a martin madrigal and a plant parasite

The Purple Martins, all in a cluster around the colony, were in an extended, cheerful conversation -- or was it a chorus? -- this morning. In spite of my thinking that the bird were about to desert the colony and gather somewhere else to get ready for the move south, there are still over a dozen birds in the vicinity. At times the colony seems empty as though the inhabitants had vacated the premises but this morning they were gathered right on top of the martin houses, all gabbling and chirping and harmonizing away, perhaps discussing their next move. There are also still a few swallows around but literally just a few.

The Yellow-crowned Night Heron was on the pond this morning. As I came down to the edge, it flew to the opposite end of the pond where it landed on a piece of half buried wood and stared at me, clearly trying to figure out whether or not I was a threat. The much smaller Spotted Sandpiper did more or less the same thing, popping up and piping as it flew to the opposite side. When I came back to the pond about an hour later, the tide was up and the birds were gone.

An interesting development on the vegetative front is the appearance (and flowering) of Dodder or Cuscuta. This is not a difficult plant to recognize as it is a rootless, chlorophyll-less and seemingly leafless plant that has striking orange stems and small white flowers. Easy to recognize generically perhaps but not so easy specifically; there are many similar species. All of them are parasitic and the cluster that has appeared by the side of the pond seems to be parasitizing the grass growing there. Not counting fungi (which are not plants anyway), we have three parasitic or saprophytic plants: Indian Pipe, Pinesap and Dodder.

Eric Salzman