Canada Warbler on June 2!

First Canada Warbler of the year! Not only is it rather late (first week of June) but this bird was singing and feeding, not in low wet bushes (where you would expect to see a Canada Warbler) but in a low dense tree canopy. I found it, as usual, because it was persistently singing as it fed but the song was rather short, variable and hard to identify. Canada Warbler songs are typically preceded or followed by a chip but this bird was scattering its chips all over the place. It was also surprisingly difficult to spot amidst the foliage, only revealing its diagnostic features bit by bit, between the leaves and from underneath: yellow underparts, necklace, eye-ring, etc. Canada Warblers, as I discovered years ago, are rare nesters on LI; I have actually seen them carrying food to feed nestlings. So this bird might be a late migrant still heading north or a 'local' bird looking for a female and a nesting opportunity.

Another uncommon nester in these parts is the Spotted Sandpiper and there's at least one hanging around the pond and marsh. As Lorna noticed yesterday, the sandpiper likes to feed in the pond at low tide but it gets chased by the resident property owner, a very feisty male Red-winged Blackbird. He is unable to chase the bigger herons, ducks and willets but he is big enough to bully the poor little 'piper.

Eric Salzman