yellowlegs & mantids

I found out where the yellowlegs are hiding out: in plain sight on a bulkhead opposite Aldrich Boat Yard. As far as I can see across the creek, there are not 16 but 20 birds in the flock and they all look like Lesser Yellowlegs (there might be a couple of larger ones mixed in but that may be only an effect of distance).

There are still Royal Terns coming up the creek, Double-crested Cormorants are moving over the bay in silent V-shaped formations and a pair of Black Duck flushed up from the pond (is this a mated pair?). A Hairy Woodpecker was working dead pine bark on our side and there's at least one Eastern Towhee still calling at the head of the marsh where all the sparrows are congregated -- mostly Song and White-throated but a few Swamp still in the vicinity.


About that king-size mantid that was here the other day: Terry Sullivan thinks it's a Chinese Mantid, an invasive species that he photographed eating a Monarch Butterfly (ouch) in his yard in Sag Harbor (see below).

Eric Salzman