Last night on my way back from a Boreal bird presentation in New Hampshire, I stopped for a soda at a convenience store and overhead heard a loud "pweep". It was a Swainson's Thrush somewhere hundreds of feet above me in the dark sky, beating furiously north on its way to the Boreal forest. Only two nights ago (June 5) the microphone and automatic detector set up at my house in Gardiner registered 70 Swainson's Thrush calls. Sometimes people think that just because we are in the month of June, the month where summer arrives, that the northward migration of birds has stopped.

Nope.

Migration has slowed, yes, but there are still birds moving, especially some of the Boreal birds like Swainson's and Gray-cheeked Thrushes (picked up one of those on the night of the 5th too), Mourning Warblers, and Olive-sided Flycatchers.

Swainson's Thrush Image © Bates Littlehales

To hear a Swainson's Thrush nocturnal call note recorded over my house on June 5 click here.