Kent McFarland, Spencer Hardy and I had a morning we'll long remember at Lake Runnemede today, more for the numbers of several migrant species we encountered than for overall diversity.  Most phenomenal was the fallout of Eastern Phoebes. Many of us have observed unusual numbers of phoebes along the Connecticut River over the past few days, as weather-stressed birds foraged over exposed mud flats and shorelines. Seeing 5-6+ birds at a single site became the norm. Today's concentration at Runnemede blew those numbers out of the water. This may sound fanciful, but we counted no fewer than 125 individuals!! They were literally swarming the shoreline and dominating the corn stubble. At one point, I counted carefully with my scope along a ~250-yard stretch of shoreline at the lake's back (western) fringe and tallied 75 phoebes. Several minutes later Spencer counted 31 birds teeing up on corn stubble and weed stalks between ground-based foraging bouts in the big central field. There were easily another 15-20 birds along the shoreline and and main dike on the lake's eastern section. It was truly mind-boggling!

Wondering if our numbers might be verging on uncharted territory, I searched eBird to determine individual high spring (March through May) phoebe checklist totals across New England and NY. Here's what I found. It's admittedly crude, but below are the all-time high total spring count and birds/hour for each state, with the week each was recorded (they're not necessarily from the same checklist). I didn't try to track down each individual checklist...

CT: 35 week of 4/8, 3.22 week of 4/1

RI: 16 week of 4/8, 3.49 week of 4/1

NY: 71 week of 3/22, 3.48/hr week of 4/1

By my calculations, our count of (at least) 125 phoebes in 2 hours and 25 minutes translates to 55.56 phoebes/hr, pretty well obliterating any earlier records in the Northeast. Interestingly, I don't believe that any of the birds uttered a single call, let alone song, during our observations (granted my hearing isn;t what it used to be...) -- they were too intent on foraging. It was an experience not to be forgotten.

While phoebes definitely stole the show, there were some other notable birds. Overall highlights among our 55 species included:

Canada Goose  5 (1 female on nest)
Blue-winged Teal  3
Green-winged Teal  5
Ring-necked Duck  54
Lesser Scaup  5
Bufflehead  5
Hooded Merganser  2
Common Merganser  30
Pied-billed Grebe  2
Great Blue Heron  4
Great Egret  1
Broad-winged Hawk  1     Clear overhead views of an adult being persistently harassed by a crow
Virginia Rail  1     Heard and seen in a Phragmites stand, back corner of western dike
Wilson's Snipe  1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  1 drumming
Northern Flicker  15
Eastern Phoebe  125     Staggering fallout! 75 counted foraging along shoreline of western 'oxbow', 31 in the corn field, 10 along the front dike; many more likely missed.
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  6
Tree Swallow  30
Carolina Wren  2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  6
Eastern Bluebird  2
Hermit Thrush  4
American Robin  25
Palm Warbler (Yellow)  15     7 in front on the dike, 5 along the back
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)  8
American Tree Sparrow  2
Field Sparrow  2
Fox Sparrow (Red)  2 (1 singing)
Dark-eyed Junco  5
White-throated Sparrow  2
Vesper Sparrow  3     In the corn stubble; Upper Valley regional fall out continues.
Savannah Sparrow  60     Undoubtedly a low count; difficult to count via repeated flushing and movement; most birds in corn stubble
Song Sparrow  60     Probably a low count; ubiquitous
Swamp Sparrow  3
Rusty Blackbird  10
Evening Grosbeak  1
House Finch  2
Purple Finch  1
Pine Siskin  1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S44690588