Plum Island Highlights

From our morning on Plum Island, my favorite photo is this Common Tern carrying food ...

Common Tern

In the most interesting category is this Ring-billed Gull. Dark wing-tips on primary feathers strengthen the feathers where the stress from flying is greatest. Note how the ends of the primaries (particularly on the left wing) are curled up ...

Ring-billed Gull

 And finally, three additional "keeper" photos ...

Greater Yellowlegs

Piping Plover

Least Sandpiper

Shorebirds

Late last week I got over to the Massachusetts coast for some shorebirding. Consistent with my experience the last few years, the best place is not the refuge, but Sandy Point State Park at the end of the refuge road. On the ever-changing sand bars and mud flats of the estuary, and the wide sandy beach, shore birds congregate at high tide - some to feed in the shallows and some to roost and rest. I spent a couple of hours in the late morning as the tide was coming in.

Piping Plover is an endangered species, but the Massachusetts coast hosts more breeding pairs than anywhere else. Most people get very excited to see this rare plover. I am almost embarrassed to say that I expect to see it at Sandy Point. This juvenile demonstrates the continued protection and good management by Massachusetts of the Piping Plover's nesting sites ...

Piping Plover - juvenile

 Sanderlings are "true" sandpipers, chasing the waves along sandy beaches (as opposed to most sandpipers that are really "mudpipers"). I think these two are in transition from breeding to non-breeding plumage ...

Sanderlings

I would love to have someone tell me that this is a Ringed Plover, but until that unlikely event, this will be a male Semipalmated Plover ...

Semipalmated Plover - male

On a broad and debris littered beach, roosting shorebirds may be present in huge numbers, and may also be overlooked as they blend into the background ...

Roosting Shorebirds - plovers & sandpipers

Peeps are pips to identify, so I was pleased  when I picked out the White-rumped Sandpipers. This photo has the plus-factor of comparing size. The White-rumped, at 7.5," is noticeably larger than the nearby Semipalmated Sandpiper or Semipalmated Plover. Note the streaked flanks ...

White-rumped Sandpiper with Semipalmated Sandpiper (left foreground) and Semipalmated Plover (left background)

Semipalmated Sandpipers resting and preening ...

Semipalmated Sandpipers

Good birding!

Piping Plover - Milford Point

It was great meeting the birders at Milford Point; I wish I could have continued to the other places. But as I lingered on the shore, the plovers came close. It is ironic that this endangered bird seems never to be in danger of being missed during the course of a year of birding.


Good birding!

Matt's Landing

I'll begin this second post on my Cape May trip on the beach by the Nature Conservancy in Cape May. The endangered Piping Plover nests here. There were two nests protected with a wire cage on my first visit, and two more added a day later. The cages protect them from various natural predators. It always seems a little odd that an endangered species should be so easily seen, but I have never missed this bird on my Spring visit.


Matt's Landing is part of the Heislerville WMA in the county north of Cape May. After a morning in Belleplain State Forest, I spend the mid-day along this part of the Delaware Bay. The managed impoundment is a great shorebird spot, and I was there at low tide, so there were thousands of birds present. This next picture shows a tiny segment of the roost. Semipalmated Sandpipers dominate in the foreground, Dunlin in the background. Can you find the dowitcher?

A tight group of Semipalmated Sandpipers (plus three Semipalmated Plovers). The SESA is one of the "easy" peeps. I talked with another birder who had seen a White-rumped Sandpiper. Curlew Sandpiper is also seen regularly here, but I just did not have the patience to search 20,000 birds for either - especially since they regularly rearranged themselves! ....

.... as this next photo shows. It is likely that a Peregrine Falcon was somewhere overhead, since all of the birds on the impoundment took to the wing at one time, putting a curtain of birds on the scene! Breathtaking - although I have to remind myself that this is just a fraction of the numbers that refueled along the Delaware Bay a few years ago (another issue). Black dots in this mass of birds will clue you to Dunlins.

Matt's landing has been a dependable place for the Red Knot, but not this year. The only place I saw them was by Stone Harbor. After the cryptic reference to dowitchers, a couple of more satisfying photos are in order. The two dowitchers are notoriously difficult to tell apart, so if anyone thinks I have mis-identified these as Short-billed Dowitchers (adult breeding Atlantic - white belly, buffy to orange neck), please tell me.


An unexpected treat was the American Avocet, a bird that is accidental in New England and rare in New Jersey. (This was only my second sighting of one in the Northeast, if the Northeast can be extended as far south as New Jersey.) A beautiful bird! - and I hope it can find its way to breeding grounds and pass along its genes.

Godd birding!