Great Bay Blvd 10/14--Nelson's Sparrow

Annoying little birdies those Nelson's Sparrows are. It's whack-a-mole birding when you go looking for them. One pops up briefly, dives down. While you're looking for that one, out of the corner of your eye you see another, which disappears when you turn. Meanwhile another one, or the first one, jumps up, perches for a moment, then it's gone. You know they're running around like mice in beach grass but there's no possibility of spotting one unless it happens to run around the muddy path you're on. 

This was what it was like this morning on the beach at Great Bay Inlet where a friend I'd met up the road and I spent around 45 minutes traipsing around the mud, grass and puddles coming up with anywhere from 3 to 6 sparrows for a possible combined viewing time of 20 seconds. But, the good news, is that we both went to Great Bay Blvd to find them and we did even if they didn't give the field guide looks for more than an eye blink. 

As I've said before, I think late September/early October is the best time to bird Great Bay Blvd because you never know what's going to fall out of the sky into the cedars and reeds that line the 4 or so miles from the from the first bridge to the end of the road. 

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Some of the surprises today were a Brown Creeper on a dead cedar, Red-breasted Nuthatches feeding in the road, and a Clay-colored Sparrow in the grove to the inlet. Pine Siskins were abundant but this Pine Siskins are abundant everywhere. The tide was going out, which may have kept the shorebird numbers down, though there were plenty of Black-bellied Plovers to look through unsuccessfully for an American Golden. As usual, the wader were well-represented, with the cedars at both wooden bridges full of Black-crowned Night-Herons along with one Yellow-crowned (immature). I didn't feel too much like playing Where's Waldo with them, otherwise I'm certain I'd have found more if I'd just stared long and deeply enough into the branches. An impressive number of Double-crested Cormorants, in sinuous flocks, were flying overhead throughout the morning. 

If you include the Mallards, Caspian Tern, and Northern Cardinal I had at Holly Lake, just up the road before the WMA begins, the day's list totals 51. 

American Black Duck  3

Mourning Dove  1

Clapper Rail  2    Heard

Black-bellied Plover  45

Semipalmated Plover  2

Dunlin  27

Least Sandpiper  1

Greater Yellowlegs  7

Laughing Gull  3

Herring Gull  55

Great Black-backed Gull  1

Double-crested Cormorant  500

Great Blue Heron  1

Great Egret  47

Snowy Egret  6

Tricolored Heron  2

Black-crowned Night-Heron  9

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  1

Turkey Vulture  1

Osprey  1

Northern Harrier  1

Bald Eagle  2

Belted Kingfisher  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1

Northern Flicker  2

Merlin  1

Eastern Phoebe  1

Golden-crowned Kinglet  1

Ruby-crowned Kinglet  2

Red-breasted Nuthatch  4

Brown Creeper  1

European Starling  30

Northern Mockingbird  1

House Finch  4

Pine Siskin  20    Irruption

American Goldfinch  2

Chipping Sparrow  2

Clay-colored Sparrow  1   
Much lighter than chipping no line through eye

Dark-eyed Junco  3

White-crowned Sparrow  2

White-throated Sparrow  2

Nelson's Sparrow  3

Song Sparrow  25

Swamp Sparrow  1

Eastern Towhee  2

Red-winged Blackbird  40

Boat-tailed Grackle  120

Yellow-rumped Warbler  40