Great Bay Blvd WMA 4/26--Short-billed Dowitcher

Short-billed Dowitcher (reddish bird), with Black-bellied Plovers and Dunlins

Today on Great Bay Blvd, I stopped before the last bridge, as I usually do, and found construction vehicles on the site. This is the 2nd spot on the road where work is in progress. I think they're replacing the bulkheads. As I walked over with my scope a guy in a fluorescent yellow vest asked me if I was bird watching. I thought he was going to give me gas about not being allowed  on the little landing but instead he excitedly told me about a really "weird" bird he and his friend had seen. "It looked like a penguin." He started to describe the bird to me but it could have been anything from his description. His friend showed me a picture she had taken on her phone. "Oh, this is a good one," I said, "Black-crowned Night-heron. They roost in these trees during the day and hunt at dusk." I was hoping to find one of these birds, along with its yellow-crowned cousin, but the smart phone photo was as close as I got.

However, the shorebirds were abundant. The switch over from waterfowl to shorebirds is just about complete. I saw large flocks of Black-bellied Plovers flying over the marshes, a big concentration in one spot of Dunlins, coming into their summer plumage, reddish backs with large black spots on their bellies, and mixed in, as the photo above barely shows, my first Short-billed Dowitchers for the year.

Along with the constant song of Red-winged Blackbirds and the clicks and chirps of Boat-tailed Grackles, I heard the "pee-willet" cry of Willets at every stop I made. It is amazing how much noise a couple of birds can make--you think you're hearing a flock and look out on a point and see only a couple producing all that sound. Still, my count of 25 is probably very conservative. I was also pleased to find the Whimbrel again, almost in exactly the same spot as it was on the 18th when I last visited.

In the non-water bird category, I saw my 2nd Brown Thrasher in 2 days. Maybe this won't be the frustrating bird it usually is this year.

The day's list:
34 species
Brant  150
Canada Goose  2
Mute Swan  1
Red-breasted Merganser  2
Common Loon  2
Double-crested Cormorant  7
Great Egret  30
Snowy Egret  25
Turkey Vulture  1
Osprey  4
Clapper Rail  1    Heard
Black-bellied Plover  250
American Oystercatcher  1
Greater Yellowlegs  10
Willet  25
Whimbrel  1
Dunlin  175
Short-billed Dowitcher  4    
Laughing Gull  1
Herring Gull  100
Great Black-backed Gull  6
Forster's Tern  10
Rock Pigeon  1
Mourning Dove  1
Blue Jay  1
Barn Swallow  5
Brown Thrasher  1
European Starling  2
Eastern Towhee  1    Heard
Chipping Sparrow  2
Savannah Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  5
Red-winged Blackbird  100
Boat-tailed Grackle  75