Ruby and rafter

Paul Adams came over this morning to video our Ruby-throated Hummingbird nest. He is a Professor of Biology at Stony Brook and operates a locally famous "hummingbird sanctuary" on the north shore. I think he got some good material from our birds and, if he posts it, I'll let everyone on this list know about it.

The Purple Martin colony has been especially active in the past few days starting early in the morning and continuing well into the evening. Many of these birds seem to be making short flights and then landing on the tops of trees, dead or alive. I think these are young birds still in flight training and being fussed over by their parents in the sweet burbly accents that martins favor. Also the young from the Osprey nest at the tip of Pine Neck are starting to fly. I saw one bird make a short round trip from the nest, by and over the woods behind and back to the nest. A good practice flight. Not sure if the other young one has started to fly but I'll keep checking it.

There are several Spotted Sandpipers in the vicinity, many of them young birds of he year (and possibly locally born and bred). The rafter of Wild Turkeys is still here and they parade up and back through the woods, making quite a spectacle of themselves. Yes, 'rafter' is the technical term for a flock (a gaggle, a gang) of turkeys and these 17 or 18 birds certainly fit that description (except that I would have said 'a raft of turkeys' rather than 'a rafter of turkeys' but, hey, I'm not exactly an arbiter of obscure language usages).

Eric Salzman