Return of the Jedi

Between the raindrops, I managed to re-find some of the best birds of the past few days. The Red-shouldered Hawk came back (or never left) and I had some good views of it skimming over the woods, being chased by crows (which are almost exactly the same size and somewhat similar in shape) over the marsh, perching and flying by Aldrich Boat Yard and, eventually, heading across the creek to Pine Neck. The Clapper Rail was in the marsh, clapping away, and running around in the open area where it was joined by its familiar of recent days, a noisy Lesser Yellowlegs.

Carl Safina tells me that he once saw a Red-shouldered Hawk perched on Sunrise Highway just south of Riverhead. So it does turn up now and then although it is, for unknown reasons, a great rarity in these parts.

Otherwise the most active inhabitant of the marsh these day is the Baccharis or Groundsel, which dominates the marsh edge along with Ivo or Marsh Elder. Baccharis is 'dioecious', a fancy Greek way of saying that it has male and female plants. The male bushes have already flowered; their pale yellow are not very impressive. But the females, presumably wind pollinated, develop a bushful of bundles of white feathery bristles, each one with a seed at the bottom end, which produce a fine effect all around the rim of the high marsh. They make a bright autumn show and provide food for various finches and sparrows. For the Goldfinches, a Baccharis bush is as good as a stand of thistles (and not so very different after all).

Other late bloomers now in progress are several species of small blue and white asters. I'm going to make an attempt to ID them but asters are at least as difficult as goldenrods.

Eric Salzman