bird waves

I watched two good-sized flock of birds come in this morning. The first one, mostly in suburban vegetation on Weesuck Avenue, consisted almost entirely of common birds but in very high numbers: Gray Catbirds, Blue Jays, American Robins, Black-capped Chickadees and Song Sparrows all over the place plus a Winter Wren, a few Red-eyed Vireos, two young Baltimore Orioles, one or two White-breasted Nuthatches and a Northern Mockingbird. To what extent a wave like this consists of migrants from afar, birds from the area flocking up and/or local birds opportunistically joining in is impossible to say -- possibly a mixture of all three. But just because certain species are common and even year-rounders doesn't mean they aren't part of fall migration.

The second flock was in the Pitch Pines and adjacent vegetation between the house and the pond and was dominated by noisy Black-capped Chickadees and a number of Red-breasted Nuthatches but also included Red-eyed Vireo and Pine Warbler. Although most of them were high, there were a few birds lower down that seemed to be along for the ride: several active Eastern Phoebes and an extreme tail-wagger, the Palm Warbler. The latter was a specimen of the handsome Palm -- yellow all the way down to the undertail coverts and in striking contrast to the Pine Warbler which showed no yellow at all but a strikingly prominent eye ring. The Yellow Palm is the Eastern subspecies and it is supposed to migrate later than the very different Western Palm Warbler but this is the second one that I've seen this season.

Oh, yes, Happy Fall!

Eric Salzman