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| Indigo Bunting, through windshield, flying away |
We were only at Tip Seaman Park for about 20 minutes, but in that time we racked up over 30 species, including our first Green Heron of the year, on the far shore of the lake. That's an unusual place to see one, but I guess, if you examine the habitat over there with its low water and snags to hunt from, it isn't a bad place for one to make a living.
Then we took another drive down Great Bay Blvd--third day in a row for Mike, I think. We were looking for Whimbrels. There is a brief window when you can find these big shorebirds in the county and we felt we were running out of time. And luck, as it seemed, because in the two big marshes where you usually can find them, they were absent. However, at the decrepit dock just north of the second wooden bridge, which is really the hot spot of this hot spot, I spotted a few big shorebirds on the far shore of an island in the channel. Scopes proved them to be the desired birds.
We also saw 5 Black-crowned Night-Herons flush from their usual roost in the trees that run up to the bridge. We didn't flush them on purpose but sometimes any activity can get them going. "Using the facilities" may be one of those activities.
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| Black-crowned Night-Herons with Boat-tailed Grackle in foreground |
There were a lot of shorebirds in the salt pans on both sides of the road. The tide was high yet again, so the shallow areas that exist closer to the road at low tide weren't there. Fortunately, Black-bellied Plovers, Dunlins, and Short-billed Dowitchers are easy to pick out at distance. If there were any golden plovers or Long-billed Dowitchers among them, they were not easy to pick out at a distance.
The Cape May Warbler at the end of the road seems to definitely have departed (but who knows, it may be lurking out of the wind still) and there was nothing on the beach save for more Brant. On the way back out, the hot spot continued to produce. Just north of the ever-beeping monitoring station we saw a few new sparrows for the day (White-throated and Chipping) and in the grass I spotted an all blue bird which I at first took for an Indigo Bunting. It was "only" "the" male Blue Grosbeak that has been in the vicinity this week. Too bad. We lost the bird in the bushes, then thought we saw him again up the road. Nope. That bird was the Indigo Bunting. I snapped one shot through the windshield before it flew away.
The Birding Boulevardiers spent 2 hours and 15 minutes on Great Bay, then, seeing the radar, beat it back north.
49 species
Brant 250
Canada Goose 5
Mute Swan 5 Holly Lake
Mallard 3
Greater Scaup 1 bay, first bridge
Mourning Dove 3
Clapper Rail 5 Heard
Black-bellied Plover 80
Whimbrel 6
Dunlin 160
Short-billed Dowitcher 6
Greater Yellowlegs 10
Willet 25
Laughing Gull 2
Herring Gull 100
Great Black-backed Gull 3
Forster's Tern 60
Common Loon 2
Double-crested Cormorant 100
Great Egret 40
Snowy Egret 18
Tricolored Heron 2
Black-crowned Night-Heron 5
Turkey Vulture 3
Osprey 10 nesting
Cooper's Hawk 1
Bald Eagle 1 Near destroyed nest at the end of the road
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Heard
Northern Flicker 1 Heard
Blue Jay 1 Heard
Fish Crow 3
Tree Swallow 3
Barn Swallow 20
American Robin 4
Northern Mockingbird 2
House Finch 1 Heard, Holly Lake
White-throated Sparrow 2
Seaside Sparrow 10 Heard
Song Sparrow 15
Red-winged Blackbird 50
Common Grackle 4
Boat-tailed Grackle 40
Common Yellowthroat 8
Yellow Warbler 1 Heard
Northern Cardinal 3
Blue Grosbeak 1 North of fenced in monitoring area
Indigo Bunting 1 On road, just north of fenced in monitoring area
House Sparrow 5 Around Holly Lake
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