108 David S. Lee 



1982, personal observations). Major fall migration occurs in October, 

 and birds winter in much of the Southeast, particularly along coastal 

 areas. 



Nesting dates in the Southeast range from 12 May to 3 July 

 with no indication that pairs at southern latitudes nest any earlier 

 than those to the north. The earliest recorded egg date, for example, 

 is from Maryland (see below). Birds reported in from North Carolina 

 (NCSM records) nested from early May through mid-June. The following 

 is a list of nesting dates for the Southeast: 4 May-21 June, nesting 

 activity (15-20 May eggs laid), North Carolina (Duyck 1981); 6 June, 

 adult feeds fledglings, Tennessee (Williams 1976); 9 June, adult feed- 

 ing young, Tennessee (Nicholson and Pitts 1982); 16 June, adult and 

 fledged young, Tennessee (Nicholson and Pitts 1982); 9 June, adult 

 at nest, North Carolina (Chat 44:9); 11 June, young birds being 

 fed, North Carolina (Chat 44:9); early July, feeding young, Tennessee 

 (Nicholson and Pitts 1982); early May to mid-July (egg dates 24 

 April-5 July, nestling 20 May-27 July), Maryland (based on 320 Mary- 

 land nest records, C. S. Robbins, personal communication). 



Pattern of Range Expansion — Apparently the expansion of nesting 

 into the outer Coastal Plain of Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, 

 the southern Appalachians, Maryland, to North Carolina, and the Pied- 

 mont regions of these states occurred independently (Fig. 2). Sites 

 along major rivers and those adjacent to cleared agricultural areas 

 were the first to be colonized (i.e., 1889-1918 Mississippi River low- 

 lands). Colonization occurred rather rapidly in the mountains (1920-36 

 Maryland, by 1929 in Virginia, and northern West Virginia pre-1957), 

 and accelerated in the last decade (northern North Carolina in 1979 to 

 southwestern North Carolina by 1988). Many of these sites were along 

 rivers in the Mississippi basin. 



In the Coastal Plain the species was nesting on the Delmarva 

 as early as 1897, but was not common or widespread even by the 

 1950s and did not become so until the 1970s. Breeding individ- 

 uals did not invade northeastern North Carolina until the late 1980s. 



Their occurrence in the Piedmont seems sporadic. The earliest 

 Piedmont record from the Southeast and Atlantic states is 1894 (Mary- 

 land), but the birds did not become established. Piedmont nesting was 

 not documented until 1961 (West Virginia) and 1976 (Virginia) and 

 was not widespread until the 1980s (Maryland and Virginia). This 

 swallow is still uncommon the North Carolina Piedmont where it is 

 known from only two sites. West of the Appalachians, this species 

 had a similar history in Tennessee where the first nest was reported 

 in 1918 with no new records until the second half of the 20th Century. 

 Yet the species was nesting throughout Tennessee by 1982. 



