the 'potato chip' bird and a 'new' warbler

Every morning when I go down to the creek, there is a American Goldfinch flying along between the woods and the water -- easy to identify with its bounding flight and its flight calls: "potato chip, potato chip, potato". Sometimes it is flying in one direction, sometimes the opposite way. Earlier in the year, I often saw this species feeding but recently I only see it in flight -- as it seems to make its daily migration between feeding and nesting (?) sites.

There are little troupes of Chickadees that make the rounds every day and they are worth checking to see what's moving with them. This morning there was a Yellow Warbler and an American Redstart, the first of the season down here (Redstarts breed on the north shore of both the North and South Forks but not around here). The Northern Waterthrushes and Common Yellowthroats are still here so that adds up to four warblers. Also joining the troupes -- at least from time to time -- are one or two Downy Woodpeckers and the two wrens, House and Carolina. I also heard the call of a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher but couldn't catch a glimpse.

Eric Salzman