mostly in the marsh

As I was coming out of the woods around the upper edge of the wetlands, the tide was dropping and I decided to venture out into the open marsh. Almost as soon as I had passed beyond the phragmites and out into the Spartina patens, a Wilson's Snipe jumped up and zig-zagged its way to the opposite side of the marsh. Wilson's Snipe (formerly Common Snipe and again Wilson's before that) is the American cousin of the European bird (which I saw this summer in Latvia). It was a first of the season for me.

But that's not all. Almost as soon as the Snipe had flown, something else darted low through the grass and into the higher Spartina alterniflora bordering the main water flow through the area, protesting vocally as it went. I'm not even sure if it was running or merely flying low but it disappeared entirely and no amount of coaxing or tromping around in the muck and mire could make it show itself. My guess is that it was one of the smaller rails but beyond that I cannot say.

A bit later in the day, after morning cloudiness had given way to blue skies and sunshine (and with the tide definitively gone out), I went back to the area and almost immediately flushed a Wilson's Snipe! No sign, alas, of the mystery bird.

One unusual sighting was that of a Northern Parula apparently feeding on the Marsh Elder. This plant, otherwise known as Iva frutescens, is in full display right now with its packets of white feathery tassels at the end of each of which there is a seed. Along with the Baccharis halmifolia or Groundsel (and also possibly the Phragmites or Big Reed), these plants offer nutrition to the flocks of Yellow-rumped Warblers, Black-capped Chickadees, American Goldfinches and at least three species of sparrows (Song, Swamp and White-throated) at this time of the year. Is it possible to add Parula Warbler to that list? Another unlikely denizen of the area early in the morning are Golden-crowned Kinglets which I have now seen and heard almost every day in the marsh edges. Are they also feeding on the seeds of these plants or do they find that these dense shrubs provide good cover at night?

There's one bird that has arrived in recent days and that I've now seen several times but, inexplicably, have forgotten to mention. The bird is the Black Duck which is a sometime breeder on the East End but is much more common as a migrant and winter bird on the South Shore bays. I saw a flock of six of them yesterday and again this morning.

Eric Salzman