Scout's honor!

Went out this morning with Eileen Schwinn and Vinnie Cagno to scout Hunter's Garden in advance of the ELIAS trip there on Wednesday. As the road in -- off Rt. 51 -- was now double-locked, we elected to try an alternate entrance at the dirt road continuation of Hot Water Street by the Manorville Hills County Park off Rt. 111. But this too was gated and locked and, after walking a good ways in -- and realizing that we were still far from Hunter's Garden -- we elected to go back to the original gate on Rt. 51 and walk the relatively short distance in. At both places we found birds but almost all of them were local breeders. Our object was to find migrating warblers, an effort which met with no seeming success at all. The weather was overcast and somewhat drizzly with occasional break-throughs of sun and substantial wind gusts, all of which combined to make for some frustrating birding. Only after we had essentially given up and were walking out from Hunter's Garden did a pair of Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers catch our attention and lead us to a grove of trees that was full of warblers. These were most Yellow-rumped Warblers (in high spring plumage to be sure) along with a few other birds that were truly difficult to make out flitting high in the half leafed-out trees against a overbright, overcast sky. But, in addition to a Blackpoll or two, a fast-disappearing Black-and-white and an unidentified Vermivora warbler (Vermivora on its silhouette only), there was another bird of interest: a streaky yellow breast, a lot of white on the wings, a yellow face with some kind of orange marking and a thin, high-pitched one-note song. CAPE MAY WARBLER! It was the first one I've seen in about ten years and a bird that has become a real rarity on Eastern LI. In fact, judging by the calls, there were several of these birds scattering around the tops of the trees and mixed in with the Yellow-rumps. We worked hard to earn that bird but it made all our efforts worthwhile.

The breeding warblers were Ovenbird, Pine, Common Yellowthroat and Blue-wing warbler. All of these warblers, except Pine and Yellowthroat, were Firsts of the Season for me. Other firsts were Ruby-throated Hummingbird (two of 'em), Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Turkey Vulture, Eastern Pewee, Great Crested Flycatcher, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Veery, Hermit Thrush, Scarlet Tanager and Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Red-eyed Vireos were on territory and noisy Baltimore Orioles seemed to be all over the place. Ditto, alas, Brown-headed Cowbirds.

The Great Crested, by the way, was also seen and heard at our place early in the morning and appeared to have arrived last night. I thought the same of the Scarlet Tanager which I also heard singing on our place.

A short P.S.: In yesterday's blog, I made some remark about traditional farmers on Eastern LI not planting until Labor Day! What I meant, of course, was Memorial Day! 

Eric Salzman