Swan Pond & Gabreski Airport

A warm, buggy morning with a summer feel. The Willlets were hovering around the scraggly Red Cedar on the far side of the pond, apparently supervising the swans that were feeding in what we can now call Swan Pond. It was low tide and the two adults were stirring up the pond bottom with their feet, apparently liberating enough organic bits for the five cygnets to nibble on. As I circled on the path on the edge of the marsh, a female N. Flicker exploded up from the vegetation, landed on a tree at the edge and, after hitching up the bark, flew off quietly into the woods. Perhaps it is feeding young in a nearby nest; at least I would hope so.

A trip to Gabreski (Westhampton) Airport to look for Upland Sandpiper was unsuccessful in that respect but very successful in every other way. Among the birds seen were Eastern Bluebirds, House Wren, Vesper Sparrow (see photos), Field Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Eastern Meadowlark (heard) and a Baltimore Oriole (a very yellow singing male; a surprise in the shrubby, piney vegetation of the Dwarf Pine Plains). Also: Turkey Vulture (soaring), Red-tailed Hawks (a soaring pair), Killdeer (a pair with four chicks), N. Flicker, Barn and Tree Swallows, Eastern Kingbird, Blue Jay, Northern Mockingbird and Brown Thrasher (both singing), Am Robin, Prairie Warbler, Eastern Towhee and a calling cuckoo (probably Yellow-billed). These birds were mostly in the park-like vegetation around the storage bunkers and in the adjacent Dwarf Pine Plains.

The Bluebirds, like the Tree Swallow and the House Wren, are probably breeding in one of the many holes in the various telephone poles scattered around the storage area in the back of the airport (probably excavated by Flickers although other woodpeckers may help out; unlikely as it may seem, I believe that both Downy and Hairy can also be found here). The Vesper Sparrows (there were at least two of them) were sitting on the new Homeland Security airport fence. Note the facial pattern in the left photo and the white tail feathers on the right. I should point out that, of the ten breeding sparrow species on Long Island, the Vesper is the most difficult to find. (Photos by Eileen Schwinn)

Eric Salzman