Several hundred thousand birds will visit during spring migration. This makes March through August the critical time since most birds are either sitting on eggs or attending to their young. Biologists have documented 57 bird species nesting at Farmington Bay. July and August is food storage time for Wilson's phalaropes. These tiny shorebirds are commonly observed feeding in the shallows to store up energy for their migration to Argentina.
Shorebird migration continues into early fall.
September marks the beginning of the fall migration for waterfowl. Waterfowl use on Farmington Bay during peak migration can exceed 200,000 ducks. Many ducks have already left by the time the waterfowl hunting season opens in early October. Tundra swans close out the annual migrating pilgrimage during November and December. By the end of December most bird species have moved southward.