Bird Watch

I set out at a quarter after nine and given that it is a holiday weekend and one fine day, I am surprised to see that the Mai Tai Navy is still tied up at the wharf.  Brunch comes hard to those that wake up early.  I set out downriver toward Wheeler Marsh, which is an especially  good paddle during bird migration.  The tide is mid-high and rising, the wind is light and out of the north or northeast, and it is sunny.

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

 

Having had a good deal of fun yesterday with bird sightings, I decided to return and put a bit more effort into it.  I started this blog with the idea that I was one of few people that could make day to day observations and that sometime in the future, they might be of interest.  Unfortunately, I sometimes get lazy with my plant and bird notes.  I have started again using ebird to log my sightings, which turns my stuff into accessible data.

When I get to the top of the marsh I start by rounding the outer edge in a clockwise direction.  The Osprey are out and active and a Yellow-crowned Night Heron stands guard.  Halfway in two mature Bald Eagles fly out of the forest and out across the river.  In the lower inside corner I find a few Semipalmated Plover, then a small herd of snoozing Semipalmated Sandpipers.  I paddle across the bottom of the marsh to Milford Point sighting several Willets in the shallows along the way.  

Black Bellied Plovers and three Short Billed Dowitchers

 

At the point are a couple Ruddy Turnstones and a few Black Bellied Plovers.  From there I head into the center of the marsh - upstream although the circuitry of marshes don't always obey the up and downstream thing.  On a couple of the low exposed spartin/mud bergs, I count something like forty more Black Bellied Plovers.  I take a photo... and find four Short-Billed Dowitchers mixed in with them.  

Semipalmated Plovers

 

Farther in to the marsh I continue to spot Yellow-Crowned Night Herons, a couple of Great Blue Herons, Mute Swans and Great Egrets.  I look for the Swan nest, but either I am either looking in the wrong place or the eggs have hatched.  The cygnets will leave the nest within hours of the brood hatching.

I weave through the maze of smaller channels until getting back to the river.  A few of the Mai Tai Navy boats have set sail, but still less than I'd expect.  

It seems that I forgot to take a scenery photo...huh.