This morning sun rose into a partly cloudy sky with almost no wind and the continuos roar of an angry ocean unseen across the bay. The early morning tide was still low with a single young Raccoon padding about --looking for what? Can Raccoons snare a meal out of schooling bait fish? I watched and waited without seeing anything in particular. Later on the Raccoon was replaced by three elegant yellowlegs, two Greater and one Lesser, and yellowlegs, probably a Lesser, was also in the open water area in the middle of the marsh. I'll bet they can snare schooling fish!
The most striking event of the day was actually an avian feeding flock of a couple of dozen birds moving across what I call the front range-- i,e, the edge of woods facing the rising sun and the marsh at its feet. I can't be sure of how many of these birds were local and how many were migrants since, with the exception of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet and several Swamp Sparrows, all the species were local nesters. However the numbers of Northern Flickers and the sight of several coming in from across the bay suggested that these migratory woodpeckers were, well, migrants. So perhaps were some of the others -- Song Sparrows for example.
The best bird of the morning was, however, not part of this party but seen elsewhere in a high tree: a Blue-headed Vireo, a first of the season for me.
Eric Salzman
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment