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A Weekly Report on my Bird Sightings
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It has been two months since my last post, and this is supposed to be weekly. I guess I'll have to use Featherbrain's term "Weekly (More or less)" to describe this blog. In this case, It was a lot more! OK, so last time I talked about the hummingbird at my feeder at our beach house. Two months later, I have returned home to New York, gotten through the first month of eighth grade, and seen thirteen life birds. Not enough time to go into much detail, but here is a summary:
The week after I last posted, I saw a spotted sandpiper for a life bird and went the friday moprning birders again, where I sawa my lif Black-Bellied Plover. Then we went to maine for a week. Puffin watching trip yielded 3 lifers: Gannet, Black Guillemot, and, of course, Atlantic Puffins. Belfast harbor had a life Bonaparte's Gull. Rest were small flitting birds. Ship harbor trail had life black-throated green warbler, magnolia warbler, golden-crowned kinglet. Wild gardens of Acaidia had life Red-Eyed Vireo and Blackpoll Warbler, as well as a hummingbird and ovenbird, which were interesting but not life birds. Return to MA, see former "nemesis bird" northern harrier. Return to house in NY  . Don't see any life bird for a while. Do see harrier, kingfisher, canada warbler, little blue heron. Last week finally saw another life bird, common nighthawk.
That's brief summary of the last 2 months of birding for me. I will try to do it on a weekly (more or less ) basis from now on.
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Over the past week, our hummingbird feeder has been visited daily by a female ruby-throated hummingbird! We first saw it when I was writing last week's post. We were shocked. We knew they were around but didn't really expect to get one. She has come almost every day, and many people in my family have seen their first hummingbird at our feeder. We hope to attract more, but are happy with one.
Also this week, I saw an eastern kingbird , semipalmated sandpipers, a snowy egret, a little blue heron, and chipping sparrows. To improve my birding, I got Sibley's Guide to Birds and Birding by Ear. Now I will try to learn bird calls and songs as well as plumage.
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Great birding this week! On Monday, I went to the Daniel Webster Audubon sanctuary. In the first bird blind I saw a Solitary Sandpiper ( a life bird), a juvenile little blue heron that I mistook for a snow egret at first, a green heron, and a glossy ibis. I also saw a lot of bobolinks, the sanctuary's specialty, many purple martins in the martin colony, yellow warblers, and an unidentified empidonax flycatcher. Later that day, on a beach on cape cod, I saw semipalmated and piping plovers, sanderlings, and my first semipalmated sandpipers.
On friday, I went to the friday morning birders program again. We went to Daniel Webster Sanctuary first. The leader had gone monday and seen the little blue and glossy ibis that I saw the same day, but we didn't see them again. We did see least sandpiper, blue-gray gnatcatcher (life bird), eastern towhee (life bird), martins, pheobe, yellowthroat, yellow warbler, and fish crow (life bird). We also saw the same flycatcher I couldn't identify monday in the same spot, but this time it was identified as a willow flycatcher, another life bird. We went to other locations in marshfield, including where I saw my first phoebe last week.( See last week's post) There we saw a swamp sparrow (life bird) and heard marsh wrens (life bird). At another spot, we saw a green heron, black-crowned night-heron, and both yellowlegs. At the last stop we heard a yellow-billed cuckoo (life bird) and saw a flicker. In total, I saw and heard 65 species, beating the 49 last time I went.
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On thing I din't mention about my birding trip last friday was my repeated inability to see an eastern pheobe. I missed it three times, plus saw a pair of kingbirds that were at first thought to be pheobes. This Saterday, I went for a twenty minute walk on a trail starting between a CVS and a Dunkin Donuts. It went over a bridge over the south river, and on a rock was a small flycatcher, pumping its tail. A phoebe. It was the first time I had ever seen one, and number 170 on my life list. I also saw a baltimore oriole and a cedar waxwing. I seem to be having good luck with trails that start next to a Dunkin Donuts. The day before I had seen my first northern-rough-wing swallow and salt-marsh sharp-tailed sparrow (two of the longest bird names in North America).
I had fairly good birding all week. I saw a flock of 10+ turkeys, goldfinches, Killdeers, Chimney Swifts, Eastern Kingbirds, Mute Swans, Common and Least Terns, and my second Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. I also saw some unidentified shorebirds on a mudflat in duxbury. Here is the link to the topic. http://www.whatbird.com/forums/forums/thread/52330.aspx
A kayak trip through saltmarsh on thursday yielded some other highlights. A Bobolink, around fifty willets, Piping Plovers, and some type of dowitcher.
I also got a hummingbird feeder, and will watch for hummingbirds. None yet, but hopefully they will come.
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This post is a little early, but I saw enough birds in the last four days to count as a week's worth of birds. On Tuesday I went back to rexhame beach and saw the piping plovers again- an adult and a young. I took some pictures, but have not uploaded them yet. Look in my gallery (http://www.whatbird.com/forums/photos/corbetts_gallery/default.aspx) next week for them.
Over Wednesday and Thursday the birding was okay. I set up some feeders in our yard Wednesday. By thursday we had song sparrows, chickadees, goldfinches, house finches, cardinals, and mourning doves, as well as grackles, starlings, and house sparrows.
Friday (Today) was the source of the eight new birds in the title. I got up early and went to a bird program at the North River Audubon. We then drove in a van to various birding spots nearby. As soon as I got out of the car, the few people that were already there found an indigo bunting! It was a female or young male, so it had almost no blue, but it was a life bird for me. In all, I saw five more new birds and heard two more. They were Canada and Pine warblers, northern rough-winged swallows, saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrow and ruby-throated hummingbird. When we came along a flock of pine warblers, we were suprised to find that we were getting warbler-neck in mid-July. The hummingbird was a great bird, because I had never seen any type of hummingbird before. The saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrow was probably the most uncommon of the birds we saw. I also heard two birds that I had never seen or heard before, the scarlet tanager and the winter wren. Other notable birds were both eastern orioles (Baltimore and Orchard), four swallows (barn, tree, bank, rough-wing), three flycatchers (great-crested, e. kingbird, e. wood-peewee) , Cedar Waxwing,red-shouldered hawk, and black and white warbler. In total, I saw and heard 49 species in four hours
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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.
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