Every week, I am going to post my bird sightings here. Most of the places I will go birding at this summer will be on the south shore of Massachusetts. If you live near there, you might want to check out some of these places. This past week I saw five new MA birds for me and one life bird. Last Monday we went on a boating trip on the North and South Rivers. I saw at least thirty least terns, two piping plovers, and a snowy egret. If you're intrested, here's the full list. I saw 31 species total. My MA firsts are underlined.
Great Black-Backed Gull, Ring-Billed Gull, Herring Gull, Common Tern, Least Tern, Mute Swan, Double-crested Cormerant, Mallard, Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Willet, Some type of dowitcher, Killdeer, Semipalmated Plover, Piping Plover, Osprey, Red-tailed Hawk, Cooper's or Sharp-shinned Hawk, Barn Swallow, Tree Swallow, Bank Swallow, Rock Dove, Crow, Mockingbird, Common Grackle, Red-wing Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Catbird, American Goldfinch, Song Sparrow, and House Sparrow.
On Sunday, I went to College Pond in Miles Standish State Park. There I saw a few Eastern Kingbirds and a pair of wild turkeys.
Today (Monday), I walked along the south river and saw birds in the saltmarsh and dunes next to it. I saw my second, third, fourth and fifth brown thrashers, and the first I had seen outside of the everglades. Then, I saw my first orchard orioles, a male and what I think were a couple females. A kestrel landed in the dunes about twenty feet away, giving me a great look. A few barn swallows tried to chase it away, but were unsuccessful until a mockingbird joined them. On the way back along rexhame beach I saw an adult and young piping plovers.
All in all, it was a great birding week. Four piping plovers, An orchard oriole, and least terns almost every day saw to that.
