in the wake of Jose

The tail end of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Jose prevailed this morning with fairly strong gusts of winds from the northeast and alternating cloud cover and sunshine. The stormy weather seems to have cleared out a good many birds including most of the blackbirds (Red-wings, Grackles), Gray Catbirds and House Finches. Eastern Goldfinches continued in numbers however, probably because of the wide-spread wind-blown seeds that they prefer: a few thistles and lots of Pilewort and Baccharis (or Groundsel) which have feathery attachments to their seeds; I think the House Finches are more addicted to the bigger seeds of Ivo and other marsh plants. Surprisingly there were a few warblers with fair numbers of Common Yellowthroat including at least one dead male -- cause unknown; it was a young one with a black mask coming in. Also American Redstart and Northern Waterthrush. But the best warblers were two Palms, one each from the two Palm Warbler races: the Western race which, curiously enough, is more common in the East in the fall and is yellow only under the tail and the Yellow or Eastern race which is overall yellowish. Both were enthusiastic tail waggers with eye stripes and faint breast streaking. And both were the first ones that I've seen in this fall season (yes, it's now officially fall). An Eastern Wood-pewee and an Eastern Phoebe just about complete the cast for the morning's performance. Almost all these birds were at the edge of the upper marsh where they were somewhat shielded from the winds by the woods behind. Eric Salzman