a quiet, meditative Sunday

What a difference one day makes. Yesterday morning there were literally hundreds of Yellow-rumped Warblers coming in; today I saw perhaps five or six. Today, no Red-winged Blackbird flocks, no Ruby-crowned Kinglets, no unusual sparrows, no Black or Wood Ducks, only a single Phoebe and no accipiters. But there were two Bald Eagles sitting in the dead trees at Pine Neck Point, just about where there were two Bald Eagles sitting the other day. (I couldn't tell if the plumages were similar because the morning light was showing just silhouettes but the huge size of the two birds and the fact that one bird flew in with wings flat as a board were giveaways.) One bird appeared to be a little smaller than the other but, as in most raptors, the females are bigger than the males. After an absence of a day or two, the Royal Terns came back to the creek in some numbers. Also, Belted Kingfisher (not in numbers; kingfishers come one at a time and they are very aggressive about defending their territory). Otherwise a warm, quiet, meditative Sunday. Eric Salzman