The Return of the Missing Bird

All is forgiven; the Green Heron must have seen my post yesterday! I reported it as a 'missing species' but this morning it was in one of the dead trees just back of the pond and it flushed with its typical loud raucous protests. I suspect it was waiting for the tide to drop. Maybe it's nesting somewhere else in the area (Pine Neck?) or planning a late nesting around here (we have had young in a woodland nest near the house as late as September).

Gorgeous morning with sky-blue sky (not a cloud in sight). Out in the marsh I flushed a Black-crowned Night Heron and watched a Flicker streak across -- easily recognizable as a woodpecker and confirmed as to species by its white rump easily visible as it crossed in front of me and headed for the other side. A liitle further along, I had three more woodpeckers in the dead trees that surround the head of the marsh: Red-bellied, Downy and the uncommon (at least around here) Hairy, identified by its characteristic tapping, its loud, explosive, repeated 'peek' and its substantial bill, grander than that of its look-alike cousin. Also, that honorary woodpecker, the White-breased Nuthatch was in several locations; now that the family group is broken up, there seem to be nuthatches all over the place.

A brief list of some relatively new arrivals in the flower department: Deptford Pink, Queen Anne's Lace (just starting) and Sheep's Bit (try saying that name very quickly a few times in succession). This last-named, rather common in open sandy areas, is not found in my old Peterson guide and it took me quite a while to figure out what it was. Even so, I am not completely sure of the ID. Jasione montana is native to Eurasia where, as its name suggests, it is considered a plant of high places. But our plant seems to grow in a very different habitat. It turns out that there are something like 14 different species of Jasione and some of them, at least have quite similar flowers.              

Eric Salzman