two mornings

Yesterday was another calm clear morning with only very high thin (cirrus?) clouds but few birds. This morning dawned calm and humid with heavy fog on the bay and creek. Oddly enough, although the fog crept inland on both Bay and Weesuck Avenues, on either side of us, our place -- most of the inbetween -- was completely clear. Apparently the local birds -- all common species for this time of year -- decided that the Salzman property was the place to be, perhaps because they could actually see in front of their beaks! At any rate there were dozens of American Goldfinches and Purple Finches everywhere, small groups of Black-capped Chickadees and a few Tufted Titmice, numbers of Song Sparrows (seemingly missing the past few days but now back in numbers) and a list of other familiar birds including Snowy and Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Royal Terns, Robins and Flickers, lots of Gray Catbirds and Blue Jays, House Wren, American Redstart, Northern Waterthrush and Common Yellowthroat. There were a few Osprey fishing on the creek (I saw one hit the water and come back out with a fish) and a single accipiter circling overhead -- almost certainly a first-year female Sharp-shinned Hawk (small head, squared-off tail). My feeling was that, except for the acciptier, these were not necessarily new arrivals but had been concentrated by the surrounding fog.

One mystery: for the past few days there has been a series of buzzing calls coming from the marsh very early in the morning -- incessantly repeated buzzes like persistant short doorbell rings. I have the impression that I have heard this call other years but I still don't know what it is!

Eric Salzman