Birding my Weekend

As mentioned in the shad post below, I birded Thursday and Friday. I did manage to "squeeze" in five

Purple Martin

hours of fishing, but with over fourteen hours of daylight, there is plenty of time to do other things also.

My original plan involved doing a couple of "paid" bird walks. There was a walk at Plum Island on Wednesday night, two different walks on Thursday morning at two locations in Newbury, and another at Plum Friday morning. Somehow I managed to not make it to any of them. After work on Wednesday, it was very windy, I knew there wouldn't be many birds around so I chose to leave early Thursday morning. This saved me about fifty bucks (33 for a campsite and 12 for the walk, and food for supper).

 So I left Thursday morning hoping to make it to either of the two Audubon walks. However, traffic was really bad and I knew I wouldn't make it to either (one started at 8:30, the other at 9 am). There was no way I'd make it through Lowell rush hour traffic, so I changed plans and went to Oxbow NWR in Harvard. I saw some nice birds but nothing new for the year. The highlights were American Redstart, many Red Bellied Woodpeckers, Wood Ducks, Baltimore, Orioles, Red Eyed Vireo, and Yellowthroats. I also saw another Blandings Turtle and heard a Pileated Woodpecker.

After the morning rush, I left Oxbow around 11, and went to Rough Meadows Mass Audubon Sanctuary. It was small and I was there about an hour. I did see a Rose Breasted Grossbeak,Great

Blandings Turtle

Crested Flycatcher, Greater Yellowlegs.

From there I went shad fishing. After fishing I grabbed a campsite at Salisbury Beach (33 dollars). I saw some seals on the rocks, Common Eider sea ducks,and Black Bellied Plovers while walking on the beach. I went to bed about 9 pm. For the day I saw 54 species of vertebrate.

Walking up to light raindrops hitting me in the face, I was packed and ready for my day by 4:50 am. I went to Parker River NWR. My plan was to bird for a couple hours and be back at Joppa Flats to meet for the bird walk at 8am. I lost track of time and when I looked at my phone it was 8:10 am, which meant I went 0-3 on my planned walks (however I did save forty four dollars, but I am positive I would have seen more total species going with experts).

By far the highlight of my five hours of the morning was a coyote that was hunting in the Hellcat area. It was stalking something in the brush. Besides the coyote, I saw Northern Shoveler, Bobolinks, Turkey, and Willet, I drove to the end of the road at Sandy Point. There piping plover and least terns were everywhere. On the way to Sandy Point, a guy pointed out a Willow Flycatcher which was a life bird for me. At this point I realized I missed my walk.

I went back to the Hellcat area which is famous for warblers. I found a Bay Breasted Warbler and a Magnolia Warbler. Both were life birds for me. A guy pointed out the call of a Black Billed Cukoo, that I distinctly could hear. I also saw some other Redstarts, Yellow Warblers, and Marsh Wrens. All total I saw 44 species on the island.

I had lunch and drove to Mill Pond Rec Area in West Newbury. This was the site of one of Thursday

y morning's walks (the other was Rough Meadows). I didn't see much there, but did see my first ever Indigo Bunting. I listened to it call and got great looks. When I got back to my car and listened to it on my bird calls cd. Kind of a neat way to learn calls.

After Mill Pond it was only a five minute drive to my shad fishing spot, where I caught three before making the one our and fifteen minute drive home.

All total I saw 76 different species. I had a total of six life birds, but I'm only counting four (counting the Bay Breasted, Willow Flycatcher, Indigo Bunting, and Magnolia. I heard the Cukoo which counts in the birding world, but I want to see it. I also saw a female Cape May Warbler in a bush, but it was a quick look and couldn't identify any field marks.) I also had another nine first of the year animals (piping plover, least tern, bobolink, coyote,cedar waxwing, and black bellied plover, American Shad, eel, mummys,) All in all a great two days off from work.

Piping Plover