Cape Cod Canal, Sandwich Visitors Center and Scuesset Beach

Another interesting place to visit to observe birds and to photograph them is the Cape Cod Bay end of the Cape Cod Canal.  Both sides of the canal offer opportunities for these endeavors.  On both sides.  There are jetties that you can walk out on, I find the jetty on the Sandwich side much easier to walk on.  Both sides of easy to get to.  Although you do have to drive over the Sagamore Bridge to get from one to the other.

The day of my last visit, there was a snow shower the night before and the ground was covered with snow.  The first picture that I obtained was a close-up of a phragmites seed head with snow on it.  I  utilized my 500 mm f/4 lens to do the macro.

As we slowly walked down toward the jetty, we observed common loons, red breasted mergansers, herring gulls,common eiders and other birds.
Flying there was a herring gull which had food in its mouth being harassed by a first-year juvenile herring gull.  The long and the shot of the story is that the adult bird opened its mouth and drop the food into the canal, so neither bird got to eat it.
Down in the water off the beach, there were a number of Atlantic Brandt swimming and flying around a Great Blue Heron.


I was able to capture some sequences of bird action.  The first was a red-necked merganser taking off from the canal and the second was a common loon diving for food.  I combined the pictures into inaction-sequence panorama, utilizing the technique that George Lepp described in Outdoor Photography and is available online at http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/how-to/shooting/action-sequence-panoramas.html


There were a number of Brants feeding in a area of snow covered grass.




Crossing over to discuss the Scusset Beach State Reservation   Area, we observed mostly the same birds that we had seen on the opposite side of the canal.  There was a lone sanderling feeding on the beach. Normally you find sanderlings in in groups.  The sanderlings was very cooperative and walked back and forth by me as I knelt in the snowy sands to get a low profile of the bird.
The wind had picked up and this song sparrow, I captured with its feathers blowing in the wind. A ringed-build gull decided to make the handicap parking sign its resting place. 
There also was a good number of American Crows around the area.
I do recommend a visit to the Cape Cod Bay end of the Cape Cod Canal for your enjoyment.  Directions and information are available at http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/recreati/ccc/ccchome.htm

Tree Swallow - Swarming

Earlier this month, I had made a visit to Gooseberry in Westport Massachusetts to do some photography. While I was sitting on the beach photographing the shorebirds and the ducks that were present I was watching the flight of swallows coming in from the mainland. When I turned around the swallows were gathering on the Phragmites in moderate large numbers.
Ah Hah I said it is getting to be that season of the year when the tree swallows gathered together in preparation for their migration. In August and September they gather in the marshes and fields by the sea, with their numbers increasing daily.
Most of the swallows that were present were tree swallows although there were some barn swallows and rare rough-winged swallows mixed into the large group.
Gooseberry is one of the gathering areas as well as Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge in Middletown Rhode Island
Yesterday, my colleague Doug and I returned to Gooseberry to do additional birding and of course from the photography. The numbers of shorebirds were increasing along the beach. But, the numbers of swallows that were present were enormous. There were hundreds if not thousands of them swarming over the mid-portion of the island.
I am inserting a video of the birds swarming, plus additional pictures including some blurs that I made.

Swarming Tree Swallows

JJust standing there with the multitude of swallows flying around over your head and around you is just breathtaking. So if you have a chance, go visit Gooseberry and enjoy the swallows