One short walk in a salt marsh and by the ocean can provide an opportunity to see a variety of beautiful birds, even if many keep their distance. Here are some seen this April day in less than sixty minutes.
1. Ospreys (nesting)
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| Ospreys gather sticks for their nest. |
2. Mallards (nesting)
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| A Pair of Mallards |
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| Mallards |
3. Lesser Yellowlegs
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| It is not always easy to differentiate Lesser Yellowlegs from Greater Yellowlegs. A Lesser has a shorter bill and is smaller. |
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| Yellowlegs can be challenging to spot. It helps to know where to look for them. |
4. Red-winged Blackbirds
5. Greater Yellowlegs
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| The Distinctive Head Bobbing and Longer Bill |
6. Robin
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| A Sign of Spring |
7. Great Blue Heron
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| This picture has a heron in a the foreground, a snowy owl (as just a tuft of white) in the far left, and ospreys in the middle. |
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| Roughly four feet tall, it will soon be eyeing the Osprey chicks. |
8. Snowy Owl
9. Red-Tailed Hawk
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| Immature. The bands on the tail will mature into the familiar red tail. |
10. Killdeer
And of course the list could go on...
A past comment on birdwatching:
I come from a family of birdwatchers. My country mother and her parents swooned at the sight of an indigo bunting, a scarlet tanager or the elusive brown thrasher.
My father loved the sea, having grown up just outside of Boston with a summer cottage facing Choate Island and Essex Bay, an area of salt marsh, shifting sand and eelgrass. I can picture him now, walking among dunes, as frantic terns, diving in mock attack, warned him away from their nesting area. He was in his element.
One afternoon in late summer, we sat together on a low dune watching herring gulls fish off Crane Beach. Just as we were about to leave, a red fox appeared from behind and sat down beside us just a few yards away. Occasionally he would turn his head to look in our direction, then turn back, satisfied we were not a threat.
He remained for ten minutes or more, his eyes riveted on gulls diving into the surf. Twice he lifted his nose and sniffed the air, perhaps to catch our scent. But we were upwind. Finally he raised up and moved slowly away, never once looking back at us.
My father was speechless, we both were, never having witnessed such an event in the wild. It was almost as if we had dreamed the entire scene. I would like to believe that my father and I had somehow communicated a benign presence through some telepathic energy, but I may be over-thinking the experience.
MGC
As a fellow bird watcher, loved this post! Great pictures.
ReplyDeleteWonderful! We have a pair of Kestrels nesting on our property. They often sit in a tree just outside my home-office window. I have seen the male bring his mate a mouse. In the evenings the fly about the property. Also, often have a number of barn swallows follow me as I'm mowing our pastures. They dip and dive all around me feeding on the insects I kick up.
ReplyDeleteSuperb performance. Thank you. The Sound, and Meig's Point in particular, is a bird magnet. Good reason why Roger Tory Peterson settled in the area. Too boot, Robert Verity Clem was also a native.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos! Thank you for sharing them. Birds are a joy to witness year-round, but of course there is a special excitement when seeing seasonal friends return and spring migrants passing through.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of hawks in the northwest corner this year. Keep your eye on the still naked trees and the telephone poles.
ReplyDeleteHow very special! Thank you, so much! Cheers!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely love this post, both the text by MGC and the photographs. I treasure Cornell University's Bird Lab App, Merlin. Take your phone outside and run the app and you will amazed by how many bird songs it hears, records, and then identifies for you.
ReplyDeleteIf the Yellowlegs call, they are easier to distinguish. The Lesser Yellowlegs makes 1-2 "tew" calls, while the Greater Yellowlegs makes 3-5 calls.
ReplyDeleteI strongly concur with the earlier recommendation of Cornell's "Merlin" Bird ID app. I was familiar with the regular denizens of our "neck of the woods", particularly the ones who stay here all year and can be seen when the leaves are gone: Chickadees, Cardinals, Robins, various Woodpeckers, etc. Merlin opened my eyes to the incredible diversity we have once the summer migration arrives! Now I'm becoming familiar with species I previously lumped together under the heading "some little bird": American Redstart, Red-Eyed Vireo, Pine Warbler, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Northern Parula, and many more.
ReplyDelete