wrong family

Bob McGrath calls me to task for having described Indian Pipe as a member of the daisy or composite family. It's a flowering plant but not a weird kind of daisy. Monotropa uniflora was never even an honorary daisy. It used to be in the Monotropaceae family along with Spotted Wintergreen and Pyrola. But now the Monotropaceae have been demoted to a subfamily or tribe of the Ericacaea, which was not named for me but is rather the heath or blueberry family! So Indian Pipe is an honorary blueberry!

Today was clamming day and on coming back in with a bucketful, a Spotted Sandpiper -- the first of the season! -- flew in over our heads and landed on the shore of the pond. Mid-July is when we usually start seeing this bird so it was right on schedule.

There's a good-sized hawk hanging around -- probably a female Cooper's. I saw it early in the morning being chased across the marsh by a flotilla of blackbirds and the screaming murder of crows a bit later on was probably precipitated by the presence of the same raptor.

Flickers continue to be highly active with two males apparently competing for the favors of a female. A few days ago, the males appeared to be challenging one another; this morning the three bird were flying around from (mostly dead) treetop to treetop but without any seeming aggression between the males. Is this still courtship activity in mid-July? Or what?

Eric Salzman