Back Birding Plum Island

I went up to Plum Island today to do some birding. I was invited to go on my friend Eric's boat, but I had these plans for a couple weeks. I had been reading the bird reports and was really looking forward to seeing shorebirds on the island.

Parker River National Wildlife Refuge is an excellent place to see migrating shorebirds in August. Large numbers of birds stop to refuel on the extensive mudflats and salt marsh. There is always a good chance of seeing a very rare bird also.

 By the time I got to the gate it was 9 am. The ranger told me that Sandy Point (an excellent place to see plovers) was full. There is a small lot and it fills up very early by beach goers. That was going to be my first stop, but I was glad for the heads up. I immediately noticed right away that there were hundreds of tree swallows flocking up and heading south. By the end of the day, I saw what was many thousands of swallows. Sometimes I'd see groups of five hundred or more.

Juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron

The shorebirds did not disappoint. I saw hundreds if not a couple thousand. Mostly I saw Greater Yellowlegs, Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers, andSemipalmated Plovers. There were also good numbers of Lesser Yellowlegs, Black Bellied Plovers, and Short Billed Dowitchers. There also many egrets including one concentration of over forty snowys. My shorebird highlight was that there were some Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs side by side and I could tell them apart. They are very tricky and experts usually can't tell them apart unless they are side by side (size and bill length).

At the Stage Island area I saw a juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron. I was birding with a kid I
met up there. He spotted the Night Heron. It had the right marks for a black   Earlier in the day sixteen  Yellow Crowned Night Herons were reported by a couple of expert birders. They are not particularly common. The whole refuge was buzzing about the sixteen together. I thought my BCNH was a yellow, but it turns out it was not.

I birded for about five hours. I saw thousands of birds but none were considered rare. None the less, I got some really good looks at many species of shorebirds which are my favorite types of birds to see. If your into birding, Plum Island in August is an outstanding place to be.

Eastern Phoebe

Snowy Egrets

Greater Yellowlegs