pictures from Sunday

A damp, overcast coolish and windy morning. The Clapper Rail was persistently clapping from a Phragmites stand in our marsh (but never showed). I suspect the clapper (singer?) is a lovelorn male but I'm still hoping for a happy ending. Heard a Yellow-billed Cuckoo calling about half a dozen times -- sometimes just the introductory rattle, sometimes with the gulping attached. First one I've heard here this year.

Here are three species omitted from Sunday's Linnaean list: Wild Turkey, N. Cardinal (these two seen by some of us) and Field Sparrow (seen by everyone!).

The rest of this post will be devoted to photos from Sunday's Linnaean trip. (Did anybody get a photo of the Field Sparrow?)

[I apologize in advance for the differences in scale -- the smallest birds look like the biggest ones -- but it would take too much work to try and reorganize them with size corrections!]

From Bob Gunning (all taken on Dune Road from Shinnecock to Pike's Beach): Black-crowned Night Heron, Least Tern, Black Skimmer, Semipalmated Sandpiper and Piping Plover (with a tag on its l. leg):

From Mary Beth Kooper: Willow Flycatcher on perch and singing (at Pike's Beach), Tree Swallow, singing Eastern Meadowlark, Grasshopper Sparrow with food (meant for its young ones; it wouldn't go in to the nest as long as we were watching); last three photos taken at EPCAL 6/17

Eric Salzman
14 Randall Lane
P.O. Box 775
East Quogue NY 11942
phone: 718 522-3387
E-mail: es@ericsalzman.com
Web: www.ericsalzman.com