a front produces migrants

Last night's front moving across our area produced little rain but a fair number of migrants. The most common 'new' bird was Red-eyed Vireo but there were a few warblers as well. The easiest ones to ID were a Common Yellowthroat and a Prairie Warbler. The others were "confusing fall warblers", a category named by Roger Tory Peterson in his famous Field Guide to Eastern Birds. One of these CFWs was an all yellow bird (even its weak facial markings were yellow) but it was not a Yellow Warbler. Well perhaps the plumage was not altogether yellow; it showed white tail spots when it flew. This confusing warbler was an immature female Hooded Warbler, one of the most difficult of the fall warblers to pinpoint and always a good bird in these parts! The other warbler was equally a challenge. With its contrast between light underparts and strong black-and-white wings, it belonged to that fun category of confusion sometimes known as a 'Baypoll' Warbler -- in short, either a Bay-breasted Warbler or a Blackpoll! I didn't get any impression of even faint breast streaking so I was tending to call it a Bay-breasted but the bird was not easy to see in dense foliage and my conclusion should be rated at something less than 100% accurate!

The warblers and vireos were concentrated in the foliage surrounding the upper part of the marsh and they were accompanied by many other birds -- Catbirds, Robins, Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Chickadees, Titmice, House Finches and many Goldfinches -- most of which were feeding on the Tupelo fruits which are abundant right now. There were also a number of Eastern Phoebes which, although they are flycatchers, probably eat the Tupelo berries as well. Further out on the marsh there was a Black-crowned Night-Heron in juvenile plumage and the usual early morning parade of Royal Terns over the creek. There were Ospreys moving across and a single small pointy-winged falcon -- light underneath and probably a Kestrel (the slightly larger Merlin is almost always much darker).     

Eric Salzman