Bank Swallows redux and a new wildflower

Bald Eagles and phalaropes are glamor birds but the recent proliferation of Bank Swallows along the South Shore has also been worthy of note. Luke Ormand reminds me that Bank Swallows have nested in the cut at Mecox and also in coastal dunes at Sagg Pond. I've also seen them at Wainscott Pond and in Westhampton at or near the dunes. But Bank Swallows were noticeably absent this morning from our East Quogue marsh so perhaps the numbers seen earlier in the week were late migrants afer all. I'll keep looking for them.

I found a small stand of a new wildflower coming up in the damp soil near the head of the marsh. It took me a while to figure out what it was because I still use the old Petersen wildflower guide which is organized by color and the miniature flowers of this plant appeared to me to be quite perfectly white and three lobed. Only this morning did I see the very pale lilac tinge as well as the two thin upper lobes above the three lower lobes. I assume that would make it a lobelia, probably Nuttall's Lobelia, a southern plant at or close to the northern end of its range here. According to the books, this species is supposed to grow in sand but the plants on our place are growing in dark soil within the range of the high tides that has been inundating the marsh edges recently. Hope they survive; they are rather delicate, exotic little things.

Back to the birds. There was a Black-crowned Night-Heron on the pond this morning (the morning tide is starting to be quite low). A male Am Goldfinch has been actively singing along the edge of woods and water, sometimes flying out over the creek in an elaborate extension of what I would have to describe as a Goldfinch long song. This species is noted for its late season nesting (and for its lack of defined territory). Why should this bird (I assume that it's always the same bird) suddenly become so vocal? Cedar Waxwings are also late nesters and there's a pair of them around; they don't have much of a love song but they have some high-pitched buzzy whistles which they seem to use to stay in touch; they are often in -- where else? -- Red Cedars where they appear to feed. But on what? insects? nascent cedar berries?

Eric Salzman