The parking lot can only accommodate a handful of cars, so unless you arrive early it may be necessary to drop off your boat, park at a shopping center a few miles south and get a ride back to the launch.
Goose Island is less than a mile north of the launch site, and if you stay close to shore you’ll not only be in the lee of prevailing wind but also far from the wakes of large power boats that occasionally race up and down the main river channel.
Yule noted no one knows for certain when the swallows first began descending on Goose Island, but the annual migration was widely reported only relatively recently.
What’s more it’s unclear whether the same birds appear again and again during any given season, or whether different ones arrive each dusk.
Yule said most people enjoy the early evening murmuration, but die-hard bird watchers can also witness the phenomenon just before dawn.
“It’s the same thing, only in reverse,” he noted.
This information has piqued my curiosity, so one morning soon before the sun comes up I plan to check it out. I’ll let you know how I make out.
In the mean time, I hope you get a chance to paddle over to the island sometime in the next few weeks. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.
Comment threads are monitored for 48 hours after publication and then closed.