Fast changes and a bird burst

Fast changes this morning. It rained last night and there was a bird burst in the morning under uncertain skies. Then it got windy with a heavy cloud cover and a few sprinkles that seemed to presage heavy weather. But it was the edge of a front pushing through. The wind shifted to the north and the skies cleared.

The bird burst was a very active large flock moving along the woods and shrubs at the edge of the marsh. This was a bird wave dominated (as in the past few days) by the finches, Gold- and House, but also including Song Sparrows and one or two female (or immature) Indigo Buntings plus Red-breasted Nuthatches, a couple of Pine Warblers, Red-eyed Vireos, a Mockingbird, Mourning Doves, Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, a Black-capped Chickadee or two. Unlike yesterday, there were hardly any Catbirds and virtually no Blue Jays or Robins to be seen.

With the change in the wind, I thought there might be hawks but my hawk-watching seat by the pond produced exactly one Osprey. Low tide in the pond attracted Green and Great Blue Herons (the smallest and the biggest of the herons) and a Greater Yellowlegs. I also got to see something that I hardly ever see: a Belted Kingfish catching a fish. A male Kingfisher landed on a dead stub and apparently, blocked by vegetation, he did not see me sitting close by. His attention was fixed on the pond. He dove into the water more or less in front of me, came out with a fish in his beak and flew back to his perch. I could watch him jiggling the fish in his beak to face his gullet so he could gulp it down. And gulp it down he did.

Eric Salzman