bats but no owl

No sign of the Great Horned Owl. He/she/it stayed in the same pine tree roost all day yesterday hardly moving at all (he turned around once or twice on his branch and occasionally deigned to turn his head and stare down at me). The crows took occasional breathers but kept returning to the spot to chivvy their mortal enemy; all their exertions produced hardly any reaction at all. But, not surprisingly, the owl did not return to the pine tree roost where it was discovered yesterday. There were a few noisy crows flying around this morning as though they were looking for the owl and, at one point, the local Blue Jays started to call but it seemed to be much fuss about nothing.

Last night's drop in temperature produced a sunny, dewy morning with few birds. It was as if, most of the migrants of the past few days took off leaving behind just some now-familiar species: Northern Waterthrush, Commmon Yellowthroat, Black-and-white Warbler, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Hairy and Downy Woodpecker, N. Flicker and Eastern Wood-pewee.

Here's a bit of good news: in recent days there have been bats flying and feeding overhead at dusk (originally discovered by my daughter Eva last week). Bats have been badly hit by something called White Nose Syndrome so many species are in trouble. I'm not a good judge of size (and I don't know the range of bat possibilities) but I would call these small to medium. They are probably Big or Little Brown Bats, the latter being the most likely.

Kathy Goldman wants to know why I'm surprised to see hummingbirds around when they are common nesters in her area. There are several reasons why I am always delighted to see hummingbirds, especially in mid-summer. Historically they were very rare nesters on Eastern Long Island and here in E. Quogue we saw them mostly in fall migration. The big change in local numbers of hummers and the obvious increase in breeding birds is undoubtedly due to the proliferation of flowering gardens and hummingbird feeders and it is a relatively recent phenomenon. Of course, it is always a pleasure to see hummingbirds no matter how often they show up!

Kathi also reports an adult Bald Eagle at Northwest Creek. I believe Bald Eagles have started to nest again on Gardiners Island and it's likely that we'll see them nesting elsewhere pretty soon; Northwest Creek is one of the likeliest spots around (remember, you heard it here first)!

Eric Salzman