Yesterday, Mark Burns and I led a birding by bike trip for the
Brookline Bird Club (BBC) at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge
(PRNWR). Seven other BBC bikers joined us at 6:30AM at Parking Lot #1 and we
birded our way south to Hellcat and back over a 5 hour period. Since it was a
fairly nice day, Mark and I decided to extend our morning trip into an all day
trip. As a result, four of us loaded up our bikes and went to Newburyport
Harbor to look for the Ruff, which we did not see. Three of us then decided to
make the trek to the Route 2 Heron Rookery off of Depot Road in
Littleton/Boxborough to find the great birds that had been reported, and then
Mark and I returned to Newburyport in hopes that the Ruff would show up with
the changing tide. We had a mostly overcast day, winds were blowing between 5
and 25 mph, and temperatures ranged from 55df to 65df. When all was said and
done it was 6:00PM when we officially ended the trip and I knew that the "May
Daze" had begun!
We tallied 82 species for the Club list. There were many
highlights for the day but notables included seeing: one AMERICAN BITTERN
behind the Wardens at PRNWR in the morning, the two AMERICAN BITTERNS courting
at Joppa Flats during late afternoon (we had never seen the male courtship
display and were awed), the RUFF feeding along Newburyport Harbor, and the
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER, GREAT HORNED OWL, OSPREY (catching fish), and BROWN
CREEPER at the Route 2 Heron Rookery.
It was a fantastic day and A BIG THANK YOU to all who joined
us on the bike trip and to Christopher Ciccone for providing us with detailed
directions to the Heron Rookery and a phone call to let us know that the Ruff
was being seen!
Following is a complete list of the birds we saw:
Common Loon - 1
Double-crested Cormorant -5
AMERICAN BITTERN - 3
Great Blue Heron - 5
Great Egret - 8
Snowy Egret - 12
Turkey Vulture - 3
Brant -180
Canada Goose - 13
Mute Swan - 1
Gadwall - 7
American Black Duck - 7
Mallard - 20
Blue-winged Teal - 1
Green-winged Teal - 4
Long-tailed Duck - 18
Red-breasted Merganser - 12
Osprey - 2
Northern Harrier - 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 6
Red-tailed Hawk - 6
Merlin - 2
Sora - 1
Killdeer - 5
Greater Yellowlegs - 38
Lesser Yellowlegs - 9
Willet - 27
Sanderling - 5
Least Sandpiper - 200
Dunlin - 1
RUFF - 1
Ring-billed Gull - 9
Herring Gull - 36
Great Black-backed Gull - 8
Rock Pigeon - 19
Mourning Dove - 23
GREAT-HORNED OWL - 1
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 2
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Northern Flicker - 2
Eastern Kingbird - 1
Blue-headed Vireo - 1
Blue Jay - 37
American Crow - 70
Purple Martin - 1
Tree Swallow - 280
Barn Swallow - 2
Black-capped Chickadee - 34
Tufted Titmouse - 6
Brown Creeper - 1
Marsh Wren - 7
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 45
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 1
Hermit Thrush - 4
American Robin - 95
Gray Catbird - 3
Northern Mockingbird - 5
Brown Thrasher - 9
Eastern Towhee - 14
WARBLERS:
Northern Parula - 1, Yellow Warbler - 3 , Yellow-rumped Warbler - 100,
Black-throated Green Warbler - 4, Palm Warbler - 28, Black-and-white Warbler -
10
SPARROWS - Chipping Sparrow - 3, Field Sparrow - 1, Savannah
Sparrow - 5, Seaside Sparrow - 2, Song Sparrow - 1, Swamp Sparrow - 1,
White-throated Sparrow - 1
Northern Cardinal - 8
ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK - 1
Red-winged Blackbird - 250
Common Grackle - 225
Brown-headed Cowbird - 6
Baltimore Oriole - 3
Purple Finch - 6
House Finch - 2
American Goldfinch - 30
Laura H. de la Flor
Salem, MA
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So Many Birds ... So Little Time" (Bumper sticker we saw at Hellcat)
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