summer

The summer solstice and the longest day of the year went sliding by yesterday so I'm a day late in celebrating. Today dawned as a mild summer day -- warm to hot in the sunshine but rather cool in the shade. A number of birds marked the change of seasons by shutting down their springtime songs, notably the two warblers (Yellow and Yellowthroat) but not the Pine Warbler which continues its one-note-trills as it moves through the treetops. And not a peep from any of the woodpeckers. The Clapper Rail was also quiet although it did start calling again later in the morning.

But the big new bird that arrived to greet the season was quite unexpected and not at all what I was looking for: a huge Turkey Vulture perched high on a dead branch overlooking a wide angle of creek and shore on the back lot of the Aldrich Boat Yard just across Weesuck Avenue. What a sight! Before 2008 -- when Turkey Vultures arrived out here in large numbers and began to breed -- we never saw one in the summer and only rarely in migration. Now they are common floating over the Pine Barrens. But it's still unusual to see this enormous (it has a wing span of six feet) redskin-headed scavenger (not a buzzard by the way) surveying the scene for what? Dead bodies? Cathartes aura is an impressive bird overhead as it soars the sky but sitting on a perch just over your head and eyeing you closely as you pass below, it is an ugly fearsome creature indeed. Still in all, one of the wonders of Mother Nature.

Eric Salzman