Smith Point

This is the year of the CAPE MAY WARBLER! I joined Eileen Schwinn's E.L.I.A.S. (Eastern LI Audubon Society) walk this morning at Smith Point (the western end of the Fire Island Wilderness Area and the eastern end of Smith Point County Park). The clear, cool weather with NW winds was perfect for migration. The number of warblers was not large but they were good ones. The Cape May was a male still in breeding plumage with the yellow neck, chestnut ear patch and heavily streaked breast. After many years of Cape May drought, I have seen a breeding male at Hunters Garden in the spring and I had a small group of Cape Mays on my East Quogue property for almost a week at the end of August. My guess is that a Spruce Budworm outbreak in the boreal forest has produced this bounty, the first in years. The first bird of the day was a tail-wagging Palm Warbler, seen in a bush on the edge of the parking lot. I would call this an early arrival but perhaps not as early as the ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS seen at the end of the day. This bird is known as a late migrant -- it is very rare before mid- or even late September and, like the Palm, it sometimes overwinters. There were two birds in a small thicket which I first thought were Tennessee Warblers. But they had lightly stripy breasts and the undertail coverts were yellow; one of the birds had a vague yellow wash on the upper breast and both had an eye-ring broken by a dark eyeliner with a pale whitish eyebrow above. The jizz was Vermivora and the species Vermivora Celata or Orange-crowned. Most of the warblers on the move were American Redstarts in the yellowstart plumage. A number of flycatchers were seen including Eastern Wood-pewee, Eastern Phoebe and two species of empidonax: two or three Least (big-headed, grayish with bold tear-drop eye rings) and at least two YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHERS (olive above, complete eye-ring, one with a quite bright yellow belly, the other with a washed-out yellow belly). Lots of Northern Flickers on the move along with a few American Robins, one Red-eyed Vireo and small flocks of Cedar Waxwings and American Goldfinches. One dark falcon on a fast overflight was probably a Merlin. Many Sanderlings along the shore chasing the waves. Larger waterbirds included several Great Blue Herons, 'V' flocks of Double-crested Cormorants and a fair number of Osprey. A big feature was the quite considerable movement of Monarch Butterflies. A few years ago this might have been considered a mediocre monarch migration but, after the recent scarcity of this well-known insect, it was a treat to see these numbers. There were other butterflies including Red Admiral and a 'grass' skipper, probably the Common Banded Skipper. Also quite a few dragonflies. Unlike the big dragonfly movement on Friday in East Quogue -- which consisted mostly of Green Darners and a few Black Saddlebags -- these were mostly unidentified smaller species. Alas, I have not reached the point where I can identify dragonflies in flight with the exception of the large and distinctly patterned Green Darner and the two Saddlebag species. Eric Salzman