flycatcher, flubs & terrapins

All three of our larger flycatchers were active here in the past couple of days. Great Crested Flycatcher is still moving around the place; this morning, it was on the far side of the marsh with a second bird -- a young one? -- nearby. Similarly, the Eastern Phoebe was hunting in the area between a neighbor's house and a right-of-way just off the property. There were at least two birds -- one adult and one probable young bird hunting in the understory and findable by their typical soft cheeps and regular sallies through the lower limbs and leaves. The third flycatcher was the Eastern Kingbird who paid us a brief visit and then disappeared. Kingbirds have nested here in the past and the hope is that they might do so again.

Other birds of the morning: Red-eyed Vireo in canopy of the woods next to the house; Yellow Warbler back again at the nead of the marsh along with the two Yellowthroats; a curiously yellow-and-black Baltimore Oriole (only the upper breast tending towards orange).

Some corrections and additions to recent posts:

--I made an absurd mistake in a recent post. The plant that has taken over part of the old-right-of-way is not a cactus but a thistle. Well, both are rather prickly!

--Eileen tells me that Horned Lark should have been added to Saturday's Linnaean trip day list. The bird was a flyover at EPCAL but indubitably an individual of our only native lark species (which breeds at EPCAL).

--Also, I should mention that the highlight of Saturday's trip was, in many ways, not a bird but two -- not one but two -- Diamondback Terrapins trying to cross Dune Road. The first one was headed from the bay side to the ocean side and was in real danger of being run over. After ascertaining that it was not a Snapping Turtle, one of our hardy crew picked it up and delivered it to the base of the dunes where it will, no doubt, lay its eggs well beyond the dangerous road (we can only hope that it makes it back into the bay). As if that were not excitement enough, a short distance further west there was another Terrapin crossing the road, this time in the opposite lane and heading towards the bay (perhaps it had already laid its eggs). As there was a car barreling down the road (an amazing number of drivers use Dune Road as their personal Nascar speedway), there was nothing to do but wait and hold our breath. The car managed to straddle the turtle, leaving it completely unharmed. Everybody breathed a sigh of relief while the turtle, now really freaked, literally raced across the road to safety, letting us breathe again and continue our trip without further fear of terrapin tragedy.

Happy Summer!
 
Eric Salzman