Quick Trip on the Beach Loop at Allens Pond

Willet on Tree Swallow Nest Box

Today's blog is also going to include some photos that my grandson shot yesterday while we were at Allens Pond.  We went there to see if we could photograph.  The Killdeer chicks that have been seen.  Well, despite our looking we couldn't find them, however, the Willits, a Piping Plover and Least Sandpipers gave us some subjects to photograph.

My grandson Kyle, has been only photographing for around a year and is a excellent student and has mastered the the fundamentals of the exposure triangle and loves to shoot in manual.  His main love is photographing hip-hop shows.

As we left the field station and will walking through the field toward the beach loop, on top of the tree swallow houses Willits were standing on them and gave us our first photos.

Willet in Flight, Having Just Left the Top of Nest Box

Next on the beach, there was a piping plover running around and feeding.  As we continue down the beach and looked for the Killdeer chicks, all we saw was one adult flying away from us.

Piping Plover Scratching for Food- Kyle

Because I had a get my grandson home so he could get ready for work, we started back, but at the culvert and pannes were more Willits and a nice group of Least Sandpipers.  We did have an enjoyable morning.

Least Sandpiper, notice the slightly downturn bill and yellow legs - Kyle

Least Sandpipers

A Mornings Birding at Horseneck Beach and Allens Pond

For today's blog I will first wish to thank Paul Champlin, our volunteer ornithologist at Allens Pond Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary, for his post about the shorebirds in the parking lot of Horseneck Beach.  The other day, Paul had posted about the large number of semipalmated plovers that he had found in parking lot three of Horseneck beach.

Semipalmated Plover

This morning, Doug, my grandson Kyle and I traveled out to Horseneck beach and went into parking lot three, and all around in the parking lot was semipalmated plovers, semipalmated sandpipers and some least sandpipers, along with a large number of different species of gulls.

Herring Gull

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

Just as we were leaving the parking lot, Doug noticed a bird high in the tree and on closer inspection, it turned out to be a Cedar Waxwing.

Cedar Waxwing

We took a walk down to the shore and there were a large number of Sanderlings, Least Sandpipers and Semipalmated Sandpipers.

Comparison of a Sandeling and a Semipalmated Plover

As we were churning to leave we noticed, what we first thought was piping plover running around, however, it turned out to be a young least tern, which was being watched over by an adult.

Least Tern Chick

Least Tern Chick and Adult

We then traveled and checked out the parking lot at Gooseberry, where black scoters were still around.

We finished up at Allens Pond where a good number of different species of birds were present including A Lesser Yellowlegs in the pannes, and a Ruddy Turnstone on the beach.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Ruddy Turnstone

We finished the morning with 44 different species of birds, so a good day was had by all.