A visitor to Hornsby during June might well be forgiven for wondering why local birders consider this place so important. A hint of the answer begins during the heat of July, as shorebirds begin returning from their Arctic and subarctic nesting grounds. The first of these shorebirds are mostly birds which failed in their breeding attempts. But by the last week of the month, hundreds of successfully breeding adults are also present, abandoning their young on the nesting grounds to insure that the fledglings won't face adult competition for the far north's rapidly decreasing food resources. By August young shorebirds begin appearing, as do the earliest southbound landbirds such as warblers and vireos.
Swallows begin massing near the lagoons, taking advantage of the summer's insect hatch.
From their nesting colonies along the Gulf of Mexico, ibises, herons, and egrets arrive at Hornsby, part of the late summer dispersal which may take them as far north as southern Canada. Most if the locally-nesting birds fall silent, as the molt their old feathers in preparation for either migration or the coming winter. September sees the peak movement of southbound landbirds. Migrant hawks begin appearing in numbers. More ducks arrive, and most of the shorebirds depart for wintering grounds far to the south.