white throats & yellow bellies

A cool, dry morning before the clouds and rain moved in. As I mentioned yesterday, the Goldfinch and Siskin flocks have disappeared. The front line -- by the pond and the main marsh -- was not active but there was a big mixed flock moving through the hurricane blasted woods near the head of the marsh and it included several Blue-headed Vireos and Ruby-crowned Kinglets (these two comprise the migratory eye-ring set) and the first White-throated Sparrows of the season. Also Chipping and Song Sparrows, Pine, Palm and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Red-eyed and Warbling Vireos and some canopy flitters moving too fast and too high to ID. There were also two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers (hitching up the same dead stub!), Brown Creeper and, as almost every day this fall, both nuthatches. What else? Eastern Phoebe, Swamp Sparrow, Common Yellowthroat and one or two Siskins on Weesuck Avenue -- not close to where the flocks in and around the marsh had been.

A little later in the morning, Eileen Schwinn phoned to report two Bald Eagles circling over the creek. I rushed down to the water but they had already disappeared -- presumably migrants on their way.

Eric Salzman