calls

Spent Saturday in the city (a new album containing my work was just released). After the thunderstorms up island I was hoping for a warbler fallout here but no such luck

One warbler though. The Common Yellowthroat was in full song in his traditional location near the head of the marsh. A call that is somewhere between 'weechy-weechy-wheech' and 'whichity-whichity-which'.

There were noisy terns on the creek and I was about to designate them as the first Common Terns of the year but when I got a closer look, all the ones that I could see well were Forster's Terns. Actually there were one or two Least Terns but I didn't pick out a single Common! I should add that the Common and Forster's calls are quite similar although Forster's is a bit higher in pitch. Is this another bit of evidence for climate change, the more southerly Forster's replacing the formerly common Common?

Another notable sound of the morning was the Green Heron's 'gunk' sound, a kind of mysterious belching low-boom call coming from high in a Pitch Pine and repeated every minute or so. When I first became aware of it -- just a few years ago -- I was truly puzzled. This is, it turns out, the Green Heron's love song, vastly different from the usual familiar call of this species. Well, at least I think it's a love call coming, as it does, in the springtime right after the bird's return from the south.

Scarlet Tanagers were still around this morning; they have been here since Thursday. Hard to tell if these are 'local' birds or migrants passing through to the north.

Eric Salzman