two small birds

A Saltmarsh Sparrow popped up out of the marsh this morning, the first that I've seen this year. Saltmarsh Sparrows are not uncommon in the Shinnecock Bay marshes to the south and I have a suspicion that they breed in the Pine Neck (De Ropp Refuge) marsh on the other side of the creek from us. But they are not so very common on this side and it always takes a little effort to get a decent look. I flushed it a couple of times before it perched on a reed and spied me spying it: big-headed and flat-headed with an orange triangle on the face, a large light-colored bill, streaking on the upper breast and sides and a short sharp tail (they used to be called Sharptail Sparrows). That is, the sparrow, not me.

Also got a good look at a bird I hear every day but is usually hidden in the dense tree canopy: Pine Warbler. This one was working the lower branches of some small evergreens and even dropped to the ground a couple of times. It was a large, fairly well colored male with yellow spectacles, yellow throat and breast, light streaking on the sides of the breast, gray-blue wings with white wing bars, white belly and undertail. It also showed a feature that is rarely noted: a white tail flash as it moved from one tree to another. The bird had a beakful of insects which it did not swallow as it continued to hunt suggesting that it was gathering them up to bring to a nest full of nestlings -- as close as I have ever come to proving that this species is breeding in the vicinity. The nests are usually high up and very difficult to find; I waited on this male to see if I could follow his route back to the nest but he merely continued to hunt and was certainly not ready to give away any Pine Warbler secrets.

Eric Salzman