Allens Pond Bird Walk - September 29, 2011

First a statement, I am behind on my blogs, so when I post them, they will be in an out of date sequence.
On Thursday, September 29, 9 hardy people gathered at Allens Pond Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary for one of Paul's famous bird walks.  The day was foggy and dreary, but the rain held off.  It was time of high tide, and there was a wind blowing in from the ocean.
We started off down the Quonset loop because there were shorebirds, pushed against the shore.  We did find Greater Yellowlegs, along with Great Egret's and a Great Blue Heron. There were a number of passerines present, and the surprise was a Blue Grosbeak. It landed on the top of the dead tree, however, because of the distance the picture I have here is not the best.




We then returned and went onto the Beach Loop with the rack line and puddles of water were high on the beach.  There were a large number of shorebirds feeding and were basically ignoring us as we walked by.  Among the shorebirds that we found were Semi-Palmated Plovers, Semi-Palmated Sandpipers, Least Sandpipers, Sanderlings, Dunlins, and Ruddy Turnstones.  White-rumped Sandpipers flew by and we could visualized their white rump.  At one point, there was a question whether or not a Western Sandpiper was among the Semi-palmated Sandpipers.
At the end of the beach, looking across to Barney's Joy there was a large concentration of Double-Crested Cormorant's, Gulls, and Terns. We also found a rarity for the site, Lesser Black-backed Gull.