American oystercatchers

I headed to the shore on a beautiful, warm, sunshiny morning, and I had high hopes that maybe there'd be plenty of dragonflies and butterflies on the move, along with all sorts of birds, from raptors to swallows. But about the only thing that had left the area was evident the moment I parked and scanned the harbor: the big yachts, in residence all summer, had gone south. There was no sign of anything natural in the process of joining them. I did a two-mile, round-trip circuit of the beach, and was amazed to find almost no migrants on the go. In fact, the only species I spotted in the air was the American oystercatcher, and these handsome black and white birds, with striking red bills, were simply making short flights to escape me, when I got too close. They really should have left the area by now and headed towards Florida and the Gulf Coast, so the fact that they're still here in droves—I counted more than 50—suggests that the migration has not yet begun in earnest. Or maybe they're just in no hurry to leave. Early autumn is quite nice in southern New England, after all.