Many Manx

On Tuesday evening I stopped by Revere Beach to see if I could see the Manx Shearwaters. I also went with the hope of watching them as late as possible to see if they would give any hints as to where (if at all) these birds are nesting. Several sources cite Manx Shearwaters as congregating in the evening in the waters near their nests. Their nest are often burroughs on lightly vegetated islands or on cliff ledges. If these birds are found to nest in the Harbor it would be only the second record of nesting Manx Shearwaters in the United States - the first occcured on an island off Cape Cod in the 70's.

When I arrived at the beach I had picked up the birds prior to parking the car as they "shearwatered" up and down the beach. I pulled over and watched them all come to rest a good distance off the beach - There were 8!


It was 7:30PM at this point and I was determined to watch them as long as possible. After about 15 minutes of preening they all took off and began to "shearwater" - at one point three flew directly over my head!!! Unfortunately my camera skills were not adequate to catch them in focus, but here are some further out -


They came to rest in the exact spot as they took off from. I watched for some time more and for a second time they took off. Rather than fly up and down the beach this time they made one wide arc and ended up 1/4 mile north and east from where they started. I moved to their new location and watched.


Rather than sit still this time they actively swam in the direction of Nahant. I started to get excited - maybe they were nesting on Egg Rock. At about 8:15 I observed what I thought at the time was a "territorial" or "pairing" display. Two of the birds raised up exposing their white breast and began flapping and then chasing each other. This continued at various levels of intensity until three of the birds had enough and left the main group. It was dark enough at this point that I was forced to make a decision on which group to watch for I would surely loose the one I left. I remained with larger group.

Now as it was almost too dark to see one of the birds began a strange display. It would rear up like a loon in display -lifting its body up - but the Manx did not spread its wings, and it started to rhythmically bob up and down in the water. It was really cool. It did not appear to be directing this display at any other individual bird.

The following is from Cornell's Birds of North America Online -

"Flocks participate in mutual flights offshore near colony, with large groups splitting apart and forming several smaller groups (Lockley 1942). Offshore at dusk, shearwaters may form tight groups with individuals facing inward, cackling and posturing at each other with downward-pointing beaks, followed by rushing and chasing, then group pursuit, and finally by diving in unison (Tulloch 1977)." (BNA)

At about 8:35 the birds took flight I was able to follow them, but just barely - they reconnected with the other three birds that I had lost track of and headed straight up the beach to the north where I lost site of them - with no better idea of where these birds might be nesting then before.

If anyone has a boat or a good "in" with the NPS let me know - my gut tells me they are nesting in the cliffs of Great Brewster Island but I would love to spend a night or two out on the islands trying to find out. At one point the Revere Breakwater was floated as a possible location, but I have seen the water rush over those rocks twice since the birds have been spotted and it is connected to shore at low tide which also makes me doubt this as a breeding site. I haven't seen anything written on average distance from nesting sites for these evening congregations but they clearly are evening congregations.

GOOD BIRDING!

Piping Plover Courtship Display

This weekend I headed to the Cape for Memorial Day Weekend. We stayed at a nice campground adjacent to the National Seashore - I would actually recommend this campground for off-peak season camping. It was quiet and VERY close to the beach! - North of Highlands Camping Area . There were a couple of Great-horned Owls making evenings enjoyable with their calls, and the morning bird song was impressive - with Scarlet Tanager, Blackpoll Warbler, Pine Warbler, and a Tennessee Warbler being the highlights of pre leaving tent song.

One afternoon I took a walk to the Head of the Meadow Beach and enjoyed great looks at a Minke Whale just off shore -

Northern Gannets, Laughing Gulls, Terns (too far out to ID), and these Red-breasted Mergansers on the beach were also highlights -


But clearly my favorite "critter" of the beach is the Piping Plover! I was fortunate enough to see a pair of Piping Plovers at Head of the Meadow in the midst of their courtship ritual. It is truly ridiculous. I got some pictures of the different stages and I will include some excerpts from Cornell's Birds of North America for the description -

" Following nest-scraping, a male may stand in a scrape with a female nearby, lower his head at about a 30^°angle, spread wings, and raise his tail, fanning it at a 30^°angle. Female crouches and walks underneath the male’s tail. She stands under the male until he walks away and performs another tilt display. Late in courtship, this display precedes mounting and copulation." (BNA)

This was definitely late in courtship as they would eventually mount and possibly copulate. The only divergence from this description that I observed was that the female was actively engaged in a nest scraping display while the male approached and "tilted". After the male tilted the female quit scraping and remained still. This is where I snapped this pic -


"Just prior to copulation, the male walks slowly toward the female in a low gliding crouch with head held below the horizon and drawn well into the body." (BNA)

Either this didn't happen or happened so quickly and subtly I didn't think to take a shot of it (I took 50 shots of the display). My next shot clearly shows the next step in their courtship ritual -
"Nearing her, he gradually rises into an erect posture with neck outstretched, breast band broadened, and breast expanded. Simultaneously, he beats a high-stepping and increasingly rapid tattoo with both feet." (BNA)


This is one of the "silliest" looking things I have seen any animal do. It is straight out of the Monty Python skit - Ministry of Silly Walks. At first I thought the male might be attempting to stimulate the femle by kicking her where the action will happen, but I couldn't see any contact in the field and none of the shots I have show any contact.

"Upon reaching the female, he may continue the tattoo for several minutes before flapping his wings and mounting. Male may remain on the female’s back for up to 1.5 minutes before copulation takes place"


After this apparently failed mount - They never obviously copulated, but I will be honest that I am not sure exactly what that would look like in this species. In some birds it is obvious in others it happens very quickly, and being behind the lens of a camera I could have easily missed it. Fortunately, for the species, this couple was determined and they tried again. Although this time they skipped the tilt display and went straight to the "funny" walk -


Unfortunately, this second round didn't seem to take - for the mount was very fast less than 3 seconds! -


All of this activity occurred within 3 feet of the initial "scrape" site. What is a little disturbing about this scenario is that this also happened within 10 feet of a well used vehicle path - and of all things the path was for National Park Rangers - I am going to find the correct person to contact to alarm them to a potential unprotected nest.

This was quite an experience and I would strongly encourage folks to get out to your local beach and see if you can't watch this drama unfold.

Good Birding!

Bird-A-Thon 24 Hour Adventure

From the first day I started work at the Boston Nature Center I was hooked on Bird-A-Thon. In my humble opinion it is the perfect excuse to go out and bird for 24 straight hours. Jake Miller and I continued our tradition of pseudo-big-day attempts with a nice effort of 137 birds!

Most people that go after a Big Day put countless hours into scouting and planning. Unfortunately, Jake and I haven't found the "right" people to pay us to bird so we are forced to go after it without a lick of planning and our occasional recreational birding as scouting. This always seems to hurt us in two areas - the starting location and the nighttime hours. - This year we decided that we would start at Pikul's Farm in Rowley to pick up Wilson's Phalarope. This and the thought that we should watch the "fly-in" at Kettle Island at dusk were our only two planned stops.

Even though we left at 4:00PM for Pikul's we didn't get there until 6:00PM! A desperate search for new windshield wipers and the ridiculous notion that 1A would be the best route resulted in turing a 30 minute drive into a 2 hour drive! It was worth it. As soon as we got there - we jumped out of the car and set up our scopes on the pans. There spinning around were 4 Wilson's Phalaropes! We also added Least Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs, Willet, and Gadwall.

Back in the car we decided to take a spin around Old Rowley Rd. We were hoping for a Ruff or a White-Faced Ibis, but did not have much luck. Instead we picked up a few passerines, and at the last marshy stop on the road I decided to clap for rails. I turned around to see Jake laughing at me and he was just about to say, "Yeah Right!" When a Virginia Rail responded loud and close. It was great!

The last stop on Old Rowley Road was at a plowed field. Last year I told Jake there would be a Pipit in this field and there was - this year we were not so lucky.

The next scheduled stop was at Manchester by the Sea where we would watch Kettle Island. This island is an evening roost for wading birds and also I would assume quite a nesting area. We picked up both Egrets, Black-crowned Night Heron, and Glossy Ibis, but no Great Blue Herons!

As darkness approached we tried to get to Gloucester's Eastern Point to see what the East wind had blown in, but we were too late. It was dark. We thought we might have heard a Purple Sandpiper, but it was not well enough heard to count. We did get to watch a Coast Guard ship launch 10-12 flares, and a fisherman was getting busted by the environmental police when we were there.

The rain was now coming down pretty hard so we got back into the car and made a dash for the Whip-poor-will that I had heard the week prior at the Fells. When we got there it was raining so hard that even the woodcocks were not displaying so we made a B-line for Taco Bell and then Belle Isle Marsh. As soon as we got into the Marsh the rain tapered to a mist and quickly we picked up another Virginia Rail, a Sora, and several displaying Woodcocks. We poked around a bit hoping for a Clapper Rail but had no luck! A quick stop in Winthrop produced the Keer Keer of American Oystercatchers.

Since the rain had stopped we decided to make another attempt at the Whip, which met with the same level of success. Now we were faced with the biggest decision of our Bird-A-Thon adventure - to sleep or not to sleep - we chose birds : )

We stopped at the Mystic Lakes and whistled at a Screech Owl which kindly returned the favor, and then we stopped down at Forest Hills Cemetery to listen for the Great Horned Owls and amazingly we heard them twice! These were the first non-snowy owls we had gotten during Bird-A-Thon.

From here we could have easily decided to sleep some as it was pushing 1AM, but not until we found a Clapper was the motto. We rambled all over the Neponset Marsh, adding another Sora and Virgina Rail and two of the most obnoxious Mockingbirds ever. We also ended up extremely muddy, and I suffered a puncture wound in my right foot. Did this slow us down? NO WAY! On to Merrymount Park in Quincy.

Prior to arriving at Merrymount we made a quick stop at the marsh on Squantum St. Sitting in the glow of the nearby street lights was a beautiful Black-crowned Night Heron. Finally poking around the tidal marshes at Merrymount produced no Clapper Rail so we headed to Crooked Pond for a quick nap. By the time we got there it was about 3:30AM so we decided on a quick nap with the car windows down in the hopes of a Barred Owl waking us - no luck!

Now at a little after 4AM it was time to make our way to Newburyport and Plum Island, but that will have to wait for tomorrow's Blogging!

Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow on the Common (part Two)

Perhaps because of the location of the sighting some doubts were raised about the ID of the Sharp-tailed Sparrow seen on Thursday in the Common. So I thought I would post completely unedited pictures (they are cropped) for folks to look at. The pictures from my post on Thursday were posted to ID Frontiers and elicited this response from David Sibley - Author of the Sibley Guide to Birds.

"This looks like a typical Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed, with long bill, coarsely-marked face and breast, small dark streaks in the orange supercilium, and orange malar contrasting with paler breast. There are a couple of records of this species far inland in Pennsylvania, but it's true that ANY record away from coastal salt marsh is noteworthy, and there aren't very many nesting north of Boston."

B.I.M.B.O. VS P.I.

Hello All,

This week a long standing rivalry between birding locales became official. After intense effort on both parts to claim superiority - it was decided a "Big Year" competition was the only way to settle it. The contestants are on one side - the strong and proud urbanites of the Boston Metropolitan area with their uncanny abilities to pull rare birds from the densest urban jungle of concrete and asphalt and on the other side are those gas guzzling, hoity toity, NWR, State Park, IBA watching, near sighted ninnies - the Plum Island "Birders" (if its not clear yet that last part is a joke).

Here are the rules - which territory will see the most species of birds in 2008. Plum Island's (PI territory as I understand it, is any bird seen on or from the island with offshore pelagics up for consideration. The BIMBO (Birds In Metro Boston Only) territory can be seen on the MAP at the end of this blog, and clearly the same rules for pelagics will have to be applied.

As of today the BIMBOs ----- ARE AHEAD!!!!! ------

212 species to 211!

The current BIMBO tally can be found HERE!

Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow on the Common

Amongst the throngs of tourists and newly released from school kids in the Common were some fantastic birds - The most amazing one was this Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow!


This bird was in the company of two Swamp Sparrows. They would feed right there on the sparse grass of the Common on Monument Hill. Then when an overfed squirrel would come by they would fly up into the lowest branches of the oaks above them. Here is another look face on.


I didn't want to get too close so these pictures were taken from quite a distance with a 400 mm lens. Here is a look at the previous shot in the full frame (no cropping)...


Today was the best lunch I have ever taken - although it lasted a little longer than the hour alotted ; )

Good Birding!

Andrew

Rumney Marsh

This weekend with the weather being what it was I abandoned my BIGBY efforts and did some scouting of the Rumney Marsh. Rumney Marsh exists in both Saugus and Revere. So only the southern portion of the marsh in Revere is in the BIMBO territory. It is VERY difficult to find access to this marsh if you don't know where to go. Here are three spots folks should check if they are going to try to get some BIMBO at Rumney..


View Larger Map

1. Four Points Sheraton (BIGBY access via 119 or 411 to Northgate Mall)

At the back of the parking lot for the hotel there is a trail that goes up onto the old road bed. This road bed separates the marsh from the commercial enterprises on rte 60. Go up and over the hill and you will be treated to the largest expanse of mudflats in the BIMBO territory. Look here for shorebirds at the change of tides, and ducks in the fall and winter. It also has some large expanse of open grasses which should hold sparrows, bobolinks, and likely meadowlarks.

2. Hastings St. Park (BIGBY access walk from Wonderland ~ 1 mile)

This park borders the southeastern edge of the marsh and offers the best looks at the pans in this section of the marsh. You can also access the marsh from this park, and their seems to be ample parking along the street as well.

3. Salem Turnpike (107 - not recommended for BIGBY)

The highway crosses over two bridges here and at low tide there is a lot of habitat exposed. This is a good spot to find Waders, Shorebirds, Osprey, and possibly owls in the winter. Very unpleasant birding experience being right on the BUSY highway.

Let me know if there are other easy spots to access / view the marsh by leaving your comments on the comments page!!!!

Thanks,

Andrew