Royal Terns in May!

A mild morning, blue sky and sun, gentle shifting breezes. A distinctive call from the creek grabs my attention: Royal Terns! These striking big terns have been a regular feature in our waters in mid-summer but it is only in the past year or two that we are seeing (and hearing) them in the spring. So here they are again, almost one year to the day that I saw them in 2016.

The Osprey on the Pine Neck Point nest are both active. One (the female?) is hunched over and, I suspect may be feeding newly hatched young. The other bird (the male?) sits in an alert position on the edge of the nest before taking off to chase away an intruder and flying up the creek looking for fish.

There are now two Willets that appear regularly on our marsh and pond and one of them has started to go after me when I appear in his (I take it, it's a 'his') territory. Sometimes the two of them alight together on the dead Red Cedar on the opposite shore of the pond. Also on the marsh: a Snowy Egret (almost a rarity these days next to the common Great Egret) and a few Least Sandpipers.

Meanwhile in the upland, the Red-eyed Vireo (or another one) has been active in the oaks, I saw a female Downy Woodpecker slip into a hole (her nesting site no doubt) and a House Wren put on quite a spectacular show as this tiny bird tried to dive bomb and chase away a ginormous Red-bellied Woodpecker from his favorite tall stub. The Red-bellied did his best to pay no attention this annoying gnat, continuing to poke around in the dead wood. Eventually he departed, giving the energetic wren a respite; I suspect that the wrens have a nest somewhere in the dead wood that litters this areas near the head of the marsh.

Eric Salzman