What is it?

Yesterday I received this blurry shot of a flycatcher from Terry Sullivan who reported seeing and photographing it with Larry Penny at the East Hampton Airport (didn't say when). His question was, why did an Eastern Kingbird have a yellow mark on his forehead. I first replied with a long and learned discussion about caratenoids and diet and how red plumage might occasionally turn up as orange or even yellow (or vice-versa). Then I did a double-take. Blurry as this photograph might be, I'm almost positive that it's not a Kingbird at all but a Fork-tailed Flycatcher from the tropics! Immature Fork-tailed Flycatcher can have a shortish tail (no longer than a Kingbird) and they have gray backs and a lot more white coming up around the nape. And they have a yellow crown patch that is larger than the Eastern Kingbird's red patch and more easily displayed. A better view of the tail would have clinch this but there doesn't seem to have been any better view. I'm trying to find out when this bird was there, if it might still be around and if there are any other shots that might have been taken! Fork-tailed Flycatcher is a super vagrant from South America but, unlikely as it might seem, it turns up in North America with surprising regularity. I once had one fly across the Long Island Expressway!

Unlike the Fork-tailed, the Great Crested Flycatcher is a local -- at least in the spring and summer -- but we usually see one bird at a time. This morning there were three, all calling and clearly traveling together. This was almost certainly a family group with at least one recently fledged youngster. Great Crested Flycatcher nests in old woodpecker holes and we have plenty of those.

The two young Osprey were on the twin poles of the crane barge this morning. No sign of the Yellow-crowned Night Heron but Green Herons were active. Also the Willets who have been staying on the east side of the creek recently. .

Pokeweed everywhere is sending up little spikes with clusters of those waxy white-and-green flowers that will later turn into purple berries. Its homely companion plant, Pilewort or Fireweed, is making a late arrival on the scene, and now pushing up everywhere. Both of these plants are taking advantage of edge and understory areas that were cleared out by the hurricanes.

Eric Salzman