phrags and a Merlin

Although conventional wisdom holds that phragmites -- the tall reed that seems to spring up everywhere but especially in wet spots and marsh edges -- is of no use to wildlife, I find that many birds use it as a place to bed down for the night or as a resting place during migration. When I walk the marsh edge at sunrise (getting easier and easier to catch these days), I often see birds stirring themselves and coming out of the phragmites to warm up or dry off in the sunlight and feed. There were Black-capped Chickadees, Yellow-rumped Warblers and American Goldfinches in that category this morning. Also, Red-winged Blackbirds commonly roost in these reeds and, on occasion, Downy Woodpeckers seem to feed on the stems. So perhaps the phragmites is not as utterly useless as some claim (or perhaps the birds are just adapting to it).

Other birds seen this morning included Eastern Phoebe, two or three Red-breasted Nuthatches, Pine and Palm Warblers and all three mimids (Catbird, Brown Thrasher, N. Mockingbird). At one point, there were two Osprey feeding on their catches (good-sized fish) next to one another on dead stubs at the far end of Pine Neck opposite plus three more birds circling over the creek. But the outstanding bird of the morning was a perched adult female Merlin at medium height on a stub overlooking the pond: a dark brown bird with a creamy stripe extending back from the eye, a weak 'moustache' (really sideburns), heavy dark streaking on the breast, striped tail and, when it finally took off, a low, powerful flight. This is the classic female (could be an immature I suppose) of the 'columbarius' subspecies, the common eastern Merlin, also sometimes called the Taiga Merlin, indicating its far-north breeding ground.

Eric Salzman