Martins Chase Cooper's Hawk! Advance of the Forster's Terns!

Notes from a damp foggy morning.

Cooper's Hawk flying east over the marsh and creek being chased, not by Red-winged Blackbirds (as you would expect) but by noisy Purple Martins. Pretty cheeky for a swallow! Undoubtedly the presence of young birds makes them especially aggressive. Most of the young Martins appear to have hatched out and are presumably learning how to catch insects from their parents; these neophytes could be easy prey for a bird-eating accipter like the Cooper's. There are at least one or two martin pairs still feeding young in the nest; I see them going in and out of the gourds which now form their principal residences. The suitability of gourds as martin houses was first discovered by native Americans; the recent revival of the preference for these gourds is due, I believe, to the discovery that intruding House Sparrows, traditionally a problem in the old fancy martin houses, do not like the swinging gourds and leave them to the martins!

All the terns on the creek during a relatively brief period of watching were Forster's Terns. They were immediately recognizable by the black eye patch on a white face but also by the two-toned wings -- gray on the lower half contrasting with dramatically snow-white primaries. The northern advance of this southern and inland species -- usually described as a 'marsh tern' -- into our coastal area has been a notable feature of recent years. It has been regular in late summer and, as is the case with Royal Terns, a northward post-breeding dispersal has been the usual explanation. But I believe that the species is breeding at Cupsogue (Moriches Inlet area) and it now appears on Weesuck Creek in the spring and all summer long, suggesting that it also might be breeding somewhere on Shinnecock. Can the Royal Terns be far behind?

Eric Salzman