Birding at Gooseberry Neck

western Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow

Doug and I joined some birders and photographers at Gooseberry Neck in Westport, Massachusetts.  This has been a good location early in the morning for seeing migrants passing over toward the mainland.  Paul Champlin has been there, usually every morning counting the different species, and he posts on his blog http://southcoastbirder.blogspot.com/ information.  The morning, we were there, there was a strong wind blowing and birds were having a hard time making it to the coast, in fact, some birds got blown back and then just hunkered down and stayed put, while others finally made it to the coast.

There has been present for a while a western Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow hanging around the sign at the end of the parking lot.

western Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow

Of the birds that were passing overhead, I was able to photograph a Northern Flicker and the American Kestrel.

American Kestrel

Northern Flicker

Later, as we made our way up the trail on Gooseberry, we saw a Northern Paurula, Western Palm Warbler, and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

Northern Paurula

Northern Paurula

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Western Palm Warbler

So if you have a chance to get out to Gooseberry Neck in the morning, keep your eyes open because you will never know what you may see.

American Kestrel

Another interesting facet of my recent trip to Utah was the large number of American Kestrels that I observed. They were everywhere, in the trees, on the marsh, on wires along the road, and along streets.  In fact, it reminded me somewhat of when we drive around here in Massachusetts and see Red-tailed Hawks sitting in trees along the road.  The numbers of red-tailed hawks that we see are much less in numbers, then the amount of kestrels that I saw in Utah, in a same area, probably due to the difference in size of the birds and the territory they cover.
In fact, in Massachusetts, the American Kestrel is declining markedly and they are one of the birds of concern from the Massachusetts Audubon Society.  Here is a link to the information that the Mass Audubon has online http://www.massaudubon.org/Birds_and_Birding/birdstowatch/kestrels/index.php
The American Kestrel is a beautiful bird with the male showing a reddish brown back and blue gray upper wing colors. The females wings are reddish brown. Both the male and female have pairs of black vertical slashes on the side of their pale face. 





In the air, they will hover with tails spread as they look for prey on the ground..




You can help increase the numbers of American Kestrels by building and hanging a nesting box for them.  http://www.birds.cornell.edu/nestinginfo/downloads/Am%20Kestrel%20Screech-Owl%20N%20Saw-whet%20Owl.pdf.