high tide & herons green

There must have one big high tide last night judging from the way tidal debris was moved around and also from the amount of water still on the upper marsh during low tide this morning (no doubt the amount of rainfall was also a factor). A pair of Green Herons flushed from the marsh, the first I've seen this year. Green Herons, which are highly migratory, are local nesters.

Otherwise fairly quiet as the rain finally dropped off and the sun came out. A Black-throated Blue, an amazing-looking little bird and always a favorite, was singing its buzzy little song inside the shrubbery and there's still a Yellow Warbler or two around. A pair of Osprey were circling and calling on the creek -- perhaps not the tenant holders of the Pine Neck nest (which I believe has a sitting bird). A third raptor over the creek was probably a Red-tailed Hawk and the same bird, or another of the same species, was mobbed by crows just a few minutes ago right outside the porch where I am writing this. I wonder if Red-tails could ever nest here; there's plenty of habitat and good nest trees but the crows and jays would undoubtedly conspire to drive them out.

Eric Salzman

P.S.: Lorna found an error in my Colombia trip account which states that on March 7 we drove 'south and east' into the Cauca Valley; it should have said "south and west" (the Cauca River separates the Central from the Western Cordillera in the Colombian Andes).