A Phalacrocorax Phestival

An overcast morning and a slightly late start on the trail revealed a lot of birds coming in high, most of them seemingly overflying and heading further inland. The biggest event of the morning was, however, the appearance of 100s -- perhaps even low 1000s -- of Double-crested Cormorants. They were perched all over the docks and, in tight formations, filling the center of Weesuck Creek extending all the way past the boatyard to the upper (and invisible) portion of the creek.. When cormorants take off their tails typically splash in the water and as these flocks moved around, the noise of 100s of tails hitting the water sounded like dozens of outboard motors going off at once. Strangely enough, these birds did not appear to be fishing at all. They apparently interrupted their migration for a short rest stop on the way south and chose a protected harbor for their landing. Within an hour or so, at least half of the birds were on their way and the others left a little later.

Two medium shore birds on the pond edge: one familiar (Greater Yellowlegs) and one uncommon (Solitary Sandpiper). The Solitary can often be found on fresh water away from the shore but it turns up on our pond or marsh only occasionally. Also, a Snowy Egret has been hanging out at the head and/or mouth of the pond, also catching the little bait fish that come swimming up and back on the change of tide. Two Great Blue Herons continue to hang out and roost in the trees just back of the marsh.

Most of the song birds that put on the early morning flight show kept right on going. The best find was an empid at the head of the marsh. This small flycatcher of the notoriously difficult genus, Empidonax had prominent wingbars, a fair-sized eyering and an overall greenish-olive coloration -- a little too large, green and peak-capped for a Least, too eye-ringy for a Willow, and too white below for a Yellow-bellied. Among the Eastern empids, that would leave Acadian and Alder with not much to choose between them.

An even bigger puzzler was a small, white-breasted bird with a short tail, a seemingly black cap, no wing bars, and a small bill, in the same area as the empid. After a lot of hemming and hawing (some kind of warbler? a vireo?), I came to the conclusion that it was a Golden-crowned Kinglet and that the supposed black cap was in fact just the upper black stripe above the eye with the effect of a lighter white stripe underneath. Why the wing bars were invisible is more difficult to explain (blame it on excessive glare caused by the bright cloudy background).

There were other birds around including many Eastern Phoebes, Yellow-rumps and Yellowthroats, Eastern Towhee, Saltmarsh Sparrow (with most of the orange restricted to the head and therefore not a Nelson's), Song and Swamp Sparrows, etc. Tree Swallows continued to make their way in small numbers across the sky and there was an accipter (probable female Sharp-shinned) and a somewhat distant Peregrine making its way across the mouth of the creek and out along the bay shoreline.

Eric Salzman