yellowlegs feeding frenzy

I walked down to the pond yesterday afternoon. The rain had stopped, the tide was low and there were two Greater Yellowlegs right at the head of the pond so intent on their hunter/gatherer activities that they completely ignored me. As I walked away, I heard a yellowlegs call and thought  "Did they fly away when I turned my back? How odd!" So turned around and went back to the pond and discovered that three more Yellowlegs -- also Greaters -- had come in and all five were now busy working the bounty of the low water. They were wading deep and actually swimming as they spun around and dipped in like an odd collection of phalaropes; at first, I couldn't even see the yellow legs. They were working the deepest channel of water as it flowed out from the marsh toward Weesuck Creek and, although I could never actually see their prey, there was little doubt that they were catching tiny bait fish swimming out with the tide. The feeding frenzy continued as they worked their way, undoubtedly following the school of fish, from the head of the pond to the mouth. At this point, the remaining fish seem to have made it out to sea and the yellowlegs all relaxed, unfazed even by the appearance of a muskrat swimming quickly across to its underground burrow on the west side of the pond (it's not so common to see the muskrats in broad daylight although I suppose, with all the clouds, the daylight wasn't really so broad).

This morning there was a heavy fog sitting low on the creek and bay and the temperature had warmed up considerably. Not an obvious day for a major migration but the American Robins continued to arrive for at least an hour after sunrise (there was only a Flicker or two but, as usual, lots of noisy Blue Jays). Eileen Schwinn arrived shortly afterwards, hoping to find the Tennessee Warbler that she had missed the other day and, amazingly enough, the bird (or another one) appeared, hopping in front of us in the shrubbery at eye level and offering very decent looks. It was again an immature greenish bird with an eyebrow, faint wingbars, short tail and mottled yellow underparts (less yellow on the undertail coverts).

Other birds of note were a number of Yellow-rumped Warblers (the first real 'influx' of the season), Marsh Wren, a small flock of immature Cedar Waxwings and a handsome female Hairy Woodpecker. Sharp-eyed Eileen also spotted Rocky Raccoon (it really looked like our plump old bull raccoon) on a limb of a different pine tree from his sleeping spot of past years. This pine was covered with climbing vines and afforded him much better camouflage.

Eric Salzman