Mid-summer in mid-May?

Today's warm, humid and sunny weather produced a torrent of early morning song and I thought for sure there would be some migrant warblers in the mix. But almost every warbler call turned out to be clear Yellow, Yellowthroat or Pine Warbler signature tunes. Unless you count a Red-eyed Vireo as an honorary warbler, there was only one notable warble on the place this morning: a singing Blackpoll. 'Singing' or even 'warbler warble' are relative terms; the Blackpoll utters a dainty little tsit-tsit-tsit, high-pitched and high in the tree-tops. But it was enough for me to identify it and I eventually found him nosing around in the high oak tassels.

Incidentally, Red-eyed Vireo pays us a visit every spring but never seems to hang around and nest (there are plenty of nesting Red-eyes in the upland oak woods, Hunter's Garden being a good example). But this fellow is really singing away like he means business. Ms Olivaceus, are you listening?

There were two other First of the Seasons: a Green Heron being chased up by a Red-winged Blackbird from the marsh and a Spotted Sandpiper in the mud at the neck of the pond. Green Heron used to breed right on the property and probably still does somewhere in the area. Spotted Sandpiper is a tougher call but a few may breed somewhere on the East End.

Eric Salzman