Belle Isle Bird List July 23

"blessed event." We put up the first Osprey pole in the Marsh in March of 1985. Within a month, that pole had been snapped and toppled into the Marsh--presumably by vandals. Within a couple of years another, sturdier pole was erected by the MBTA next to their property at the Orient Heights repair yard. Over the many subsequent years, we noticed barely any interest in that pole from passing Ospreys. Sometimes, in winter, a Snowy Owl would perch there.One year, we thought perhaps the Ospreys needed an enticement in the form of a rudimentary nest. Conal Foley climbed up the pole--can you imagine!--and threw sticks and branches up there. Nothing helped.

Meanwhile, Ospreys increased at a rapid rate along the south New England coast, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The population in the

Parker River marshes (Newburyport) also began increasing. Soon, there were successful nesting pairs at Squantum (Muswetusset Hummock) and Rumney Marsh (Oak Island). The Oak Island birds started nesting and producing young 11 years ago. Last year, for the first time, Ospreys attempted nesting at the Belle Isle platform. I didn't say "a pair of Ospreys attempted nesting" for a reason: There were three of them. Geoff Wood says two were males because they each tried to copulate with the same, presumed, female. Whether either succeeded or not we could not be sure, but so far as I know, no young were ever seen in the nest last year. I thought an adult was feeding young at one point, but I never actually saw the young. I assumed then that they were play-acting, but there is a chance that the young hatched but never got to a size where they could be seen from below. In any case, it is almost

certain that no young fledged from this nest last year. This year, everything was back to normal: The usual contingent of 3 Ospreys, lots of courting and screaming and flying about and a long bout of incubation. June came and went. Much of July went by. At Rumney Marsh, on July 1, I saw half-grown chicks in the nest. But nothing seemed to be happening to "our" birds at Belle Isle. Last week I thought I saw that same

"fake" feeding behavior that the adult displayed last year. I simply assumed that if there were young in the nest, they should be very visible by

July 15. They were not. Today, I rushed over to the marsh, late for the heron census. Arriving at 7, I routinely put the scope on the Osprey nest, just to check on it--and there was a chick with an adult. Another adult was sitting on a pole a little distance away.

It's been a long time since anything happening at the Marsh excited me quite so much. To dream of something for 21 years and then just have it unfold in

front of me--it's a "blessed event" indeed. I tried calling local folks whose cell numbers I had. I only got hold of a few, but most went over there right away and checked on the babies. I say babies (plural): After spending almost an hour watching the nest with the scope I finally saw a second chick tottering around the nest. This one looked considerably smaller than the first one I saw. In the 2 - 2½ hours that I watched, one parents or another brought 2 fish to the nest. I hope local folks can keep an eye on these chick through to fledging. I'm guessing they'll need another 10 days at least to become flight-ready.

Meanwhile, the parents have to bring increasing amounts of fish to keep themgrowing. Let's see if both chick fledge.

One other Osprey note: At one point, one of the adults began buzzing and dive-bombing a young cormorant sitting on one of the pilings in Belle Isle

Creek near the Saratoga Street Bridge. Many birds become more aggressively territorial when their young hatch. In this case, what I thought of is that

the Osprey and the cormorant go after roughly the same size fish, so the Osprey clearly needed to defend its territory from direct competition. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the parent Ospreys dive-bomb any creature that gets too close to the nest--including you! On to other matters: There were precious few herons today. It may be that I got there too late to see the big assemblage. There was a good collection of early shorebird migrants. Much larger numbers this week of dowitchers, and a lot of long-billed Semipalmated Sandpipers. I tried hard to make some of the birds with humongous bills into Westerns, but none showed the rusty plumage details for that species. This being early in the fall migration, these are undoubtedly the eastern-most Semipalmated population that breeds in Ungava--east of Hudson Bay. They tend to be the last to go through in spring and the first to arrive in fall. Also, the early birds are predominantly females, which are larger and longer billed. They lay eggs and vanish, leaving the males to incubate. In a couple of weeks we'll be seeing mostly males, and then a few weeks after that, the young of the season.

Young robins are everywhere now. There was a full-grown but apparently injured one off Palermo Street. It lay in the grass as I walked within 3

feet of it. I felt very sad for it--some cat will get an easy meal. Butterflies and dragonflies have been very scarce for the past couple of weeks. I wish I could tell you why.

Number of bird species: 27

Double-crested Cormorant 1

Great Egret 4

Snowy Egret 2

Glossy Ibis 2

Osprey 4

Killdeer 1

Greater Yellowlegs 8

Lesser Yellowlegs 12

Semipalmated Sandpiper 88

Short-billed Dowitcher 70

Herring Gull 4

Great Black-backed Gull 2

Common Tern 3

Least Tern 4

Mourning Dove 6

Downy Woodpecker 1

Willow Flycatcher 1

Tree Swallow 15

Barn Swallow 15

American Robin 30

European Starling 200

Cedar Waxwing 1

Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow 4

Song Sparrow 4

Red-winged Blackbird 2

American Goldfinch 1

House Sparrow 2

Soheil Zendeh

42 Baker Ave

Lexington, MA 02421

home phone 781-863-2392

cell phone 617-763-5637

office phone 617-528-4013