Cattus Island CP | Brig 5/13--Whimbrel, Least Tern, Common Tern, Gull-billed Tern, Black Skimmer, Saltmarsh Sparrow

Black Skimmers, Brig

Saltmarsh Sparrow, Cattus Island

Maybe I'm not bending my neck back enough, but I am not having much luck finding warblers where I want them to be. I'd seen reports from Cattus Island yesterday that looked promising, but when I arrived this morning, after what looked like a great migration night, according to BirdCast, I came up with the proverbial bupkus. Yellow Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, Ovenbird, and that was it. Had I hazarded Reed's Road this overcast morning, it appears I might have had more success, but then, maybe it's me, not the lack of birds. I did, however, add one year bird to the list, a Saltmarsh Sparrow, way out on the peninsula. It even teed up for me for a while. I heard, then saw a couple of Seaside Sparrows in the marsh, but this one caught my attention because it stood out so well against the overall grayness of the day. 

Whimbrel, Brig

I didn't have time to go to Reed's anyway, because Shari & I had planned a Brig trip for the afternoon. I figured looking at shorebirds in open impoundments would be a relief from peering into foliage. And I was right, because there were thousands of shorebirds in the impoundments and fairly close in--Dunlins, dowitchers, sandpipers, plovers, but best of all, Whimbrels. Not thousands of them, but first one, then a scattering of them, then a couple of small flocks, all on the north dike. 

Our other new species for the year were all in the tern family. My main target for the afternoon was Black Skimmer and we had four fly by as we drove along the south dike, then came upon some roosting on a sandbar. None of them were in our favorite posture, where they lay their big beaks flat on the sand and look as if they're too depressed to move, but it was a pleasure to see them. Shari spotted our first Least Tern and our first Gull-billed Terns, and the two Common Terns we saw were in the usual place, the sluice gate at the northeast corner. 

We were there a little over 2 hours. Our list for our 8 mile loop:

46 species
Canada Goose  50
Mute Swan  10
American Black Duck  2
American Oystercatcher  2
Black-bellied Plover  6
Semipalmated Plover  16
Whimbrel  30
Ruddy Turnstone  15
Dunlin  1500
Least Sandpiper  15
White-rumped Sandpiper  7
Semipalmated Sandpiper  1000
Short-billed Dowitcher  750
Greater Yellowlegs  15
Willet  25
Laughing Gull  60
Herring Gull  10
Least Tern  1
Gull-billed Tern  10
Common Tern  2
Forster's Tern  40
Black Skimmer  10
Double-crested Cormorant  40
Great Blue Heron  4
Great Egret  11
Snowy Egret  13
Turkey Vulture  2
Osprey  6
Great Crested Flycatcher  1     Heard
American Crow  1     Heard
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  2
Purple Martin  15
Tree Swallow  2
Marsh Wren  2     Heard
Gray Catbird  1
American Robin  1
House Finch  1
Chipping Sparrow  2     Heard
Seaside Sparrow  2
Saltmarsh Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  1
Red-winged Blackbird  50
Boat-tailed Grackle  1
Common Yellowthroat  3
Yellow Warbler  3
Indigo Bunting  1     Heard