Shore Birds At Gooseberry

As we approach closer to the holiday time, I want to wish all my readers a happy holiday season though matter which holiday you observe and hopefully within the next year we could have really peace on earth.








As I was photographing the shorebirds the other day at Gooseberry and observing their behavior because the more you know about a species the more you can predict what you need to do to get better pictures. I met a gentleman who was birdwatching and we started talking and he pointed out the Purple Sandpiper to me and I pointed out a Ruddy Turnstone to him.

Ruddy Turnstone with Sanderlings and a Dunlin

Purple Sandpiper and a Dunlin

 After the gentleman left and I was continuing on my way, I saw a shorebird that was larger than the Sanderlings and Dunlins, I first thought it would be the Purple Sandpiper, however its bill was all black and it had more mottling on the breast and belly and hatch marks on the tail-feathers.  I sat down and photograph this unknown bird and it approached very close to me. Even with the bird identification app in my smart phone and my bird book I still wasn't sure what it was. When I arrived home and download the pictures and utilized my copy of Stokes Birds of North America, I had an idea what it was. To make sure, I sent pictures to a good friend of mine, Paul Champlin who has been extremely kind to identify unknown birds for me. Sure enough he sent back the answer, in fact he had seen the bird that same afternoon, it was a Red Knot in winter plumage. I went onto e- bird and found that it is a very rare winter occurrence here in southeastern Massachusetts. In fact the only pictures I have of a Red Knot I had taken in 2010 at Nickerson Beach.

Red Knot Winter Plumage

Red Knot Winter Plumage

Red Knots at Nickerson Beach

In the parking lot at Gooseberry there was a large puddle in which a number of Dunlins were bathing which made for some interesting pictures.

Dunlin Landing

Dunlins Preening and bathing

Dunlin Bathing

At times the different species were separated and other times they were mixed up together. The little bit of fighting over food that I saw usually was among the same species. In fact I obtained a picture of a Dunlin and Sanderling feeding on the same slipper shell.

Dunlin and Sanderling feeding on a slipper shell

Some of the Findings on Our Gooseberry Walk

Yellow Warbler in Rosa Ruguso

Now that I did my rant about the trash on Gooseberry, here are some of the pictures that I obtained during our walk.  The day was bright and sunny, with a cool breeze.  It started out in the high 60s and then ended up in the low 80s.  We saw about 40 different species of birds, many were on the wing, and migrating.  In fact, starting at sunrise, there has been a lot of different species of birds flying in from over the water.  The birds that landed were nervous and flighty, so it was hard to get pictures of many of them.  At one point, in the wrack, there were a number of Ruddy Turnstones, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Spotted Sandpiper, Semipalmated Plover and Some Sandelings.  Ospreys were flying overhead.  The blackberries was starting to turn.  Japanese honeysuckle, which is an invasive plant, was still in bloom.  As we were leaving down the Causeway, on the left out by the large rock, was a male black scoter and some common eiders, including a partially luestic eider, which at first glance thought maybe an immature king eider, but after looking at its picture on the computer, confirmed that was a common eider.

Robin with prey in its beak

Carolina Locust blends in well with the rock

Partial Luestic Common Eider

Herring Gull

Spotted Sandpiper

Ruddy Turnstone in the wrack

Balanced Rock Art

Japanese Honeysuckle  an invasive plant, but is pretty

Willet

Yellow Warbler

Gooseberry Island - Westport Massachusetts

Gooseberry Island is connected to the mainland by a causeway. The island is part of the Horseneck Beach State Park Reservation. There is a parking lot at the beginning of the island. People use the island for walking, sunbathing, fishing, boating, bird watch and and of course photography.
The island is surrounded on its western side by Rhode Island Sound and on its eastern side by Buzzards Bay. There is on the Buzzards Bay side a bathing beach and a boat ramp. The rest of the island is surrounded by mainly cobbles with sand present at low tides.
For an excellent account of Gooseberry's history you need to look up the Gooseberry Journal at <http://gooseberryjournal.wordpress.com/>
I arrived early in the morning, on a cloudy day, at low tide and walked up onto the Northeast Beach where I observed a number of sea ducks feeding among the rocks and shorebirds working the wrack line. I found a "comfortable rock" where I could sit down low with my camera and lens on a tripod in front of me and allow the birds to get used to me and come to me.


Common Eider



Common Eider

Surf Scoter

I was pleasantly surprised when among  the common eiders there were a few surf scoters. Usually the surf scoters do not come in close enough for great picture taking. However, today I was very lucky.





Least Sandpiper



Semipalmated Plover

RuddyTurnstone

lThere were a number of species of shorebirds present. The interesting part was of the shorebirds were still in breeding plumage and a Spotted Sandpiper was already in winter plumage.
Most of the shorebirds will be migrating southward although some to spend the winter in the Westport area.
Another yearly phenomenon that occurs on Gooseneck is the large gathering of swallows prior to their migration southward. There were many swallows flying in from the mainland and landing on the Phragmites, where they would stay for a while then fly and hover around.
I stayed up until a lot more people arrived and started walking their dogs on the beach which of course disturbed the birds in my photography. Dogs are permitted on gooseberry in this golden retriever was enjoying the water by swimming after a ball.
There were a number of fishermen on the Rhode Island sound side either fishing from the shoreline or from the causeway and a few were fishing out utilizing kayaks.
Because of how Gooseberry is positioned it lends itself to sunrise and sunset photography. There is much to photograph on the island and you can just take snapshots or decide what you want to photograph on that day and concentrate on it.

Here is a map of Gooseberry that is copied from the Gooseberry Journal