Although the weather has turned fall-ish, there has not been a big migratory movement in the wake of Irene with the exception of one group of birds: the empids. In recent days, I have seen more empids than I usually find in a whole season and some of them were even identifiable. Empids are small flycatchers of the genus Empidonax, notorious for the difficulties in separately them. They all have wing bars and most have eye rings, often quite conspicuous. They all sit upright and they mostly frequent brushy habitat. There were at least three or four Least Flycatchers, recognizable by their gray, big-headed looks and bold eye-rings. A large-ish empid with a distinct greenish tinge to its plumage was easily identified as an Acadian Flycatcher and a couple of brownish types with very narrow eye-rings were probably Alders. One missing Eastern empid was the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher which was pretty reliably reported from the Quogue Wildlife Refuge a couple of days ago.
Wednesday morning there were several empids briefly seen and not well identified. But one largish. brownish bird, well seen at eye-level, had a faintly yellowish belly, buff wing bars, white edges on the flight feathers, a short to moderate primary projection, a notably peaked cap on the rear crown and -- most significantly -- no eye-ring at all. I am all but certain that this was a Willow. This is the local breeding empid but, although it nests as near as Quogue, I have never heard its characteristic song around here. The Willow is the (relatively) common local breeding empid but, although it occurs as a breeder as near as Quogue, I have never heard its characteristic song around here and when it doesn't call, it can be very difficult to distinguish from the Alder. Not many Willows breed north of us and most of the migrant 'Traill's Flycatchers' (the old name for the Alder and Willow together before they were separated) that occur on our place are almost certainly Alders. But, unless I am very mistaken, Alders always show at least a very narrow or inconspicuous eye-ring. Even the Eastern Wood-pewee (actually the main confusion species with the Willow) has a trace of an eye-ring. But this bird, well seen close up, had absolutely none. So it goes on the property list -- right after (chronologically speaking) the Bridled Tern!
A few warblers: Black-and-white, American Redstart and our two regulars, Common Yellowthroat and Northern Waterthrush -- at least three individuals of the latter species seen at the same time this morning.
Eileen Schwinn found a Brown Pelican at Tiana Beach on Wednesday and it was still there when I dashed down for a look (see Eileen's photo attached). Dune Road suffered remarkably little damage from Irene but there was plenty of evidence of wash-over and there was still a lot of water in the road. But the most remarkable sight was the presence of literally thousands of Tree Swallows -- I would guess something like 10-15,000, perhaps more -- perched in the reeds and dune shrubs, lined up on the Dune Road wires, or swarming in the air in cyclonic form like a hurricane of swallows, most notable when flushed by a passing Kestrel or Merlin. Most of them were concentrated in the Ponquogue area but new swallows kept arriving and there were pods and flights all the way west past Tiana with many of the birds skimming low over the Spartina marshes and even seeming to enter into the now tall marsh reeds.
After I returned home, I got the idea of trying to spot the pelican with my (relatively) new spotting scope. We are exactly opposite Tiana Beach and, from the edge of our pond, I can see across Shinnecock Bay to the wooden and floating dock area where the bird has been hanging out. I was going to add Brown Pelican to the property list!!! But alas, even at the highest magnification, I couldn't locate it. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.
Eric Salzman
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