fall migration already?

Fall migration is underway!

The first sign of it here is the appearance of the Northern Waterthrush, a bird that does not breed on Long Island (it's main nesting habitat is in northern forest bogs and wetlands) but regularly appears here in the latter part of July or early August. And indeed, it arrived here last night, pretty much on schedule.

Actually fall migration begins in late June (!) with the arrival of Long-billed Dowitchers and, somewhat later, the appearance of Spotted Sandpiper on our pond and marsh (but Spotted Sandpiper is a sparse local breeder). But the waterthrush heralds the movement of land birds.

Rough-winged Swallow flying on the marsh. Young Yellowthroats still being fed by their mother. That pesky young Spizella sparrow was perched high on a dead branch this morning -- a beautiful morning but wet with dew; he/she was probably drying himself off before descending to the ground to search for food. It still looks like a Field Sparrow but is still probably a young Chipping, the product of a local nest. Spizella sparrow young tend to all look alike.

A pair of large grayish crinkly mushrooms with white gills that turned pink (pink spores) and with firm woody stems turned out to be Pluteus cervinus or the Fawn Mushroom (usually depicted as more brownish but it can vary in color). This mushroom is edible but it does not get raves for its culinary qualities and we elected not to try it.

On another note, the local nut trees -- Black Walnut and Hickory -- are dropping their tree nuts; I used to try and collect them and extract their meat but I found it very difficult in both cases: the Mockernut Hickory because the meat is so small (there is a reason for the common name) and impossible for the Black Walnut (huge messy effort involved and, inevitably, bits of shell end up mixed in with the edible bits). How does one get the meat out of a Black Walnut nut without the shell?

Eric Salzman