sod fields again

As I was completing my very wet rounds of the property yesterday morning, I got a glimpse, not of a bird but of a birder deep in the reeds at the edge of the marsh. It was Eileen Schwinn who had come to find out if I wanted to check out the sod fields off Route 51 (the Moriches-Riverhead Road) where she had seen many birds in the rain on Friday night. I jumped in the car and we went off to said sod fields where few birds were to be seen except for -- yes! -- a single Golden Plover at the far end of the fields. (Eileen went back later in the day and found a single Buff-breasted Sandpiper with a flock of Black-bellied Plovers).

The rain ended by this morning but the skies were slow to clear. Without sun and with only a light breeze from the northeast, the vegetation was still very wet and very few things were moving. Those two late summer favorites, Northern Waterthrush (at least two birds) and Common Yellowthroat were at the edge of the marsh and, for the first time, there were small flocks of American Robins, with a Flicker or two mixed in, moving across the marsh from south to north (or southwest to northeast) -- their usual track in these parts at this time of the year! Small groups of noisy Royal Terns were coming up the creek most of the day.

Eric Salzman