Shorebirds of Cape May

Looking for photos of shorebirds for my final post on Cape May was like scraping the bottom of a barrel: there were many shots of distant flocks on tidal flats and few, if any, worth reproducing. Most of the shores were roped off to protect breeding sites on the beaches. Below a flock of Semipalmated Sandpipers with a few Dunlins mixed in.

The Dunlins' summer plumage while on migration to their arctic breeding grounds was strikingly different from their familiar dull winter plumage. Only the drooping bill with its wilting tip looked the same. 

They were sporting a rufous cap and a bright rufous back. In addition they stood out by a sharply defined black patch on their belly, making them very conspicuous among the pale-bellied shorebirds. I wonder, since everything has to have a reason, what's the advantage of having a black underside? 

It is easier to understand the dramatic, and confusing, coloration of the Ruddy Turnstones, shown here with several Short-billed Dowitchers and a Sanderling: it makes them blend in with the pebbles of the shore.

Short-billed Dowitcher above, compare to the slightly smaller Lesser Yellowlegs below.

Some locations were made intolerable by the dense clouds of gnats that materialized within a couple of minutes of our arrival. Pete Dunne, our guide on several trips, was wearing an ingeniously constructed, airy, and bug-proof: The Original Bug Shirt on sale at the Cape May Bird Observatory. I decided I had to have one too. Although a little late on this trip, I will find a useful during black fly season in Vermont, or when exploring swampy, mosquito-infested areas, such as the heron rookery below.

In closing a photo of a Boat-tailed Grackle, amusing and noisy coastal inhabitant. Happy Birding!

Black-bellied Plovers at Sandy Point

Although Black-bellied Plovers are probably the most widely distributed species of shorebirds in the world, this was the first time that I got a good look at them.  I had taken my nephew, visiting from Germany, on a whale watching cruise out of Newburyport. After our return mid-afternoon  there was still time to look for shorebirds at Sandy Point on Plum Island.


Returning to Newburyport harbor


On Sandy Point we came upon a row of birders with telescopes who were searching for the BlackSkimmers that had been reported in the area but had not been seen for the past couple of hours. We were in  luck in that the tide was going out exposing the mudflats and tidal pools where a flock of birds was feeding. Watching me photograph these birds would be boring for my nephew but I held out the promise of a meal at the fabulous Plum Island Grille. He stayed on the beach while I slowly made my way across dried mud toward the birds.



Black-bellied Plovers and a Semipalmated Sandpiper



Black-bellied Plovers and a Short-billed Dowitcher .


The majority turned out to be Black-bellied Plovers. Their plumage varies greatly by age from speckled gray and white in the juveniles to solid black from throat to upper belly in the adult male with silvery speckles on a dark back. In winter they molt into a nondescript ashy gray, only easily recognizable by their black axillaries.

Black-bellied Plover showing black axillaries

Short-billed Dowitcher and female adult Black-bellied Plover

Juvenile Black-bellied Plover

Adult female in front showing white intermixed with black on upper belly, chest and neck

Adult male Black-bellied Plover

 Black-bellied Plovers are vigilant,  always on guard, giving alarm and flying off as soon the perceive some disturbance in their environment. They are not easily approached.  Although much sought after as a game bird,  this wariness, along with their habit of not traveling in dense flocks, probably saved them from decimation by hunters. They breed in the high arctic but for the rest of the year they are present on all coasts world-wide. It is known for it's haunting call:

 Clip recorded by Bernabe Lopez-Lantus on 2/19/05 in Uruguay and downloaded from the bird song sharing site xeno-canto.org under the Creative Commons License.


At last we made our way back to Plum Island proper, just in time to grab a couple of seats at the inside bar of the Plume Island Grille for a hamburger for him and a salad with warm goat cheese on bread for me. Delicious!


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Long distance migrants at Sterling Peats

I had forgotten the directions on my printer at home and was standing now on the wrong side of Sterling Peats after having made my way around bulldozers and large piles of peat, along earthen walls and skirting ditches. I was standing at the edge of a large black peat pond, looking at two birders on a grassy area on the far side. While I was pondering how to get over there, drive around or swim across (:-) a small bird landed near my feet and started picking at the mud, totally unconcerned by my present, a Least Sandpiper.

Least Sandpiper

I retrieved my car and drove around the the area until I saw some cars parked along Muddy Pond Road near a dense thicket. I parked and I followed a narrow path through the thicket to the grassy area that I spotted before.

I  joined the throng of birders attracted to Sterling Peats near Worcester, Mass,  by the reports of Stilt Sandpipers and Buff-breasted Sandpipers, but had decided to pick the day after Labor Day to avoid the holiday traffic - to my great regret, it turned out: I had missed the Stilt Sandpipers.

Soon however, a very plain looking bird was slowly walking in the low yellowish grass, blending right in: a Buff-breasted Sandpiper! It took no notice of the three of us standing there.
 

Buff-breasted Sandpiper

A small group of peeps had gathered at the edge of the pond some distance away, most of them Semipalmated Sandpipers but there were also two Pectoral Sandpipers.

Pectoral Sandpipers

Semipalmated Sandpipers

These birds had chosen this area as a stopover on their long-distance travel from their breeding grounds in the subarctic tundra and the boreal northern forest to their winter quarters in the grasslands of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. From the Northeast they fly across the Atlantic Ocean through the Caribbean to South America. The tiny Least Sandpiper, for example, may log almost 2000 miles nonstop across the Atlantic, an amazing feat.

It's a great privilege for us to be able to observe them during their brief stopover here.


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