surprises

One surprise:

At the edge of the marsh -- near the spot where the trail turns up to the head of the marsh -- I noticed some leaf movement at the edge of the tree line that was clearly not due to birds or to the wind. Must be a couple of squirrels, I say to myself but lift up my binoculars anyway. Surprise! It's four raccoons about ten feet up in a jumble of tree branches, a bigger one staring straight out at me without moving and three smaller ones moving around restlessly on the adjacent branches. Mom Raccoon, glaring and watching me to see what I might do next, and her kits in broad daylight!

Second surprise:

This one was at a resting spot further inland where I have seen a pair of Robins (yes, you can tell male from female) behaving as though they had a nest nearby. Try as I might I could never find the nest. Today I watched the male with a  beak-full of insects acting as though he wanted to come in to the nest but constantly backng off, seemingly because of my presence -- he didn't want to give the nest location away. I decided to sit down and remain absolutely still, hoping to make a less threatening figure, And sure enough, after a couple of false starts, he came into some leafy branches and then quietly slipped through the leaves to the nest. Like last year's hummingbird nest, it was right over my head and just a few feet up! No wonder I couldn't find it. After he left -- virtually swooping over my head -- Mme Migratorius came in as well by the same sneaky route but she settled on the nest. There are a couple of possible explanations for this. My guess is that the male was jumping the gun and there were no chicks to feed (I didn't hear any peeping from the nest which was close and right overhead). I'm not positive but I think there are records of an overeager male offering food to the eggs! 

Eric Salzman