Green Herons again

Well I never found the nest but I did find the product of the nest! The Green Heron of the morning was a young bird in juvenile plumage. This bird not only had the dazed look of a recent fledgling but still had down feathers sticking out from its crown. Two other birds flew off as I approached leaving the young one to fend for him/herself. It didn't move right away and when it finally took off on its own it flew rather weakly to a nearby branch. It then flew again but remained in the area and was easy to refind. This all took place in the 'ecotone' or transition zone between the woods (where I have long suspected that Green Herons were nesting) and the marsh (where they feed).

The young bird made a kind of hissing noise -- almost snake-like! Don't recall seeing that mentioned in the field guides. These birds already have a kind of reptilian (not to say dinosaurian) look about them! Although they hunt at water's edge with the neck pulled back -- they look like a large football with a beak -- they can extend their neck until it is longer than its body. Sitting on a branch with the neck extended straight up makes and their bulky body below makes them look like a large exclamation point! And perhaps a long snake-like neck and a snakey hiss might make a good predator repellent!

Although I didn't get a good look at the two birds that flew off, they were silent and, as the adults usually call loudly when they fly up, I suspect that these might also have been young birds. The sub-adult bird I saw yesterday was probably not (as I thought) a second summer bird and may well have been one of this year's birds from the same nest. Herons begin to incubate their eggs (I believe 3-5 is normal) as soon as the first one is laid so the young do not develop evenly and do not leave the nest at the same time. Hence you can have more and less advanced birds from the same nest (sadly enough, if there is not enough food for all, the last and smallest often don't make it).

The entire edge area between the woods and the marsh was quite active this morning, especially at the head of the marsh where the Tupelos (or Pepperidge or Blackgum or Sourgum or Beetlegum or Nyssa sylvatica) are fruiting. Among the birds taking the fruits were a visiting N Mockingbird, Am Robins and many Gray Catbirds. I heard warbler chips but the only warbler seen was Common Yellowthroat: a bedraggled specimen doused in dew and a trim young male with his black mask coming in. As has been the case in the past week or so, House Wrens were also very active and noisy in the shrub area -- perhaps as many as three or four of them.

Yesterday evening between 5:30 and 6:30 pm there were as many as two dozen Common Swifts hurtling over the Westhampton green -- or, one should say, the village of Westhampton Beach; I was there to escort my granddaughter Juliette to an outdoor magic show where she also could meet up with her friends. The birds are starting to gather up to migrate in flocks even as growing-up granddaughters in juvenile plumage also begin to gather in flocks.

Eric Salzman