Plenty of Piping Plovers!

I'm still inconsolably bummed by the loss of a camera and lens that I can't afford to replace, but there's no reason not to share a few Bird-a-thon photos!  I have tons of Piping Plover pictures, for instance.  This one is an unusual view of a Piping Plover, 


Piping Plover Looking Up


Piping Plover Fishing

Piping Plover in a Tire Track

 

 

 



Piping Plover Escaping the Tire Track

 

 

 

 

Bird-a-thon Birds!

A collection of our Bird-a-thon photos.  Here's a Piping Plover.  We saw a million of them during Bird-a-thon!

My favorite shorebird; an American Oystercatcher!

A gorgeous Common Tern.

A Tree Sparrow at Sandy Neck in Sandwich.

A Least Tern at Sandy Neck beach.

Bird-a-thon 2011

Willet

These are some of the pictures that Pete, Tom, and I took during Birdathon last year.

Piping Plover

Birdathon is a 24 hour race to find as many bird species as possible in Massachusetts. It a big fundraiser for Mass Audubon, but it's also a way to get detailed "state of the birds" data and migration data.

Roseate and Common Terns

Birdathon is also a crazed competition between Mass Audubon sanctuaries. Different teams spread out throughout the state - climbing mountains and wading through swamps - just to find that one rare species that might win the day for their team.

Yellow Warbler

Last year we met up with my cousin Catie in Bridgewater on Friday night. (Catie's BirdingGirl blog inspired me to start blogging two years ago!)

Marbled Godwit

We were up at dawn to try our luck at Plymouth Airport, then Tom, Pete, and I walked all the way out to the very tip of the peninsula at Plymouth Beach and all the way back in.

Canada Goslings

Then Pete dragged us to the Daniel Webster sanctuary to add even more birds to the list!

Laughing Gull

Despite the endless and very tiring walk, Plymouth Beach was a blast - and a birder's delight.

Common Tern

Pete can't be here for Birdathon this year. He started a new job as a Forest Ranger in Oregon yesterday. I still haven't adjusted to not having him around, and I miss him terribly.

Common Tern

Between not having Pete to ID birds and my residual pain and vision problems from breathing in metal dust and glue fumes last winter, I was planning to skip Birdathon this year.

Semipalmated Plover

But at the very last minute I changed my mind! I might not do as well without Pete, but with Tom at my side I'm going to try. I'll probably embarrass myself - but at least it's for a good cause!

Of course, I'm really desperate for donations now because Birdathon is only two days away. If you can spare a few dollars to save The Nature of Massachusetts, I'd be eternally grateful!

Our Precious Piping Plovers - Can They Survive?

When I hear the phrase "endangered species," Piping Plovers is the first species that comes to mind. For many people in the northeast, the Endangered Species Act didn't have much of an impact on our personal lives until Piping Plovers became protected.   The was quite an emotional response to the news that people would not be allowed on the beaches if a Piping Plover nest was present. 

Emotions ran high on both sides of the issue.  There were many who felt they had an inalienable right to go for a walk on a beach whenever they wanted to.  They were outraged that kite-flying, walking dogs, and Fourth of July fireworks were suddenly illegal.  Other people were were so angry that they were ready to take up arms and shoot anyone who interfered with a Piping Plover's nest.

Twenty five years ago, Piping Plovers were on the brink of extinction.  After twenty-five years of federal and state protection, Piping Plovers are still threatened, but their status is much improved.   You might say that today Piping Plovers are on the brink of recovery.  Massachusetts had only 139 breeding pairs of Piping Plovers in 1986.  In 2008 the number of breeding pairs was estimated at 566 in Massachusetts.  The breeding population had more than quadrupled!

At the end of the summer, our precious Piping Plovers will fly south for the winter.  Unfortunately, they spend the winter in the Gulf of Mexico, where billion of gallons of deadly oil await their arrival this year. According to the Boston Globe, "piping plovers are one species whose survival is threatened by the oil spill."   If you've seen the pictures of oil soaked birds in the gulf, you can't help but despair.  For twenty-five years we've helped the Piping Plovers struggle to avoid extinction, but we are helpless in the face of this disaster.  I'm glad I got to see Piping Plovers this spring.  I just hope I didn't see them for the last time.

Purple Martin, Brant, Yellow Warbler, Piping Plover, etc.

Birdathon moments included my first ever sighting of a Brant (a kind of goose). It was very exciting . . . for a little while, anyway.

They have very pretty patterns all over. They are nice birds. But geese just aren't terribly exciting. I have way too many photos of Brants!

A very funny view of a Purple Martin. They seem to be as aggressive as he looks - they did a lot of fighting with each other!

Tom captured these awesome shots of a happy looking Yellow Warbler in front of the Pilgrim Sands hotel at Plymouth Beach.

Another great shot of the Yellow Warbler in the sunshine.

I had to include another of Tom's outstanding Piping Plover images, too!

Bird-A-Thon Pictures!

Piping Plover at Plymouth Beach.  Endangered Species.

Bird-a-thon was awesome!  It was insane and exhausting, but also fun and rewarding. Our little team of four netted 52 different bird species. I suspect that is on the low side for really enthusiastic birders, but I thought we did an outstanding job. Tom took all of these pictures, and every one of them is outstanding, too. We even saw Piping Plovers, a lifer for me, I think. They are cute, adorable, and endangered.  (BTW, you should view these pictures LARGE or ORIGINAL size at Flickr.  They are really that good!)

Willet on Plymouth Beach.

Mid-day Saturday was shorebirds at Plymouth Beach. This is a Willet. Willets are large shorebirds, speckled gray-brown with a long straight bill. Willets look quite nondescript on the ground, but once in flight or even with wings spread out, they are distinguished by their striking black-and-white color pattern.

Common Tern in Flight

We saw four different species of terns in Plymouth! Four! This beauty is a Common Tern, which is not at all common as far as I'm concerned.

Laughing Gull, May 15 2010

All four of Massachusetts' gulls were well represented, too. I couldn't resist this shot of a laughing gull.

Marbled Godwit

I wanted a Yellowlegs, but I got a Godwit. I actually failed to see more than a couple of my target species, but seeing a Marbled Godwit in the spring is quite rare, or so I've been told. Pete and I saw this guy on Saturday. A birder from another Bird-A-Thon team gave us the ID and the info on this species. If he hadn't, I'd still be looking through field guides!

More to come later on. Thanks especially to BirdingGirl (my cousin and inspirational fellow blogger!) for joining our Birdathon team and taking us birding in Bridgewater Friday evening!

IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO MAKE A DONATION!  25 CENTS PER SPECIES WILL COST YOU ONLY $13.00!  CLICK HERE OR CLICK THE FUNDRAISING WIDGET ABOVE.   THANKS, ALL!