Maple Swamp 5/8/11

This morning's ELIAS walk in Maple Swamp was disappointing in the absence of the swarms of May migrants that have been seen here in years past but there were still some good birds and one mystery sighting that was probably an A+ bird.

The first question is always about warblers. The best sighting was a Chestnut-sided male seen often and close. I'm not sure if that bird has ever nested in Maple Swamp but it has disappeared as a breeder from most of Long Island and its return would certainly be welcome!

Other warblers: Blue-wing, Am Redstart, Ovenbird, Yellow, Common Yellowthroat, Black-and-White, Yellow-rumped and Pine, making a total of nine species in all.

Eastern Wood-Pewee was present and singing along with Eastern Phoebe and Great Crested Flycatcher. Breathtaking looks at Scarlet Tanager, Baltimore Oriole and Orchard Oriole were easy to get in the still nascent leaf canopy. A pair of Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers was foraging on the ground and in the low bushes a few feet in front of us. Red-eyed Vireo was singing but no Wood Thrushes or Veerys (Veeries?).

A resplendent male Indigo Bunting made a dramatic appearance flitting low and easy-to-see on Pleasure Drive at the beginning of the day. But the mystery bird, alas not seen by me, was at the end of the day: a sparrow in the grass at the old horse farm seen together with and in contrast to a Chipping Sparrow. This bird, seen first in the grass and then on lower branch of a Red Cedar, was described as flat-headed, streaky, with yellow on the face and colorful on the back. Both of the birders who saw it well were fairly experienced and recognized it immediately as something different and "out of place", describing it as "like a bright Seaside Sparrow". A flat-headed sparrow is almost certainly an Ammodramus but our Seasides are not colorful or bright (and probably do not visit old horse farms very often) and the adult Grasshopper Sparrow is not streaky on the front. The bird that fits is Henslow's Sparrow and I can say from personal experience that the facial color of this species, although usually described as green or olive, can look quite yellowish in the right light! At any time and place, even the suspicion of a Henslow's is a 'wow' moment!

Eric Salzman