When you only get to the beach a few times a year, it’s always (for me) a challenge to sort out the shorebirds. Plovers, sandpipers, peeps, all moving all the time. This year we saw many Black-bellied Plovers in various phases of plumage.
Hanging with some Sanderlings
Easier for me are the bigger guys, like this Whimbrel and his Willet companion.
No one can mistake these Laughing Gulls when they hear and/or see them.
I’ll leave you with an image of a crab that we found while walking — it’s an Atlantic Ghost Crab. Thanks, iNaturalist
The place where we stay in Florida has wonderful birding right out back – a tidal estuary which at times, can tax the ability of a northern birder who hasn’t seen a shorebird in six months. We decide just to enjoy them and not worry about getting everything sorted out – in fact that’s our general approach to birding.
It’s Florida and cool but no snow in sight — perhaps a Snowy Egret.On the far bank at low tide, hundreds of egrets, herons, ibises, and an occasional Brown Pelican congregate.On this morning, a few Roseate Spoonbills, one of our favorite birds, joined the party.But then, you look out again and there’s a gaggle of dowitchers, dunlins, willets … Some birds, like this Willet, get in closer and next post I’ll share some up close and personal yard birds.
We are enjoying good weather and birding in Cedar Key but an extra leash tug from Ginger ended up with a dropped camera and a jammed lens on my SX60 Canon. So it’s iphone time and the birds here are out there a ways.
We’ve been enjoying pelicans, ibis, oystercatchers, ospreys etc from our back deck and going on some nice outings, but missing the Canon.
We have an Osprey who spends hours on a post just behind the cottage. Here’s a shot of him – sorry about the quality.
Right beside him this morning was a yellow-crowned Night Heron.
We drove out to the little airport today and found hundreds of shorebirds whirling through the wind and alighting on the tarmac. There were hundreds of Semipalmated Plovers, and many dowitchers and sanderlings. Who knows what else was huddled in that avian mass?
A storm is coming and birds are seeking shelter. Here are a lot of Royal Terns huddled on a roof.
Earlier in the week, Sally came upon an American Bittern right at the end of our path to the river. All I had was my iPhone and the photos, in poor light, were not good. Yesterday, we saw it again, without phone or camera. Today, at the end of a long bird walk, I snuck down the path and Voila!
Our friend will be on his way southward soon but what a great backyard treat.
During a quick trip to Virginia, we drove up to Chincoteague Island for a little birding. A friend of Sally’s, Chip, met up with us for a visit to National Wildlife Refuge and was a wonderful host/guide. Not only does he know his birds and is a skilled photographer, he has a sand permit allowing him to get out closer to some of the good birding areas with his SUV. It was hot and muggy but a great chance to get reacquainted with shorebirds.
Chip not only brought his 4WD vehicle, he brought his spotting scope and shorebird knowledge.
There were a number of Tri-colored Herons doing their stealthy stalk
Looks like a Greater Yellowlegs
We watched dozens of terns, mostly Forster’s, learning to get their food, diving from he bridge to the water.
Semi-palmated Sandpipers foraging
There were many Clapper Rails about, chasing one another, acting like chickens on drugs. (Sandpiper in background.)
After supper, we went back looking for night herons without luck but did see this nice Green Heron.
Leaving the refuge, Sally spotted about a dozen Chincoteague ponies in the hazy distance, part of the wild herd that just show up here and there on the island. They were a nice end to the outing.
While staying at Galveston Beach State Park on the way home, we walked the beach several times seeing hundreds of shorebirds — mostly peeps — but a number of Ruddy Turnstones, Willets, and Laughing Gulls as well. Here are some of the peeps that I saw one evening.
Sanderlings are fun to watch as they run back and forth with the waves.
Who’s the guy in the mirror?
A banded Piping Plover — did not see the bands until processing the photo.
A Willet and Sanderling for comparison.
These tiny shorebirds, often in big skittish flocks, are a joy to watch, especially when you know that you won’t see them again until this summer in New England.
Like many birders, I subscribe to listserves for areas where I plan to travel and “lurk” on them, checking out what others are reporting in the days and weeks prior to my arrival. Thus, I was reading MASSBIRDS prior to our grandparenting trip and noting that folks were seeing some neat birds at the Salt Pannes south of Newburyport on Route 1A. I drove over the first morning after we arrived, to find several birders already in place with scopes aimed at the marshes.
As it turns out, it was the week prior to the MA Audubon’s Bird-a-Thon which is this coming weekend so birders were out in force scouting. For Bird-a-thon 2012, there are 28 teams, each supporting an individual wildlife sanctuary, a group of sanctuaries, or a Mass Audubon program. The teams are vying to see:
Which team can spot the most bird species in 24 hours
Which team can raise the most money for their wildlife sanctuary or program
I no sooner got out of the truck and got my scope set up when a guy pointed out a Stilt Sandpiper, which is a new bird for me. I asked him why he knew it was that and several folks pointed out field marks like the slightly down curved bill, the white supercillium, and a couple of other things. Later, I read a great post by Jim Berry who said,
This was a long-legged wader a little smaller than the nearby lesser yellowlegs, with a noticeable white supercilium and a fairly long bill. I couldn’t see any droop at the tip of the bill on this bird, or any color on the face yet, as it was apparently just beginning to come into alternate plumage. What clinched the ID was its behavior: bill held very vertically, the bird doing some pecking but also showing the sewing-machine-like drilling with the head underwater that is virtually unique to this species among the larger sandpipers (much faster drilling than dowitchers, whose motion reminds me of an oil derrick rather than a sewing machine).
A Stilt Sandpiper in front of a Greater Yellowlegs.
Yellowlegs departs while Stilt Sandpiper keeps feeding
We saw a flight of Glossy Ibises but could not spot the earlier-reported White-faced Ibis among them. Then, from stage left, paddled a group of Wilson’s Phalaropes which also had be reported, and were also a life bird for me. I got some poor quality photos for the record but the camera auto focused on grass in the foreground and the images were blurred.
Other birds there included Mallards and Green-winged Teal, Willets, and a Solitary Sandpiper or two. My new birder acquaintances all were hoping that the birds would hang around for the Bird-a-thon but who knows, it’s migration time.
Vermont is in the midst of the wettest May on record and while it is a problem for farmers and owners of low-lying camps, it is a boon for birders. It’s created a shorebird season.
I got this email last night from one of my friends at North Branch Nature Center: “Spread the word amongst fellow WaCo birders, its shorebird season! Along a short stretch of River Rd. between Montpelier and Middlesex (near where the Hawk Owl was seen) I had 1 Greater Yellowlegs, 2 Lesser Yellowlegs, and a Solitary Sandpiper in the flooded fields. It may be worth taking some time to scan some of these fields… when they dry up, so will our county’s shorebird habitat! Good birding, Larry”
Solitary Sandpiper (l) and Greater Yellowlegs
This morning, a followup email from the center’s director reported five sandpiper species. I went to check it out. A large cornfield off River Road in Middlesex has standing water and ducks, geese, and sandpipers.
The birds tend to blend into the stubble and I could have used another set of eyes but I managed to see a Spotted Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, several Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, a Killdeer, and a Common Merganser which came in for a nice landing right in front of me. Mallards and Canada Geese were there as well.
Common Merganser
I took some digiscoped photos which are not great quality — still learning to set up the camera and the scope. It was a great chance to see some birds that don’t normally make it into central Vermont. I did not see the Least Sandpipers reported earlier — either they left or were too tough to spot, even with a scope.
Rain is forecast for the next few days. Time to look for other shorebirds.
