Today is Thursday and if you have been following my blogs. Usually, you know that on Thursday's I go birding with my good friend Doug. Today was no exception, we met at my house at 615 with Doug bringing delicious Starbucks coffee and we set out to bird on Cape Cod. On the way. We decided we would bird first at Wellfleet Bay, Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary. We arrived before the visitor center open, however, the trails are open beginning it sunrise. Before we left the garden and the feeders. We had seen 17 different species. Perhaps the most interesting was a
juvenile vesper sparrow, J
uvenile Eastern Towhee who was perched on the sanctuaries solar panels. The hardest part of the day was trying to identify some of the sightings due to, the large number of juveniles. We slowly made our way down toward the beach. Prior to reach in the beach, the number of birds that we saw were low. On reaching the beach area, there was a number of different shorebirds there, including Eastern and Western Willet's, Whimbrils, Greater Yellowlegs, plus a large number of different species out on the flats as the tide receded. A saltmarsh sparrow gave us a great view of itself by perching on the marsh grass for a couple minutes, and allowing the to take its picture.
Near the shore was " a murder of crows". Murder is the name given to a flock of crows.
Monarch was feading on flowers and there was extremely large number of Atlantic Marsh Fiddler Crabs, I observed a pair of male fiddler crabs fighting over a hole.
On the way walking back to the visitors center, at the pond, there was a beautiful green heron present, which was searching for food.
When we finally finished birding Wellfleet, we wanted to go further up on the Cape toward Provincetown, however, traffic was so backed up, so we decided to head off the Cape, but also decided to stop first and have some lunch. We stopped at the Lobster Shanty on route 6, which is across the road from where the Cape Cod National Seashore Visitors Center Is located. We had lobster salad, which was so large, and furnish me not only with lunch, but also with supper.
 |
| Red-winged Blackbird |
 |
| Least Sandpiper |
 |
| Greater Yellowlegs |
 |
| Semipalmated Plover |
 |
| Song Sparrow |
 |
| "Tip-toeing Through the Sand" Western Willet |
 |
| Western Willet and Short-billed Dowitcher |
 |
| Western Willet and Short-billed Dowitcher |
 |
| Whimbrel |
 |
| Willet - Eastern |
Hi Myer,
ReplyDeleteThe Vesper Sparrow is actually a juvenile Eastern Towhee. Note the bright white patch in the wings and the reddish brown tones. Vesper Sparrow is rare and rapidly disappearing from the Cape. They do not breed here on the sanctuary. Also, that is a Least Sandpiper, not Semipalmated - note the yellow legs.
Mark Faherty, Mass Audubon/Wellfleet Bay sanctuary