Summer Tanager & Great Horned Owl

Well the storm brought a beautiful female Summer Tanager to the reserve ! I love storm birds ! I also found a Great Horned Owl in West Newbury today, crows alerted me to the birds presence.

Barred Owl & Saw Whet Banding

I have been slacking on the picture front of my birding, but I have been out and about none the less. I am helping with banding Saw-Whet Owls this season at Drumlin Farm. The season has started slow with poor weather and Southern winds, but this week is shaping up to be a good one.

 Lots of interesting Sparrows about on Plum, I have seen Lincoln and a Clay Colored. Also I found about 40+ Red Knot roosting on the beach in front of 10th street, which was a first.

Finally today my neighbor Geoff notified me of a Barred Owl so I went and took a few shots of the fellow, he appeared a tad wet.

More Fall Migration

So both Winthrop and Plum Island continue to hold great birds. On Plum yesterday Geoff Woods and myself had 9 Red Knot, its the first time in a few years I have had this many together. Nahant Beach had somewhere between 2000 & 2500 birds the other day, I think also a high number in recent years. The status of our migratory birds is reaching or has reached critical levels. Areas that once held vast flocks of birds have dwindled down to nothing. With my job affording me the ability to be out everyday observing birds, it's a real wake up for the status of shorebirds. The "large" flocks of Semipalmated Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plover only hold small numbers of White-rumped Sandpipers, Dunlin, and Sanderling.

                                                                     Red Knot

                                                                  Least Sandpiper

                                                        Semipalmated Sandpiper

                                                                    Greater Yellowlegs

                                                              Black-bellied Plover

                                                               Feeding in Algae

                                                       "Peeps" Semi-Plover forefront

Migration is under way

At Winthrop Beach; both Semipalmated Plover and Sandpipers have begun to surface in small numbers, flocks of 20 -50 birds. Plum Island is holding around 2,500 birds in the Bill Forward area. Large numbers of both Short-billed and Long-billed Dowitchers which is beat to see. Also on Winthrop our last late group of PIPL have hatched. As of today only  one chick left sadly.

                                                          Semipalmated sandpiper

                                                           Semipalmated Plover

Cercropia Moth Caterpillar, I have a tank of these guys and they are HUGE...worried they are going to eat me sometime very soon.

Skimmers Winthrop Beach

A nice surprise today after Skimmer's on Sandy Point...more Skimmer's in Winthrop !!! Despite the rain I spent the day with these awesome birds. Also various peep's are starting to trickle in today Winthrop had; Semipalmated Sandpipers, Semipalmated Plovers, and Least Sandpipers.

                               One of the final 3 PIPL chicks at Winthrop about to fledge soon .

                                                                  Least Tern area

                                                                Bonaparte's Gull

                                 Herring Gull, not a gull guy...but this fellow was quite hansome

            Ok...not Winthrop but this is "Tiny Tim" our last chick at Revere...and we love him dearly.

Misty Morning

Missed most of the birds I struck out to find, however the mist provided some cool early a.m. shots.
                                       

                                         
                                      
                                                                     Great Egrets

                                                                      Common Tern

Later in the day Casey & I did manage to catch up with the Skimmers on Sandy Point.          

                           Peeps flying by the Skimmer's. About 500 birds, looked like semi-palmated Sandpipers,  fall migration is underway.

Little Neck from Sandy Point 

Catching up

I've been working so much I haven't had time to process the hundreds of pictures I have taken lately. But some really amazing birds seen daily at my amazing job.

                                                        Male Bobolink - PRNWR

                                                      Breeding AMOY - Winthrop

                                                                   Oystercatcher

                                                       Oystercatcher chick

                                                            Adult Piping Plover

                                                         Piping Plover chick

                            Jack Daniels and Plover's, everyone like a cocktail once in a while.

 Due to the proximity of the birds on a small beach, you see amazing things like 12 Plovers next to each others.

                                                   Young Plover about to fledge.

                                                                    Least Tern

                                           Breeding behavior Least Terns at Winthrop

                                                                     Tern chick

        Great Horned Owlet's found by me and Steph on a owl search on Lovells Island. Steph let me come out and help with the Terns and try to locate an owl. We found a pile of owls, who will likely need to be relocated as to not disrupt the fragile Tern colony.