What to Do When It's Raining

It is the Fourth of July and with a strong front coming through plus hurricane Arthur coming up the coast, it is pouring outside with flash flood warnings in effect.  Besides finishing up some things that I needed for the show tomorrow - Stone Barn Farm 786 E. Horseneck Rd. in Dartmouth , from 2 to 5 PM, I looked over some of my recent pictures and one picture hit my eye. A common tern, rising from the water.

The picture was taken on Plymouth beach, during the period of civil dawn when the birds were a silhouette and there was color on the water.  However, the photograph taken in RAW was very flat and did not represent what I had seen.  Utilizing light room and Photoshop, plus Topaz plug-ins of denoise, clarity and detail.  I was able to come up with to photograph that represented what I had seen.

Original

After processing

Plymouth Beach

Here it's looking at you

Here is the second part about my morning at Plymouth Beach.  There were a number of youngsters (bird variety, not human) seen, including common tern, piping plover and a first laughing gull.  Both the common tern chicks and the piping plover chicks were moving around, but still under the watchful eye of an adult.  The laughing gull adult was very protective of her chick and kept the chick close to her and didn't let it go wandering.

We want food

Skipping along

Laughing gull and chick

There were many chances for birds in flight.  The terns were flying back and forth bringing food, either to their mate or to their young ones.  One adult tern took a dislike to one of the group at kept attacking him.

Common tern with fish

The angry young man

In dawn's early light

Black skimmer landing

Walking back to where we were to meet the boat, which will return us to the mainland, my friend Dan and I saw a bird which we could not identified.  The next day all ornithologist friend told Dan, who told me it was a juvenile horned lark.  I had searched my Stokes field guide to the birds and had thought it may have been a thrush, but, after finding out that it was a horned lark and checking out Stokes, the pictures matched.  That is one advantage of the Stokes field guide is that it has multiple pictures of the species showing adults, juveniles, summer and winter plumage and different age of birds.

Horned lark juvenile

Horned lark juvenile

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Common Terns Bathing

Sunrise

Sunday morning I left my house at 0-dark-30, so I could arrived at Plymouth harbor at 4 AM.  I joined Mike Milicia group to take the water taxi out to the tip of Plymouth beach.  We arrived on the beach, prior to sunrise and hiked around to the bayside to the location where all the activity was.  Laughing gulls and common terns were flying over us.  As the sun slowly rose in the East, we were able to photograph the birds in the golden light.  A pair of black skimmers were nesting near the edge of the dune which did allow for pictures.

Black Skimmer

I walked down to the waters edge, where I was observing the common terns bathing.  Common terns have an interesting methodology in their dating sequence.  Like most birds.  They set in the water and use their wings this to create a spray of water, or they duck under the water.  But, rather than just a flap of the wings, they fly out of the water and then settle into another area and repeat the sequence, again.  Finally they come on shore, where the common terns preen their feathers.

I photographed a lot more than the black skimmers and the terns bathing, but I'm going to leave what else we found for the next blog.

Bird-a-thon 2012

Bird-a-thon for 2012.
From 6 PM Friday night, May 11 2 6 PM Saturday, May 12, Paul Champlin, and I were a team that was birding far Allens Pond Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary, among many other teams.  During this period, we ended up when 153 species of different birds.  With all the other teams, Allens Pond was up to 190 species and there were still some teams that had not reported in at the end of the day on Saturday.  This was both our best totals and the sanctuaries best totals.  I wish to thank the people that have contributed and also asked for those who have not contributed you still have time to contribute to this worthy cause.  Just click on this URL and any amount will be appreciated: https://www.firstgiving.com/account/fundraising/FRPPage.asp?id=2463949&did=1

Paul

Our birding started out Friday evening At Plymouth Beach. From the parking lot.  We started walking the 2 1/2 miles down toward the tip of the beach.  I wish to thank Scott Hecker, executive director of the Goldenrod Foundation, who kindly gave us a ride down to the Goldenrod house on the beach.and He then showed us the piping plover nest that was behind the house, which he is monitoring.  At present there is only one egg on the nest, but the plovers are very protective of it.  The female piping plover use the broken wing display to draw us away from the nest and the male piping plover was somewhat aggressive toward us. I was able to obtain photographs of the plovers and the nest in a very short period of time, and then we left them not to disturb them any further.  From there we walked down to the tip of the beach collecting species on the way, plus some interesting photographs. 

Shorebirds in flight

Common Tern



Common Tern in flight with fish



Terns against bthe cloudsd

Double-crested Comorants



Common Tern with fish looking for mate



American Oystercater

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Sunset

Last look over the seas

Last light of Sunset

We had a total of 51 species for that portion of the evening.  Besides the usual, we found the roseate turn, purple sandpipers, a little blue Heron, and 3 Manx Shearwater's.  We then walked the 2 1/2 miles back to the car, where we left for Myles Standish state forest, where we obtained a Screech Owl, Saw-whet Owl  and a Whippoorwill.
We finished the night at approximately 1130 at my house, then Paul left for his house, preparing to meet at 430 in the morning.

Common Grackle

Eastern Cottontail

Great Blue Heron

At 430 on Saturday, we filled our coffee cups and departed for our first stop of the day, Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.  We had arrive prior to 6 AM when the gates open for visitors, so we did find a parking space and walked down toward the cemetery, when we noticed that they also open the gates for the road.  I went back and and drove the car so to parked it in the cemetery.  Mount Auburn Cemetery is a beautiful place, it is a national landmark, an active cemetery, a Botanical garden and a nature refuge..

Virginia Rail

Virginia Rail

After birding Mount Auburn, we traveled to great Meadows national wildlife sanctuary, Concord Unit.  Where I had a Virginia Rail, come out right in front of me.

Cooper's Hawk agaist the moon

Besides the usual subjects, a marsh Wren put on a display and a Cooper's Hawk also did a display over our heads.
We then traveled to Wompatuck state forest, Hingham Massachusetts, where, among some of the species were a Cerulean Warbler and a Hooded Warbler.  We then traveled to Daniel Webster Audubon sanctuary to obtain our next group of birds, which included a Solitary Sandpiper.

Pine Warbler with Moth

After leaving Daniel Webster, we then traveled back to Myles Standish, where we obtained a Pine and Prairie Warbler, among other species.




We finally ended up at Allens Pond and were able to obtain at least another half dozen different species for our list.
We ended the day, with a pizza party for the participants and a total thing of all, although species that were found by the various teams.
Another successful bird-a-thon was over and now it is time to plan for Allens Pond grand opening of the Stone Barn Educational Center and the Annual Duck Derby.
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