Flycatchers & flowers

The hot weather brings out insects and the insects bring out the flycatchers. Two Great Crested Flycatchers and an Eastern Phoebe turned up by the house yesterday evening to hunt in the last light of day. The orange skippers that I mentioned in yesterday's post were still flying and I became concerned that the flycatchers would turn into skippercatchers but, as far as I could tell, the butterflies survived. Then again this morning, an Eastern Phoebe turned up on the other side of the woods in an open area near a neighbor's garden (the Phoebe is a bird that has become more common around here as a migrant and a breeder). And two Great Crested Flycatchers -- possibly the same ones that I saw last night -- were active on the edge of the marsh, even flying across and around the marsh itself, not the usual habitat for these woodland birds. Like the ones seen last night, they were silent (adult Great Cresteds usually make a lot of noise and even male-female pairs seem to talk to each other). Also one of them at least appeared to have a rounded head without any trace of a crest. Could they have been young birds (in other respects, they looked like the adults)? Great Crested, like Phoebes, are early flycatchers, arriving in April but the second week in June would seem to be a week or two early for mature-looking flying young.

There are other local birds that definitely have flying young, notably the Carolina Wren, a non-migratory species, which has become an early and prolific nester in these parts. When I started birding years ago, Carolina Wrens were South Shore rarities, decimated by the cold winters. Now they are one of a long list of southern species that are flourishing here, as good an evidence of climate warming as I can think of. The brood that hatched and fledged around the house appears to have dispersed but there is another brood active at the edge of the woods near the point where the old (and original) right of way comes into the property from Randall Lane. A curious feature of these broods is that the male sings loudly and continuously even as the young birds scatter into the underbrush. Is he signaling to his offspring? Trying to attract attention away from the vulnerable youngsters? Or both?

The Arrow-wood Viburnum, with its white umbrella floral clusters, is in full bloom in and around the woods and our common local morning glory -- I think it is Hedge Bindweed, Convolvulus sepium -- is already starting to bloom. The rampant Bittersweet is covered with blossoms that are hardly noticeable because they are green. And the Nightshade is starting to bloom; like the reviled Bittersweet, it's an alien weed but it had a very striking little purple and yellow flowers that add an exotic touch to the landscape. The clusters of red berries that will follow are like little tomatoes which is not surprising since they are in the same family. The question is how poisonous these berries might be. We used to call this plant Deadly Nightshade but I suspect that the berries are no more deadly than the tomato (which was once also considered poisonous). However I have no plans to test out this theory and I don't recommend that you try it either. The solanums are a collection of plants that are edible, poisonous, hallucinogenic and even medicinal but, outside of the cultivated tomato and fully ripe potato tubers, I would not pretend to know which or which part of what is which.

Eric Salzman