[nnasnet] singing marsh wrens, etc. at Hughlett last night

  • From: Tom Saunders <birdnerd53@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: nnasnet@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:01:14 -0400

All,

We'd received a report of a small fire Monday night at Hughlett Point NAP
so we took the opportunity last night to check it out. The fire burned
maybe 500 square feet of woods, not a lot, but if it hadn't been detected
when it was there is no telling how bad it could have been. Please be
careful with fire when in the woods this time of year.

Pine warblers and ovenbirds sang in the wooded section of the preserve.
Male red-winged blackbirds sang, if you can call their hoarse creaking a
song, from the marsh. Better yet, several marsh wrens sang their tinkling
song from the reeds. There were at least a dozen greater yellowlegs and
three lesser legs moving around from beach to marsh and back. A pair of
Bonaparte's gulls, one in breeding plumage, were loafing on the
northernmost point. Breeding plumage Bonaparte's look something like
laughing gulls with their black heads but they are smaller and paler, with
white on the leading edge of their wings. Four mute swans were in the lower
end of the lagoon. Best bird of the evening was an adult red-headed
woodpecker excavating a nest hole in a dead pine near where the beach meets
the woods. It has been over a year since we'd seen one of these in the
preserve.

Tom Saunders
Balls Neck

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  • » [nnasnet] singing marsh wrens, etc. at Hughlett last night - Tom Saunders