Class Trip to Gloucester - Sunday, 2/13

On Saturday, February 13th, we had a class trip on to Gloucester. Mark taught a one-night class on gulls at Broad Meadow Brook, so the obvious choice for the one field trip was to Gloucester. Even though the class was gull-focused, we couldn't resist starting the trip looking for the King Eider. We decided that we could leave two cars parked right by the little bridge over to Good Harbor Beach, so we drove down the one-way Bass Rocks Rd. and sure enough there was the eider quite close to the rocks.

After everyone was satisfied with the killer looks at the eider we decided to backtrack to the fishing pier and look for gulls in earnest. We originally had planned to carpool from there, but the place was fully packed with car from fishermen, but we were lucky enough to find two spots right up front.

Within a minute Danny Berard found the first Iceland Gull of the day (we had a total of 9) and everyone was able to enjoy noting all the field marks as it flew up and back in front of us.

This adult winter bird put on a fantastic show....especially in front of a class studying gulls!

We also had a number of Common Loons sailing in the channel between the pier and downtown. In fact they seemed quite numerous, with a total of 42 birds counted for the day.

This breeding plumaged drake Common Eider was one of more than 300 birds in the Gloucester area, with most being off Bass Rocks, near the dog bar and around the fish pier.

We had a total of 11 species of duck for the day, including Common Goldeneye....

and Red-breasted Merganser.

Dan Berard, Sr. helped me "pose" this fish so that you could get a sense of birding in Gloucester, especially around the fish pier. Now if only you had smell-o-vision on your computer!

One of the most interesting sightings of the day occurred while watching yet another Iceland Gull just bobbing along and preening near a Herring Gull. The Iceland kept sailing closer and closer to the Herring Gull.....

and then suddenly, and without any provocation that any of us could see, the Iceland Gull literally jumped on the Herring Gull taking it's full head into it's mouth!

These two birds then proceeded to have one of the most vicious fights I have ever seen....and it seemed to last for a full 5 minutes.

At one point I literally thought the birds were going to down, and when a Great Black-backed Gull came in to see what was going on, I thought for sure the Iceland Gull would be killed. However, once the GBBG realized there was no food involved, he just seemed to sit back and enjoy the fight. There was so much commotion, that even a flock of eider swam over to see what was going on. After several minutes the two birds just separated and didn't both each other again....although the Iceland Gull kept swimming closer to the Herring Gull as if to warn him off or at the very least show his bravado.

We left the fishing pier and headed out to Eastern Point, where Deb Berard found the class a Dovekie, which everyone got in the scope. We called Tom Collins (who was leading a large trip from the Berkshires) to let him know about the Dovekie and he told us that they had found a Razorbill in and among the docks on the fishing pier. So we turned around and headed back to the fishing pier.....passing the group from the Berks as they went to look for Deb's Dovekie.

I was quite excited, since I don't think I've photographed any alcids since I went digital.

And certainly not one this close!

We were able to watch this bird dive and pop back up for about 10 minutes, moving all around the docks. What an absolute joy!!!

We finally did make it out to Eastern Point and found the gull show at Niles Pond to be somewhat sparse. We did have a Glaucuous Gull though which was nice for the class.

And for the dog bar at Eastern Point we had a "Nelson's" Gull (which is a hybrid between a Glaucous and Great Black-backed). Beside the lovely view of Boston in the distance, we got our first Black Guillemots, Gadwall and a calling screech owl out on Eastern Point.

From EP we headed north along Atlantic Avenue and stopped at various overlooks on our way back to Bass Rocks. We had good numbers of Horned Grebes along the way....

...as well as our first Great Cormorants.

And while the class searched the goldeneye for a Barrow's or a Kittiwake offshore, we didn't have anything dramatic.

We did have Purple Sandpiper, a few Sanderling and a group of about 8 Ruddy Turnstones on the rocks along Atlantic Avenue.

We were even able to set up scopes so folks could get a good look at the turnstones. And it was a life bird for one the class members, Mandy.

There were also good numbers of Red-necked Grebes in the area (43 total for the day), but many of them stayed just far enough offshore to make close photography impossible. You really need to enlarge this photo to even tell that they're RN Grebes!

We arrived back at Good Harbor Beach about 1:30 to find the beach crowded and our cars safe and sound.

Everyone on the trip agreed it had been a fun and productive morning, some noting the highlight being the Kind Eider or fighting Iceland Gulls. For me it was the company (and the alcids!)

So thanks to the Berards, Catherine, Mandy....and of course Mark....for making this class trip totally enjoyable.

Enjoy.....Sheila

Back to the Sea -- Plymouth on Sunday, 2/7

After the dearth of birds in the northern Berks on Saturday, we decided to go to Plymouth to look for the Redhead and then poke around to see what else was happening. I was really interested in seeing if the huge numbers of Common Eider at the mouth of the canal in Bourne meant less eider in Plymouth -- which is usually a winter stronghold.We arrived in North Plymouth right on the border with Kingston and looked for the Redhead in the small pond on the right side of 3A in the Cordage Park industrial park. Most of the little pond was frozen and there were only a few Mallards and two Mute Swan taking a siesta.

But across the street in Spooner Pond there were plenty of waterfowl, including good numbers of Gadwall, coot, Mallards, geese and swans. There was some ice near the southeast corner of the pond, but the Mallards were milling around where there were some locals feeding them. There was a birder/photographer there as well whom we didn't recognize.

And a beautiful drake Redhead.

For a while the duck stayed close to the edge of the pond nearest the road and provided some great views and some great photographs as well. However, after about 10 minutes the local duck feeders left and the birder/photographer used the opportunity to walk around the front of the nearby building, go through a gate in the fence to get even closer and FLUSHED the Redhead to the back of the pond! I was disgusted to say the least. And really not because I couldn't get anymore shots, but I wondered about the other birders who might stop by this nice Sunday morning and would only get somewhat distant views thanks to "Mr.-I-don't-care-about-anyone-else-but-me" photographer. So if you happen to see killer, close-up shots of the Redhead from Sunday, February 7th, you'll know who the jerk was!

So deciding not to let this ruin a beautiful morning, Mark & I decided to head down to the areas in Plymouth where we usually bird. Our first stop being the playground on Nelson St. just north of the jetty where the Ivory Gull appeared last winter. We had a small flock of Brant grazing on the ballfield as usual, but the numbers seemed lower than in past winters. And the same could be said for the gulls in the area.

We did have a smattering of Dunlin along the shore as the tide was going out.....

and more flew in to join them as some of the flats became exposed.

It was obvious these guys were looking for their Sunday morning breakfast.

At one point I saw a Ring-billed Gull madly chasing a Dunlin (who had found a long sand worm) trying to force him to drop the tidbit. After a chase of about 3-4 minutes with the Dunlin frantically trying to avoid the gull and wheeling in and out of flocks of other Dunlin and other gulls, the tired shorebird finally gave up and dropped the worm. It was a fascinating example of kleptoparasitism on the part of the gull.

Everything finally settled down, but it seemed a little unfair since the gull was certainly big enough and able enough to go get his own food without stealing from the little Dunlin.

There were no unusual gulls, a good number of Dunlin (90+) but not a lot of ducks, so we left the area after checking the water along the jetty and headed south of Plymouth center to the Stephen's Field ballpark area -- a place where we've had good success with Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the past. But that, too, was pretty quiet. We had a nice flock of Brant mixed in with Mallards and it gave a great size comparison between the two species.We decided to check out the former duck-feeding pond behind Jenny's Grist Mill Museum on Spring Lane off of Summer Street near the John Carver Inn. Sure enough we found the Lesser Black-backed Gull on the lawn on the far side of the pond. This has to be about the 10th year that this bird (or another LBBG) has wintered on this pond. The bird only stayed for about 5-10 minutes before flying off (probably to Stephen's Field) but there were several species of ducks at the pond as well.

If you enlarge the photo of the Buffleheads below you can see the great colors on the males' heads as they caught the sun while swimming along.

There were also lots of Gadwalls as well -- both males and females in great spring plumage.

And a small number of Ring-necked Ducks too. See the birds this close really gives you an opportunity to study all the fieldmarks outlined in your field guide.

Before heading out of the area, we decided to check the harbor again looking for any unusual ducks, but also because Mark wanted some digital shots of scenery and some of the tourist attractions. Believe me taking a photo of this absurd rock in the Plymouth Rock monument made me look like such a dorky tourist. In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if Mark really wanted the shot or just enjoyed me looking like a dweeb! I have to believe that EVERYONE who comes to Plymouth and sees this rock must go "Huh, that's really where the pilgrims landed? I don't think so...."

And, our course, there's Massasoit......who looks great outlined against some of the older homes up on Carver Street.

Or looking out over Plymouth Harbor once you go up there. I do wonder how many people climb the steps all the way up to Carver St. We, of course, just drove down one of the small one-way streets and pulled right up next to the park!

Before heading back to central Mass, we did do a check looking out from the closed restaurant at the entrance to Plymouth Beach. There were very, very few birds on the ocean.

As it turned out we had about 45 species for the day. It was interesting to note that with only 800+ Common Eider, the most common ducks were Blacks and Mallards -- both species outnumbering the eider by several hundred.

I guess the big numbers have moved down through the canal to Bourne. There must be better food in Buzzards' Bay this year.


Enjoy.....Sheila

Windsor, Peru & New Salem -- 2/6/10

On Saturday, February 6th, we decided to head out to the Berkshires to look for the elusive winter finches....again. We had heard that a flock of Pine Grosbeaks had been seen near Moran in Windsor, so we headed west in the outside chance that the birds were still being seen.It soon became clear that these were not around....in fact there were very few birds around. We found ourselves checking out tracks in the freshly-fallen snow. While we could see that these tracks headed right under a fallen over log, we tried squeaking in the hopes that a weasel would pop out. But no such luck. We did find tracks of snowshoe hare as well....but that's all we found -- Tracks!

Even the landbirds seemed to be staying rather low -- we had to work for this Black-capped Chickadee. So we decided to cut our losses and head back to the Valley, stopping in Peru to check out some feeders along the way.

At the feeder where we've gotten numbers of Evening Grosbeaks in year's past, we found this "owl" keeping watch over the swing set near the bird feeders. Not a good sign.

But despite his watchfulness, we heard a Red-winged Blackbird making it's call note nearby, and after searching found him perched in a tree. Mark thinks the bird over-wintered; I prefer to see it as a sign that spring is surely fast approaching.

Heading back through the Connecticut River Valley, we found this adult Bald Eagle passing through.

And as we came up through Amherst and Shutesbury to New Salem, we found a large flock of Red-wings hanging out in the trees near the Hamilton Orchards.

Compared to the coast the previous weekend, the day ended with not a lot of species in return for the distances we traveled.

Oh well, we had to try, but it's likely that it's back to the coast for tomorrow.

Enjoy.....Sheila