SSBC Trip - Plan B (Outer Cape Cod) 8/18/2012

The South Beach trip for the South Shore Bird Club went to Plan B based on dubious radar imagery.  Going to bed on Friday the forecast was 40% precipitation with patches of sun during the day.  Waking up on Saturday this changed to 70% until 9:00 a.m. and 60% the rest of the day.  So, we decided to bird the outer cape.  This was a good decision as we ran into rain at a couple of locations with heavier rain clouds to our south which would be over South Beach.  The group ended with over 80 species including American Avocet, territorial hummingbirds at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary (WBWS), and a late Orchard Oriole (juv-male?) at WBWS.  The only shorebird I feel we missed by not getting to South Beach was Hudsonian Godwit, but we would not have seen the avocet.  Obviously, the sheer numbers of individuals are quite a bit reduced.

R-Race Point, P'town; W-WBWS; P-Provincetown (mostly Beech Forest); T-Truro; rest at Chatham (Chatham Light, Buck's Creek, Cow Yard) unless noted.

Mute Swan 3 (1-Harwich, 2-Eastham)
Black Duck 7-W
Common Eider 20
Hooded Merganser 1 female type-W
Red-breasted Merganser 1 female type-might be first summer
Wild Turkey 1-W
Common Loon 1
Cory's Shearwater 5-R
Great Shearwater 10-R
MANX SHEARWATER 50-R highlighted for so many; small groups loafing on water
Northern Gannet 24-R
Double-crested Cormorant 75
Great Blue Heron 10 (5-W, 1-P)
Great Egret 4
Snowy Egret 2
Green Heron 5 (1-W, 1-P)
YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON 1 juv-W sitting in bare tree seen from small platform overlooking the pond on main trail to Goose Pond
Turkey Vulture 1-Eastham
Osprey 3
Northern Harrier 1 female
Cooper's Hawk 1
accipiter, sp 1
Black-bellied Plover 20
Semipalmated Plover 40
Piping Plover 1 juv
KILLDEER 1-R not a common bird here and this flew over, calling, Herring Cove, circled a couple of hundred feet up and then headed south/west toward P'town proper.  Must have been a migrant.
American Oystercatcher 2
AMERICAN AVOCET 1-T
Greater Yellowlegs 12 (2-T)
Willet 3
Lesser Yellowlegs 2 (1-W, 1-T)
Spotted Sandpiper 5 (2-W)
Whimbrel 3
Ruddy Turnstone 3
Red Knot 2
Sanderling 1-R
Semipalmated Sandpiper 50 (5-T)
Least Sandpiper 10 (5-T)
White-rumped Sandpiper 1-T
Short-billed Dowitcher 30
Parasitic Jaeger 1-R
Laughing Gull 100 (25-R)
Ring-billed Gull ***
Herring Gull ***
Great Black-backed Gull ***
Roseate Tern 2+ -R
Common Tern 350 (50-R)
Least Tern 12 (10-R)
Mourning Dove 50
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 6 (5-W, 1-P)
Belted Kingfisher 3 (1-P, 1-T, 1-W)
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1-W
Downy Woodpecker 3-W
Northern Flicker 2
Great Crested Flycatcher 4 (2-W, 2-P)
Blue Jay 5-P
American Crow 10-W
Tree Swallow 30
Bank Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 75
Black-capped Chickadee 10 (5-W, 5-P)
Tufted Titmouse 3-W
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1-W
White-breasted Nuthatch 2-W
Carolina Wren 3 (1-T)
Eastern Bluebird 3-W
American Robin 10
Gray Catbird 21 (5-W, 5-P, 4-T)
Northern Mockingbird 3
Starling ***
Cedar Waxwing 4
Pine Warbler 2+ -W
Common Yellowthroat 8 (2-W, 2-P, 1-T)
Eastern Towhee 15-W
Chipping Sparrow 2-W
Song Sparrow 18 (3-W, 2-P, 3-T)
Northern Cardinal 10 (5-W, 3-P)
Red-winged Blackbird 15-W
Common Grackle 5-W
Brown-headed Cowbird 1-T
ORCHARD ORIOLE 1 juv-W
Baltimore Oriole 9 (6-W, 1-T, 2-P)
House Finch 5-W
American Goldfinch 10 (6-W, 2-P)
House Sparrow ***

84 species

Glenn

Glenn d'Entremont:  gdentremont1@comcast.net  Stoughton, MA