winds followed by gliders, Kingfish follow by fish, shorebirds heading north

The steady winds of the past week or so seemed promising so I sat myself down by the pond facing east in the hope of seeing some raptor migration. Alas, except for a high-flying Osprey (with a fish), a single Tree Swallow and a couple of gliders (human variety), there wasn't much. What did come in was a male Belted Kingfisher who alighted on the top of the dead Red Cedar on the bank just opposite. I sat quietly watching him but he didn't do much. The breezes were mild and the sun warm enough so that, after a while, I closed my eyes and dozed off only to wake up with a splash! Surprise: the Kingfish had fished a fish out of the fishpond! He was back on his perch with his catch crosswise in his ample bill -- the right way to capture it but the wrong way to swallow. I was hoping to watch him jiggle and gulp down his prey but, with a meal securely in his beak, he wasn't so willing to put up with my near presence; after a moment or two of hesitation, he took off to eat his dinner elsewhere.

A dozen or so shorebirds came overhead melodiously calling as they worked their way in a rough V formation. The song was so sweet and repetitious and the direction so improbable that I first thought the source must have been a flock of finches. Even after I realized I realized they were shorebirds heading straight north, I was baffled. Why would they head north at this time of year? Wrong-way migration appears to be fairly common around here particularly in the fall and my guess is that many birds migrate at night off shore and when the sun comes up, turn towards the land looking for a place to set down and recharge their batteries. In our area, that means that they come in from the south and head north looking for a landing spot. That seems to be what was going on here. The birds were Yellowlegs, probably (but not certainly) the Lesser which has a sweeter song than its slightly larger relative.

With the berry eaters of recent vintage largely emptied out, there wasn't much else to report: a single Monarch butterfly and another White-throated Sparrow. I have been told that White-throats are moving along the barrier beach but the usual fall influx has not yet shown itself around here.

Eric Salzman