Plymouth Day - 5/27/2012

The first leg of the trip, led by Glenn d"Entremont, started at Plymouth Beach with approximately 18 participants. The weather was mostly sunny, with a medium NW wind, and temps in the 60sF. This made for a pleasant, but always very long walk down to the end of the beach where Common Terns and Laughing Gulls have their nesting colony. Several pairs of Piping Plovers were encountered and we learned that there were 17 pairs on territory this year. Also along the way were several breeding pairs of Least Terns. Small numbers of shorebirds were seen along the way, as well as a couple dozen Bank Swallows, which nest in the dune faces. Amongst the 1,000+ Common Terns we were able to find 1, possibly 2 Roseate Terns. We were rewarded for our efforts on the walk back with a Black Tern (rare in the spring).

Complete list:

45 species

Mute Swan  8
Mallard  8
Double-crested Cormorant  45
Great Blue Heron  2
Great Egret  1
Green Heron  1
Osprey  2
Black-bellied Plover  42
Semipalmated Plover  1
Piping Plover  17
Willet (Eastern)  8
Ruddy Turnstone  20
Sanderling  20
Semipalmated Sandpiper  45
Least Sandpiper  1
Dunlin  1
Laughing Gull  500 

Ring-billed Gull  12                                                   

Herring Gull (American)  25
Great Black-backed Gull  15
Least Tern  80
Black Tern  1
Roseate Tern  1
Common Tern  1000
Mourning Dove  10
Willow Flycatcher  1
Eastern Kingbird  2
American Crow  8
Horned Lark  2
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  1
Tree Swallow  10
Bank Swallow  22
Barn Swallow  4
American Robin  2
Gray Catbird  1
Northern Mockingbird  8
European Starling  20
Yellow Warbler  1
Song Sparrow  25
Northern Cardinal  1
Red-winged Blackbird  8
Common Grackle  50
House Finch  4
American Goldfinch  3
House Sparrow  12

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

Round 2 of Glenn's Plymouth trip started around noontime at the Plymouth Airport. The Club is granted access to the airfield by management once a year to observe grassland bird species, namely: Upland Sandpiper (the entire breeding population in MA are restricted to airports!), American Kestrel, Vesper, Grasshopper, & Savannah Sparrows. The turnout was impressive with 30+ people and an amazing convoy of cars on the access road! After much scanning the entire group was able to observe a single Upland Sandpiper. Other species, namely Sparrows,  were tough to find probably due to the time of day and "heat waves" effect.

Complete list:

Canada Goose  9
Double-crested Cormorant  1
Great Blue Heron  1
Osprey  3
Cooper's Hawk  1
Broad-winged Hawk  1
Red-tailed Hawk  3
American Kestrel  1    Male
Upland Sandpiper  1
Herring Gull (American)  2
Eastern Kingbird  2
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  3
Horned Lark  2
Tree Swallow  1
Tufted Titmouse  1
Eastern Bluebird  1
American Robin  1
Gray Catbird  2
Northern Mockingbird  2
Cedar Waxwing  1
Ovenbird  1
Yellow Warbler  1
Pine Warbler  2
Prairie Warbler  3
Eastern Towhee  4
Chipping Sparrow  2
Field Sparrow  2
Savannah Sparrow  6
Song Sparrow  1
Scarlet Tanager  1
Baltimore Oriole  1
American Goldfinch  1

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

Vin Zollo