The Murder of Crows was crying 'Bloody Murder!' this morning and the huge racket woke me up shortly after dawn. I actually ran out in my bathroom to see what it was all about and, sure enough, a Red Fox came trotting by, seemingly oblivious to both the crows and my presence. If this is the same animal that I saw earlier in the summer, it has certainly improved in appearance as it no longer looks mangy and there is a definite spring in its step.
Two Osprey have occupied the new Nature Conservancy platform on the opposite shore of Weesuck Creek just across from us and one of them was calling consistently for some time early this morning. This was a different and very distinct calling pattern that was not familiar to me and, at first, I wasn't even completely sure that it was coming from an Osprey. These birds are not connected with the nesting pair that raising a young bird on the platform further back in the Pine Neck salt marsh but are undoubtedly part of the Osprey single socials that have been going on in recent weeks. There have been up to five or six birds participating in these rather spectacular events which usually featured one Osprey with a fish flying high and calling loudly. I was speculating at the time that this might lead to a pair formation and that the available platform would then be occupied. It now looks like that is what is happening and the calls are part of what is going on. It's quite common for Osprey to pair up at the end of the summer prior to possible breeding the following spring. They may even start building a nest; we'll see.
Speaking of Whimbrels (I was speaking of several Whimbrel sightings in yesterday's post about Saturday's ELIAS walk at Cupsogue), I could not resist posting Michael Lotito's excellent photographs of a Whimbrel taken last week at Heckscher State Park on the Great South Bay, to the west (not that far away as the Whimbrel flies).
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