warblers, Warbling Vireos and a cuckoo

After yesterday's amazing warbler wave at Hunters Garden, I decided to try my luck at Bald Hill, a somewhat similar spot in the Manorville Hills and a lot easier to reach on foot from a trail off the Moriches-Riverhead Road. And there were a few warblers there including Magnolia (new for the season), Parula, Black-throated Green, Black-and-white, Pine, Yellowthroat, and Ovenbird. I didn't refind the orange Scarlet Tanager that I saw a few days ago although there were singing tanagers in the vicinity. Birds seen included Veery, Red-eyed Vireo, Eastern Towhee and a flood of active, noisy Baltimore Orioles. But the best bird of the morning was heard, not seen: a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, the first one detected in a while.

Meanwhile, an Ovenbird appeared on the East Quogue property (only the third E Quogue warbler of the year) and the Great Crested Flycatcher continued to haunt the woods around the house, delivering his somewhat raucous calls from the treetops. He seemed to follow me around, appearing in one part of the woods and then again in another spot (perhaps there was more than one bird). And, in a nice touch, there was a pair of Warbling Vireos working high in the oaks on the edge of the property. I'm rather certain they were a pair as one was singing softly and intermittently to the other in a throaty warble that seemed to hold them together.

Eric Salzman