A Great Blue Heron flushed from one of the dead trees back of the pond this morning. It's unusual to see this species at this time of the year when most of our wintering Great Blues leave us and go north to breed. This bird, which I think is the same one that I've seen a few times recently, might be a first year bird that is not yet in breeding condition and decided to hang with us for now. Great Blue Herons have been absent from Long Island as nesters for a long time -- perhaps more than a century -- but I have heard rumors that they may be returning as breeders.
If you'll pardon the pun, Forster's Tern continues to turn up on the creek along with Common and Least Terns. These last two are local breeders but Forster's is a southern tern, usually considered to be a marsh tern, which is only gradually making its way up the coast to New Jersey and Western LI. It has been appearing in mid summer with the Royal Terns that come at that time. Now, however, it seems to more and more common in the springtime and it may indeed turn out to be a breeder in some of the island tern colonies at Moriches and Shinnecock Bays; it should be looked for.
A pair of Willets are regular visitors on our pond at low tide when they dig out delicious-looking worms from of the pond-bottom muck. Mmmmmm. Sometimes these birds fly at me when I wander into the marsh as if they were defending territory. I can also hear them (or another pair) yelping away on the opposite side of the creek. Pine Neck has a lot of marsh territory for these big, noisy sandpipers. They must be breeding somewhere around here.
Eric Salzman
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