eBird Report - Plymouth Beach, 6/6/10 - Terns everywhere!!

Sundays are usually reserved as the day both Kirk and I would go out birding together. We had initially planned on visiting Pondicherry National Wildlife Refuge in Jefferson, NH, however, the weather forecasted for up north was less than desirable. Kirk and I had our reservations about doing any birding any where in New England yesterday due to the chance of getting rained upon, struck by lightning or being whisked away by a tornado (being sarcastic there....freaking Tornado Watches.....just trying to scare us, as always).

So, we just had to get our BIRD on, so we headed to the South Shore seeing as the rain was supposed to hold off until later down there. And hold off it did!

Our first stop was Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary in Marshfield. I had been there last Tuesday to get the Sedge Wren, but I went there again so Kirk could get that lovely little wren as well, since it would be a Lifer for him. And we got fantastic looks at the Sedge Wren, even better than the first time I saw him. Of course, there were still numerous Bobolinks around, as well as the Purple Martins and Willow Flycatchers.

We left there say around 10:30 am and headed to Plymouth Beach to see if we could score of some terns. Our target birds were as follows: The Forster's Tern, the Arctic Tern, the Roseate Tern and the Least Tern (for me, Kirk had already seen Leasts). We struck out on all except the Least Terns, as there is a very large colony there of them, intermingling with the Piping Plover nesting colony. Those Least Terns are great little gull-like birds! So noisy, so graceful, so fast and active! I also got another Lifer besides the Least Tern, that being the Laughing Gull. I had never seen one before, and as Kirk had commented, they kinda looked and acted like a couple of cartoon characters, their funny laugh-like call (hence their name of course) and their black-hooded heads with white eye-rings. The Piping Plovers put on a display as well, darting here and there across the beach to the shoreline! Despite getting burnt to a crisp since we did not realize how sunny it would be, it was well worth it. Sure, it would've been nice seeing the Forster's, Arctic and Roseate Terns, but oh well, dems da breaks, ya know!

Happy birding to all!!

Location:     Plymouth Beach
Observation date:     6/6/10
Notes:     We did not walk the entire beach facing Plymouth Bay, roughly 3/4 of the way before the sun exposure did us in and we had to turn back. Numbers of Least Terns are conservative, same applies to Common Terns. I would suggest that they were more Piping Plovers there as well then the ones we had seen, since all seen were along the beach outside their nesting colony.
Number of species:     21

Northern Gannet - Morus bassanus     2
Double-crested Cormorant - Phalacrocorax auritus     1
Black-bellied Plover - Pluvialis squatarola     1
Piping Plover - Charadrius melodus     8
Least Sandpiper - Calidris minutilla     2
Bonaparte's Gull - Chroicocephalus philadelphia     13
Laughing Gull - Leucophaeus atricilla     9
Ring-billed Gull - Larus delawarensis     7
Herring Gull - Larus argentatus     15
Great Black-backed Gull - Larus marinus     6
Least Tern - Sternula antillarum     42
Common Tern - Sterna hirundo     10
Mourning Dove - Zenaida macroura     1
Common Nighthawk - Chordeiles minor     1
Willow Flycatcher - Empidonax traillii     1
Tree Swallow - Tachycineta bicolor     2
Barn Swallow - Hirundo rustica     1
Song Sparrow - Melospiza melodia     3
Red-winged Blackbird - Agelaius phoeniceus     4
Common Grackle - Quiscalus quiscula     2
House Sparrow - Passer domesticus     4

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/massaudubon/)