a May migrant morning

May 2nd is an early date for May migrants in these parts but there was a strong movement last night and quite a few birds, many of them new for the season, hit the deck this morning. Among the notables were a pair of Baltimore Orioles (male & female), a pair of Orchard Orioles (adult male and a first-year male which I at first mistook for a female), a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and a dazzling male Scarlet Tanager. Also Great Crested Flycatcher, Gray Catbird, Red-eyed Vireo, Warbling Vireo and a number of warblers, not all identified (most were in the canopy in the emerging oak leaves and tassels, silhouetted against the glare of an overcast sky). Among those which I could pick out (or identify by sound) were a handsome Blackburnian, several Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Yellow, a Parula and a Pine.

A new Osprey platform has been erected on the Pine Neck shore directly opposite us but it is not yet occupied (the huge old nest is still visible in the distance where it stands in the Pine Neck marsh). There was at least one Osprey soaring overhead and a Red-tail Hawk--presumably the same one seen yesterday--was still in the neighborhood. The Purple Martins are beginning to claim their nesting sites and pair off (if they are not actually already paired) and there are a couple of swallows about (Tree and, I think, one or two Barns). Water birds included calling Willets, a number of Great Egrets, a Belted Kingfisher, and a small Greater Yellowlegs.

Eric Salzman