Surprise Skimmers at Plymouth Beach

With the number of terns I had seen from the whale watch and the posibility of arctic or roseate terns, I could not resist a visit to Plymouth Beach. There is a huge tern colony at the tip of Plymouth Beach, with hundred or thousands of common terns, plus a handful of roseates. The latter 2 were my targets.

Plymouth Beach is also known as Plymouth Long Beach, and with good reason. The walk to the tern colony was almost three miles, some of it in soft sand. On the way I found mixed shorebirds, including dowitchers and willets, and some endangered Piping Plovers.

(A juvenile Piping Plover, Plymouth Beach, MA)

I left my dad and sister after around 1.5-2 miles, when they turned back. I continued on to the tern colony. Least terns and shorebirds became more abundant, and then came the dunes. At the tip of the spit of land that the beach is on is a area of dunes, and that is where the terns nest. I scanned the flocks from a distance. There were many flying in every direction over the dunes, and a few hundred facing the same direction on the sand. I found a few individuals that could have maybe been arctic terns, but I am not good enough to know for sure. (Below- Arctic Tern? Who Knows?)

The birds on the beach were not near their nests, so I tried to get closer, but a handful of birds flew up and dive bombed me, screaming and flying at my head. Instead of trying to get any closer, I moved around the flock, trying to find unusual terns and marveling at the numbers and the noise. Tern are pretty loud birds. And 1,000 terns are really loud. They make a variety of calls, screeches, screams, and more.

Around this time I heard a different sound, and turned around to see a black skimmer flying up the beach behind me. It called a few more times, and then flew into a portion of the dunes close to and visable from the beach. I had seen them before in Florida and Cape May, but this bird was a huge surprise. I didn't even think that there range extended that far north. I study the skimmer for a few minutes, and then moved a little farther down the beach. When I returned, there were 2 skimmers sitting in the dunes.

When I got home, I did a little research on skimmers in MA, and found that they were unusual and erratic, and that nesting birds were very rare. I also learned that these particular skimmers had been seen before were known to be nesting, the only pair in MA and the northernmost nesting pair in the country. Over the next few weeks, I heard a couple of people talking about going to plymouth beach to see the skimmers.

I had gone to the beach for the terns, and stumbled upon the skimmers.

Eamon Corbett

Stellwagen Bank Pelagics

Greater Shearwater (Top and Middle) and Humpback Whale- My camera died before I could get any other photos.

On July 13, 2 and a half weeks ago, I went on a Captain john Boats whale watch out of plymouth harbor in MA. After leaving the harbor and passing the Mayflower II, Plymouth Rock (overrated), and the tern colonies on Plymouth Beach, we got into Cape Cod Bay. I was looking for pelagics and whales.

Wilson's Storm Petrels showed early, just as we were out of the harbor. There were a couple flitting around behind another boat. We would see many of them by the end of the day. Storm-Petrels were secondary here. My main target were the 4 reported shearwaters and the 3 jaegers.

My first glimpse of a large shearwater was inconclusive, with my binoculars being unsteady when the boat rocked and the bird far away. No matter. Soon I had located a sooty shearwater out in front of the boat, flying left to right. Lifer number 1. Then I saw a greater shearwater flying by the boat. And then another. Lifer 2 There was never any shortage of them, with one in sight almost the whole trip after this. The boat passed right by some large rafts, giving close looks. In one of the larger rafts, I picked out a Cory's Shearwater (lifer 3), and the naturalist took a break from the whales to pick out another. My camera battery died at this point, leaving me with the above photos only.

Oh, I forgot to mention the whales. This was, after all, a whale watch. We saw multiple pairs of humpbacks, including interesting behavior- breaching (jumping), and fin-slapping, as well as a mother-calf pair right next to the boat.

The grand finale came after the naturalist got a call from other whale watching boats, reporting many whales at a location to the east of us. We headed over, and found ourselves facing a huge underwater school of bait fish. Above it was a flock of shearwaters, gannets, and gulls numbering over 1000 birds, mostly greater shearwaters. Inside it many whales, including fin, minke, and humpback. We could see pairs of whales in every direction, with probably 10+ in total. The numbers of shearwaters were incredible. If you closed your eyes, the loudest thing yoo could hear was the pattering slapping sound of their feet against the water as they took off in front of the boat. It was specatcular.

Unfortunately, we were already behind schedule, and had to leave after only 10-15 minutes. Given more time, I might have been able to pick out a manx shearwater or jaeger. Still, it was great, and on the return trip I saw dowitchers and hundreds of terns on plymouth beach.

Great trip. If you ever have a chance to go on a pelagic or whale watch, do it.

Part 3- Hammo

The day after doodletown, went with Benjamin and Ryan to Hammonassest SP in connecticut in the evening, mainly for marsh sparrows, but also for some other stuff that had been reported there. We missed cattle egret in one parking lot, after only a half-hour or so, we had seen glossy ibis, willet, martin, little blue heron, and killdeer.

A walk to the end of the moraine trail produced common and least terns, as well as the king eider we were looking for, with 2 surf scoters. The eider was a lifer and ABA bird 250 for me.

On the way back we saw saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrows, and some of them actually stayed in view for a couple seconds. Easily my favorite sparrows.

A walk onto the ceder island trail as the sun was setting yielded seaside and sharp-tailed sparrows, with the seaside sparrows being a lifer. Fighting mosquitos and gnats on the way back to the car, we found a willow flycatcher and more ibis to end the day.

Corbett

Part 2- #250 at Doodletown

I am way behind on these blog posts, so this will be short. Actually, for this post and the next one, you could just go to Benjamin Van Doran's blog- warblings.wordpress.com. That would save me some time, and he was on both of the trips. Anyway- I went to Doodletown, NY with the NYS Young Birders club a long time ago (about 3 weeks- the day after the rails at marshlands) I had 248 birds on my life list when I got there, and was hoping for my 250th. Warbling Vireo, black vulture, and indigo bunting were in the parking lot, but after that it was quiet until we stumbled across a small group of warblers. Hooded sang and then appeared right next to the trail. 249. Worm-eating warbler called and then was spotted in a more distant tree. 250!! Cerulean was found preening in a very distant tree. 251. Yay. Things were quiet visually (doesn't make any sense, but you get the idea) for a while, despite more vocal ceruleans. A louisiana waterthrush (in a tree!) was another lifer. A very close worm-eating warbler supplemented the distant sighting earlier. And a yellow-throated warbler far above us was the last lifer of the trip.

I have never been to Doodletown in mid-may, when birding is best, but even in late june I saw 5 lifers, with worm-eating warbler being my 250th.

Good Birding,

Eamon Corbett

A Sufficiently Awesome Weekend- Part 1- Marsh Hen Tide

(From 10000 birds- a great birding site/blog)

I have gone birding 3 times in the past three days, and was going to post them all in one post, by now am breaking it up into 3 parts.

Part I- Marsh Hen Tide

On Friday I headed over to the marshlands conservancy. It had rained so much over the past few days, plus it was a new moon 3 days before, so the tide was very high. That was exactly why I was there. I had sort of seen clapper rail before. (See my post, Ruffing It) But that had been a calling bird, and then I had seen a moving shape that could have been anything. It was not the kind of look I wanted for a lifer, but I counted it anyway. I don't know why, and I probably shouldn't have. This time I wanted a good look. So I went at a very high tide, hoping for the phenomenon known as a "marsh hen tide," when the highest tides of the year would drive the rails out of the center of the marsh and make them visable for once.

It worked. After checking out some other spots and getting indigo bunting, yellowthroat, willet, common tern, and marsh wren, I headed to the rail spot. I sat on a bench overlooking the marsh, and began scanning. Egret, Mallard, Egret. Then, by a clump of higher reeds, a head popped up, with a long bill and red eye. I had my rail. I then slunk across the marsh, but because the tide was so high, it was visable the whole time. Then it got to a spot with more water, and swam out of sight. Very, very cool bird. Looking back to where the first rail had been spotted, I saw another one poke its head up, then disappear. No marsh sparrows, but after seeing the rails, I can't complain. Plus, there will be another time for marsh sparrows (foreshadowing alert!- see later posts in this series)

Good Birding,

Corbett