A Rained-out Beach Day...

...is still a good day if you can see gannets, my favorite bird, while lying down in bed.

And tomorrow could be even better, since I'm headed to Manomet Point for some more stormbirding.

Triskaidekaphobia

Triskaidekaphobia-the fear of the number 13

On Friday, August 13th (8/13), at 8:13, 13 birders set out from the North River Audubon in Marshfield, MA, for a morning of birding. Superstious anyone?

Our first stop was Third cliff beach in Scituate. Shorebirds numbers were low, hightlighted by a White-rumped Sandpiper and a few Piping Plovers. Other good birds were a pair of Bonaparte's Gulls, a gannet, 2 coopers hawks, and a peregrine.

Even better was the next stop, Scituate reservoir. There we found a Stilt Sandpiper and a Pectoral Sandpiper in the same field of view, with a snipe and a few more white rumps nearby.

I finished the morning with 63 species, 3 year birds, and 3 state birds. Who says Friday the Thirteenth is unlucky?

One Good Tern...

(Arctic Terns, Plymouth Beach, MA, 7/8)

... Deserves another.  However, in this case, there was not just one other good tern, but 4. On a trip to Cupsogue, a great birding location on Long Island, I saw Gull-billed, Roseate, Sandwich, and Royal Terns. A lengthy trip report will be posted as soon as I write it, which might, unfortunately, be a while.

Young Northern Rough-Winged Swallows

There were quite a few of these juvenile swallows perched on snags over the marsh at the marshlands conservancy last week:

Memorial Day Sedge Wren

Sorry I haven't posted in a while- I've had finals, and been away for the past 3 weekends. The first of those three, Memorial Day, I went to my beach house in Massachusetts. I was lucky, and there had been a Sedge Wren, rare in MA and difficult to see anywhere, at the local wildlife sanctuary, Daniel Webster Audubon.

So as soon as we arrived, I went to the sanctuary to see if I could find it. There were Bobolinks and Purple Martins everywhere- Daniel Webster is primarily a grassland (good for bobolinks) and there is a large martin colony there. A Willow Flycatcher, Great Egret, and Osprey were also notable.

I made my way to the Fox Hill observation platform, where the wren had been seen. There were two people there. Thee wren had not been seen or heard in 30 minutes, they said. After 15 minutes of waiting and listening, the wren sang, then flew directly towards us, landing in a clump of grass, then perching near the top to sing- great looks. It dove back into the grass, and emerged a ways to the right, and slightly closer. It moved around a bit more, then flew even closer, giving great looks from 10-15 feet away, before sinking into the brush again, and falling silent. Great looks at a life bird, and one the is apparently not prone to giving great looks, ever.

No shots of the Sedge Wren, but some miscellaneous photos from the short trip:

Flicker-

Bobolink-

Bobolink Paradise (I know there is one in this photo, but I can't find it. Can you?)-

And finally, a difficult (I think) if not impossible quiz. I think the bloggers at 10000birds have the "diabolical quiz" thing trademarked, but this is one. Post your guess as a comment-

Good Birding!