Great Bay Blvd 4/25--Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

With the rain ending a little earlier than I expected, or so the forecast showed, I headed down to Great Blustery Blvd where the rain had tapered to a thin drizzle when I first arrived. But while my car thermometer read 53, with the gusting winds it didn't feel anywhere near that warm. Still, there were birds there and better yet, there were birders there who look in spots I don't usually check. Which is how I got, finally, my year Yellow-crowned Night-Herons. On the south side of the first wooden bridge I stopped to say hello to a couple of birders I know and they told me that they had just seen two of the herons on the north side of the bridge. Truth be told, I do usually check that area, but I wasn't inclined to walk out onto the bridge this morning in the wind and wet. That is until I heard about those birds, which I have been fruitlessly searching for all month. I pulled the car over to spot where it probably wouldn't get hit, trotted back over the bridge and saw the two herons start to fly away. But before I could let out a string of expletives, they settled down into the marsh, in plain view and close enough for decent pictures. And they were adults, which eliminated the dithering over whether the immature bird you're looking at is really a Black-crowned. 

However, I rarely stop on the portion of the road that is bordered by two lines of cedars, north of the first bridge. I usually make the bulwark my first stop, as I did today. But they somehow had spotted a Caspian Tern loafing on a sand bar in the marsh. On the way out it was still there and they texted me so I could get it. I had to kind of half squat and peer through the lower branches, but there was the tern, gigantic next to the neighboring Forster's Terns. County bird for the year. 

They were also kind enough to have stopped earlier on the road to point out a pair of Short-billed Dowitchers they had seen in mixed flock of Black-bellied Plovers and Dunlins. I thought I had looked through that flock, but the one I checked was further south. Again, these birds were in a part of the marsh I tend to blow by. It's a four mile road--I can't be expected to check every inch on both sides. Again, the dowitchers were year county birds. 

I also finally heard a few Clapper Rails, state and county birds for the year. I managed to hear them on my own though I couldn't find one even though a couple sounded like they were close enough to walk over my shoes. 

We walked on the beach by the inlet, hoping to kick up some Saltmarsh Sparrows, but even though the wind was somewhat diminished and the sun teased us a few times by emerging from the gray sky, the sparrows, if they were there, were hunkered down and disinclined to show themselves. 

The walk on the beach and the trot across the bridge was about the extent of my walking there today. Not my favorite way of birding, but under the conditions, the only reasonable way to do it. 

40 species

Brant  10

Canada Goose  3

Mute Swan  4

Mallard  8

American Black Duck  2

Green-winged Teal  5     Northern part of marsh

Red-breasted Merganser  6

Mourning Dove  2

Clapper Rail  3     Heard

American Oystercatcher  4

Black-bellied Plover  90

Dunlin  250

Short-billed Dowitcher  2

Greater Yellowlegs  12

Willet  3

Laughing Gull  1

Herring Gull  75

Great Black-backed Gull  2

Caspian Tern  1     Northern part of the marsh

Forster's Tern  10

Double-crested Cormorant  25

Great Blue Heron  3

Great Egret  40

Snowy Egret  45

Black-crowned Night-Heron  3

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  2    

Osprey  1

Cooper's Hawk  1     End of the road

Fish Crow  1

Purple Martin  1

Barn Swallow  1

Carolina Wren  1     Heard

European Starling  2

American Robin  2

Seaside Sparrow  4     Heard

Song Sparrow  3

Red-winged Blackbird  50

Boat-tailed Grackle  30

Common Yellowthroat  1     Heard

Northern Cardinal  1

Black-crowned Night-Heron, in usual spot, cedars north of the second wooden bridge.