Tupelo berries and a Short-tailed Shrew

After a bit of rain and wind Thursday night, yesterday morning was dead calm and blue-sky sunny with a hot sun and a fair amount of humidity. The calm before the storm? Most of the birds were in the Tupelo grove at the head of the marsh, taking care to stoke up while good weather prevails. There is an extraordinary symbiosis between the trees and the birds. The trees 'need' the birds to distribute their seeds so they 'offer' the birds a bounty of berries. In order to signal that the berries are getting ripe, a certain percentage of the Tupelo leaves turn bright red, well in advance of the time when the other trees start to turn. The birds recognize this signal and come in to gorge themselves -- a beautiful example of what is sometimes called 'co-evolution'. Catbirds, Robins and Cedar Waxwings are in the lead with both old and young birds at the table. Other birds in the trees possibly feeding on the harvest as well were Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Starling, Black-capped Chickadee, Common Yellowthroat and American Goldfinch (two handsome males moving together in a strikingly non-competitive way). In the skies above were a couple of Chimney Swifts and Purple Martins. In the area (but not eating berries) were the usual blackbirds (Grackles and Red-wings) and corvids (Blue Jays and Crows), at least one Ruby-throated Hummingbird, a calling Northern Flicker and at least two Northern Waterthrushes, one chasing the other.

Thursday evening, a Short-tailed Shrew appeared by the entrance to the cottage that faces the driveway. This creature, immediately identifiable by its absurdly short, spikey tail, was spotted by my daughter Stephanie who recognized that it was not a rodent. We often find dead shrews but rarely see a live specimen as they tend to burrow beneath the leaves and perhaps even under the surface. These animals are reputed to have a poor sense of smell (which seems odd in view of their pointy snout) and, like their cousins, the moles, they are also said to have poor hearing and poor eyesight. This brings up the question of how they find food! But find it they do; they are reputed to be among the most common of wild animals. Shrews have the reputation of being hyperactive and this one fit the mold as it dashed up and back, under and around the little ramp leading to the door of the cottage. Shrews are not rodents. They used to be put in a category known as Insectivora, a classification that has now been abandoned as its members have been split up between several families. Our local species would be the Northern Short-tailed Shrew, Blarina brevicauda, recently split from its southern sister species.

This morning was calm and overcast, the air thick with humidity, the sound of distant surf and the hint of the huge lurking storm to come. Overhead a shorebird -- almost certainly a Lesser Yellowlegs -- came scooting across the lowering sky, its single 'tew' note call seeming to sound a storm warning. There was a Redstart working the trees at the edge of the marsh and a few Royal Terns calling out in the creek. A family of Carolina Wrens was busy in the interior underbrush and two or three Baltimore Orioles were calling from the tree tops. An ordinary morning but with the serious overlay of threat in the sullen atmosphere.

Eric Salzman