Date: 3/26/25 4:48 pm From: 'Steve Mirick' via NHBirds <nhbirds...> Subject: [NHBirds] Cool Weather and record early bird arrivals
I've never been a big fan of March. It's a good time of the year to
search for rare ducks and geese after a dismal, cold February. But
March always seems to tease you with some warm days and then hit you
with cold days to shock you back into reality. I'm not sure whether
we've had above average or below average temperatures, but next week
looks miserably cold! Despite this, there have been a few early
arrivals in the last week with a few new apparent record early arrivals.
Comments below should all be qualified with "I think" regarding whether
they are record or 2nd earliest records, etc.
LESSER YELLOWLEGS - 3/21 in Walpole. Found and photographed by Wendy
Ward. RECORD EARLY. And ANOTHER reported by Marc Bouchard in Nashua on
3/23! Previous record early date of 3/30/77 in Rye. My early date for
NH is 4/8/06. Normally, the first Lesser Yellowlegs appear in late
April along the coast.
GLOSSY IBIS - 3/22 in Rye. Found and photographed by Ken Faucher.
RECORD EARLY. Previous record early date of 3/26/10 (Knapp). Normally,
the first Glossy Ibis appear in early to mid-April.
SNOWY EGRET - 3/26 in Rye. Found and photographed by me. RECORD EARLY
but just barely. Previous record early date of 3/27/16 on coast
(Lambert) and 3/27/97 in Rye (Stanley), and then 3/28/23 in Rye
(Duffy). Normally, the first Snowy Egrets appear in early April.
LEAST SANDPIPER - 3/23 in Hampton. Found and photographed by Zeke
Cornell. Not record early, but still remarkable. The record early is
3/13/20 in Hampton at the same spot! (McKillop). My earliest ever for
NH is April 13! Normally, the earliest Least Sandpipers don't arrive
until the last few days of April.
PECTORAL SANDPIPER - 3/23 in Chalestown. Found by Becky Suomala and
Zeke Cornell. Not a record, but close. The record early date 3/19/66
in Greenland (Lawrence). Normally, the first Pectoral Sandpipers
(uncommon to rare in Spring) appear in mid-April. So far, there have
been 3 total in the last week in NH!
