Another balmy day

Another balmy sunny day. But wait; more rain is coming.That's not necessarily a bad thing for birders; a rainy day followed by clearing and warmer weather can still bring in a lot of migrants!

In the meanwhile Common Yellowthroat was singing away (weetch-ity-weeychity-weetch) at the head of the marsh where it has bred for many years. This species was on territory (at least two birds) at Hunters Garden yesterday but this morning's bird was a first of the year for our place.

Other new birds of the season were a Rose-breasted Grosbeak female (not singing) and a Brown Thrasher (singing away in its very distinctive tone and style). Yesterday I nominated the Orchard Oriole and the Grosbeak as our best singers but, according to current scientific thought, the Brown Thrasher is the world's best singer because it sings an endless array of original song phrases without repetition. Guess it's a different definition of what makes a bird song great.

Besides the Yellowthroat there were two other warblers: Black-and-White (first on the property this season) and Yellow-rumped.

A vigorously singing Scarlet Tanager was possibly a first-year male as the scarlet color was not as bright or widely spread as on the mature birds seen in the past few days. Several brilliant Baltimore Orioles were singing/calling loudly and engaging in some spectacular aerial chases. A pair of Black-capped Chickadees were seriously inspecting a hole at the end of a broken-off branch; a male and female, no doubt, inspecting and evaluating a possible nest site.

A flock of several dozen Double-crested Cormorants, silently sitting on Weesuck Creek, were undoubtedly taking a break from a long-distance migration.   

Derek Rogers tells me that Clapper Rail has been nesting on the Pine Neck marsh since at least 2008. He found a nest with hatchlings in that year and the birds have been seen in breeding season ever since. So it is not surprising that we have had calling rails on our marsh (as reported earlier this week.

Eric Salzman