Morning migrants and Evening Primroses

Migration is definitely in progress. At the same spot where I saw a Canada Warbler yesterday and a Least Flycatcher the day before, there was another warbler and another empid this morning -- but both of different species. The warbler was a tail-pumping Prairie. The flycatcher was a distinctly dark brown empid with a narrow obscure eye-ring, lightly buffy wingbars,and a yellow lower mandible on a smallish bill. The yellowish belly and the whiter throat suggested a young bird, probably an Alder Flycatcher (although Willow Flycatcher cannot be completely ruled out). There were also a couple of immature Common Yellowthroats as well as quite a few lurking Catbirds but these may have been local birds rather than migrants.

I notice that Canada and Prairie Warblers have also been reported in Central Park in the past day or two, a sure sign that these birds are on the move.

The number of Purple Martins around the colony seems larger than ever and there were many Barn Swallows flying as well. Are migrants beginning to join the local birds or even supplanting them? Hard to tell. Down at the shore, Tree Swallows are beginning to gather along with the Barn Swallows that are already on the move. There has also been a noticeable gathering of a few Lesser Yellowlegs all week in the grassy wet swales on the south side of Dune Road in the area almost directly opposite us on the far side of the bay. The Lesser Yellowlegs definitely have more of a preference for grassy, fresh or brackish water areas than the Greater.

The Evening Primroses have finally started to bloom, holding their lemony yellow flowers well into the day. And, in one of my favorite mushroom hunting areas in Quogue, there are a fair number of Ladies Tresses -- an orchid with a spiral of small white flowers on a single spike. I believe this species is Slender Ladies-tresses, Spiranthes gracilis, which has the peculiarity of losing its leaves before it blooms so all you see are the slender spikes with their delicate spiral of minature orchid blossoms.

Eric Salzman