a few migrants and a Marsh Marigold mistake

May 5, 2013

A big First of the Season that I forgot to mention before was a flyover Turkey Vulture. Only a few years ago, this was a real rarity on LI and it is still a notable bird, especially in migration.

The wind continues to blow the wrong way -- from the east/northeast -- but a few other migrants turned up yesterday, mostly identified by ear rather than by sight. These included what sounded like at least two or three Yellow-rumped Warblers, two First-of-the-Season Northern Flickers (together with Red-bellied and Downy Woodpeckers, rounding out our trifecta of breeding 'peckers) and a calling nuthatch, probably White-breasted. Also an FOS Baltimore Oriole -- heard only but unmistakeable. Other birds of the day (yesterday and today in no particular order): singing House Finch (FOS), Fish Crow, Mourning Dove, Willet, Purple Martin, Northern Mockingbird. House Wren, Blue Jay, Pine Warbler, American Robin, Tufted Titmouse, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, and both wrens, all likely or at least potential nesters.

In a very neat coincidence, Alex van Boer is working out of the Nature Conservancy property directly across Weesuck Creek. Coincidence because Alex, who is the son of the late Diane Gorodnitski (a wonderful nature photographer) and Kenton van Boer, is someone we've known since he was a sub-teen bird-watching prodigy in Sagaponack and later on Shelter Island. He is now a full-fledged naturalist with a degree from Bowdoin. His current project is a 10-week study of forest edge and saltmarsh birds, a project connected with the University of Connecticut and the Saltmarsh Habitat and Avian Research Center (SHARP). He informs me that, although I cannot see it from this side of the creek, there is indeed an Osprey sitting on the bulky Pine Neck nest,

I have recently been touting the amazing and mystifying spread of Marsh Marigold from its normal marshy haunts to edge habitat all over the place (mostly roadsides). Well the explanation turns out to be quite simple: it isn't Marsh Marigold at all! As Jean Held pointed out to me yesterday, this early spring efflorescence undoubtedly belongs to the Lesser Celandine which, unlike the Marsh Marigold, is a garden escape. Although they are actually placed in different genera, these two members of the buttercup family are strikingly similar in many respects. They both have heart-shaped leaves and large buttercup-like yellow flowers and they are both early-spring bloomers. The Marsh Marigold flower is described as made up of sepals rather than petals and that appears to be the biggest difference between them (but it would take a close-up examination to determine). This does not, of course, explain the recent explosive spread of the Lesser Celandine; like many garden plants, it would seem to have been pre-adapted to a human-altered landscape.

Eric Salzman