a very large crow

A large Osprey-sized bird flying up the creek this morning in the fog proved to be a very large crow. A large crow? Wait a moment...an Osprey-sized crow would be a Raven! Before I could confirm this exciting sighting (it would be a first for the property), it had vanished into the mist. Was I fooled by the well-known fact that objects appear larger in the mist than in real life? In fact, with Common Ravens nesting at the Hampton Bays water tower -- four miles or less to the east (as the raven flies, of course) -- seeing one here is no longer such an extraordinary possibility.

Otherwise it was a quiet morning with some calls and songs around the edges -- Yellow Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, Chipping Sparrow, Great Crested Flycatcher -- to liven things up slightly. No Common Yellowthroat songs; where are these birds? Then the fog cleared, the weather changed dramatically, the tide dropped, and a Willet and a Great Egret dropped into the pond. The Egret didn't like me standing there and popped out almost as fast as he dropped in; but the Willet hung around to do his or her toilette. No sign of that stuck-in-the-mud turtle that I 'rescued' the other day so perhaps it was just zoning out by taking a mud bath.

Following yesterday's post about Horseshoe Crabs and birds at Pike's Beach, Ken Thompson sent me the attached photograph of a female laying eggs in the sand. Hope the SOFO program at Pike's on Saturday produces a bunch of these.

Eric Salzman