Brigantine 6/23--American Avocet

Normally, we would travel down to Bombay Hook in Delaware to see this bird:

Photo: Shari Zirlin

But every once in a while an American Avocet wends its way a little farther north and since we may not get to Delaware this summer, we went down to Brig to find it today. And we found it easily; it was in the same place it had been reported and, to make it easier, Gregory Cantrell was standing on the road with his scope on the bird when we pulled up.

That was the main attraction. A bonus would have been the reported Ruff that was found yesterday hanging out with the Black Skimmers on the sand bar where we had the Marbled Godwits last week.  The godwits were there again, but despite two trips around the loop no one, to my knowledge, reported the Ruff. We had one "maybe" from another birder we know who thought he might have had it, in bad light, around 6:20 this morning. I'll be curious to see if the Ruff shows up again--it might need a low tide to be attracted back to the impoundment.

We had our usual favorite birds--the skimmers, a few American Oystercatchers, a Caspian Tern and some Gull-biled Terns, as well as the lingering, or, at this point, summering, Ruddy Duck. The Green-head Flies were out in force, bashing against the windows of the car as we drove along, but a combination of the wafting breeze and a few good spritzes of Off! seemed to keep them off us for the most part when we ventured out of the car.

50 species for our two loops around the drive:
Canada Goose  150
Mute Swan  7
Mallard  10
Ruddy Duck  1    Stiff tail, white face, swimming in channel to right of north dike.
Double-crested Cormorant  10
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  25
Snowy Egret  20
Black-crowned Night-Heron  3
Glossy Ibis  25
Osprey  8
Bald Eagle  1
Clapper Rail  2
Black-bellied Plover  1    Basic plumage
American Oystercatcher  6
American Avocet  1    
Willet  50
Marbled Godwit  2    
Laughing Gull  300
Herring Gull  50
Great Black-backed Gull  2
Least Tern  2
Gull-billed Tern  3
Caspian Tern  1
Forster's Tern  50
Black Skimmer  25
Mourning Dove  1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  2    Visitor Ctr feeders
Peregrine Falcon  1
Great Crested Flycatcher  1
Eastern Kingbird  1
Fish Crow  1
Purple Martin  6
Tree Swallow  5
Barn Swallow  4
Carolina Chickadee  2
Carolina Wren  1    Heard
American Robin  2
Gray Catbird  2
European Starling  2
Common Yellowthroat  5    Heard
Yellow Warbler  2    Heard
Eastern Towhee  1    Heard
Chipping Sparrow  2
Field Sparrow  1    Heard
Seaside Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  2
Red-winged Blackbird  75
Common Grackle  5
House Finch  2    Picnic tables