Trip Highlights

Nine members, including one new and very welcome member, enjoyed mild temps and winds from the south around 10 mph throughout the day while searching for seabirds along the coasts of Cape Ann.  We came to a total of 51 species for the day.  Locations visited and birding highlights below.

Green Landing and Marsh – 18 Bufflehead, 5 Black Duck, 1 Scoter sp

Jodrey’s Fish Pier – 5 RB Merganser, 7 C Loon, 225 C Eider, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 10 Surf Scoter, Herring, Blk-back, Ringed-B Gulls, but no white-winged gull present

Rocky Neck – 35 RB Merganser, 20 Purple Sandpiper, C Loon, 20 C Eider, 4 Long-tailed Ducks, 4 Surf, a WW, a Black Scoter, RN Grebe, 12 Bufflehead

Niles Beach – 2 RB Mergansers, 30 Surf Scoter, 2 Long-tailed Ducks, Bufflehead

Eastern Point – 1 Gadwall, 4 Blk Duck, 34 C Eider, 1 Bufflehead, 9 RB merganser, 1 C Loon, 8 Surf Scoter, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 1 RT Hawk, 1 Horned Lark

Niles Pond – 83 Ruddy Ducks, 16 Ring-necked Duck, 10 Bufflehead, 1 Greater Scaup, 2 Hooded Merganser, 1 C Loon, 2 Coot, 1 DC Cormorant

Elks Club – 3 No Gannet, 1 Blk Guillemot, 1 RN Grebe, 4 C Loon, 6 C Eider, 11 Bufflehead, WW Scoters, 1 DC Cormorant, 75 Purple Sandpiper, 9 Sanderlings

Stop and Shop for rest stop and birding the adjacent marsh – Cooper’s Hawk, Great Blue Heron

Pebble Beach – 4 Surf Scoter, 2 Bufflehead, 18 DC Cormorants, 8 C Eider, 1 C Loon

Loblolly Cove – 1 GW Teal, 3 C Loon, 12 Harlequin Duck, 2 Horned Grebe, 2 WW Scoter, 7 Bufflehead, 7 RB merganser, 2 Purple Sandpiper

Granite Pier – 2 Iceland Gull, 6 Surf Scoter, 1 C Loon, 1 DC and 2 Great Cormorants, 5 C Eider, 10 Harlequin Duck

Andrews Point – 7 Long-tailed Duck, 15 C Eider, 8 Surf, 5 Blk, and 3 WW Scoters, 80 Harlequin, 20 RB Merganser, 2 C Loon, 2 Purple Sandpiper

Halibut Point – 12 No Gannet, 2 Dovekie, 2 C Loon, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 4 Surf, 100 Black, and 1 WW Scoter, 15 Harlequin, 2 Blk Duck and 30 Mallards in Quarry

Five members turned out for the annual trip to the lakes.  Although the waterfowl were not too numerous, we did end up with 41 total species.  The weather was pleasant, but on the cool side.  In addition to numerous geese and mallards, we saw quite a large number of both Common and Hooded Mergansers. Two species of grebes were spot-ted - a distant, hard-to-id Pied-billed at Cheshire and later, from the fishing pier on Ono-ta, a Horned.  The pier also gave us our only Long-tailed Duck. A Wigeon and two Pin-tails were seen at Cheshire, Green-winged Teal at Pontoosuc, and a pair of Wood Duck at Onota causeway.  Loons delighted us more than once - first a distant Red-throated from the Bull Hill stop on Pontoosuc and then from Narragansett, 3 more Red-throated and 3 Common.  Richmond Pond did not disappoint.  There we had two Less-er Scaup (which were close enough to study well), three Bufflehead, and 18 Ruddy Duck, in addition to two flyover Red-tailed Hawks, and two Ravens.  A Bald Eagle was seen by some, and a Merlin gave a brief but good view to one attentive participant.  Other land birds of note included a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, only one Cedar Waxwing, and a Pileated seen by the leaders after we departed our last stop at Bartlett’s Orchard.  See complete species list below.

There was a trip today to Ashley Reservoir, sort of.  The military had closed the area to the Elks Lodge and the road to the neighborhood.  So, we went to the next best and closest place, Bear Hole - north.  Eight members attended and we saw or heard 26 species.  See list below.

Members participating were 6.5. The 0.5 being our youngest family member (age 3).

It was a cool and cloudy start and continued to be on the verge of rain the whole walk.

Starting in the parking lot, waiting for members to arrive, we spotted our first birds being Black-capped Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches, and Blue Jays (the most popular bird of the day).

On the water we found Canada Geese, Mallards, Double-crested Cormorants, and a single parent Common Loon with their one chick.  A Great Blue Heron was spotted flying away as we approached the area it was in.

Other birds spotted on our 2-mile walk included Mourning Dove, Tufted Titmouse, Phoebe, Catbird, Pileated and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Robins, and the first of the fall season for many of us, the Dark-eyed Junco.  The star bird of the day was a Swainson’s Thrush.

The total species count was 17.  Always a good day to be out birding, almost no matter the weather!

A group of five birders/photographers gathered on this chilly morning, with temps in the low 40s as we began our loop walk at Stebbins.  We encountered beautiful spider webs, a deer running off deeper into the woods, and quite a few good birds as well.  The Red-winged Blackbirds were surprisingly numerous, as were Wood Ducks, Flickers, Phoebes, Chimney Swifts and Catbirds.  The warblers were few, but the two we encountered were seen well by all, Palm Warblers and Common Yellowthroat.  The bird we most enjoyed finding was the beautiful Blue-headed Vireo.  We had wonderful looks as it bounced from one shrub to the next in the few shrubs that towered over the tall grasses in the field.  Another special sighting for us was Swamp Sparrow, though he tried to evade us by burying himself in the low vegetation, we got glimpses enough to clinch the identification.  In the end we got great tips on bird photography as well as 21 total species. See species list below.