a surprise!

This morning I was walking on Randall Lane -- the dirt road that adjoins our property to the west -- when a neighbor pulled up in her car to report that two Night Herons were perched (roosting?) in a tree on her property yesterday evening. Now this spot, although not far from the head of the marsh, is a bit back from the water and seemed an unlikely spot for roosting Black-crowned Night Herons. Nevertheless she insisted that these were Night Herons, at least one of which had breeding plumage plumes. She suggested pleasantly that I talk to her husband who is more of an avian maven than she was and who had checked out the ID; she added that I was welcome to pay an evening visit to see if they came back. With that she took off and almost instantly a calling Night Heron came flying right across where we were standing!! Partly from the call and partly from my subsequent visit to the mouth of our pond, I was able to confirm that these were Yellow-crowned Nigh Herons; there were two of them and at least one had the breeding plumes!!

Yellow-crowned Night Heron makes complete sense. These birds have been more common on our pond and marsh than the Black-crowned version in recent years. And Yellow-crowns are known to nest in isolated pairs, often somewhat back from the water (unlike the gregarious and colonial Black-crowns). I have long suspected that they nsst in our area and our neighbors' fortuitous observations may well support that thesis! I'll certainly check it out tonight.

Other observations of note include the arrival of Purple Martins (a few arrived on Tuesday with larger numbers yesterday; this morning they were all noisily going about their business, no doubt settling who was mating with whom and which nest gourds will be the site of Progne domestic bliss.

On the open water pond in the middle of the marsh, there was a single Lesser Yellowlegs and several equally yellow-legged Least Sandpipers, the first of the season. Deeper into the marsh, there was some annoying rail chatter -- annoying because that's the way the bird sounded but also because, try as I might, I could not catch a glimpse.

And there was an FOS Parula Warbler joining his 'resident' cousins (Yellow, Yellowthroat and Pine) to make a four-warbler day. Hope more are coming! 

Eric Salzman