Parker River National Wildlife Refuge

Gadwal in the Pannes

On Tuesday morning, the family and I left early to beat the traffic through Boston on the way to visit Parker River National Wildlife Refuge.  Because of the breeding season for terns and piping plovers all the beach accesses in the refuge, were closed to traffic.  Not until we reached Sandy Point State Reservation were we able to walk out onto the beach.  We very slowly drove up the road from the entrance, stopping and photographing different birds, as we visualize them.  We walked the number of the trails enjoying the sights and the weather.  Mostly what we saw were the breeding birds.  Meeting a number of birders, they all remarked on the lack of migrants compared to a few days ago.  Apparently apparently the migrants continued on their northward journey.

Easton Kingbird

Bobolink

Willet.  On the Top of a Tree

At Sandy Point, we saw a few shorebirds, including black-bellied plover, dunlin, and my first of the year piping plover.  There was an adult great black-backed gull feeding on a crab, the interesting part, the crab was still alive.

Piping Plover Feeding

Black-Bellied Plover

Great black-backed Gull With a Crab

We met a birder at Bill's Forward Blind, who told us about some other locations in the area that we did not know about, since we are mainly southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island people.  After leaving Parker River, we end up traveling down Rough Meadows Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary in Raleigh Massachusetts, which we explored for only a short time.  The reason was it was the middle of the day, there was a bright sun and we were hungry.  Looking at the sign of the sanctuary trails, there were a number of different ones to walk, plus if we go down the road further we end up on the backside of Parker River.

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Bobolink

Bobolink

It is now the start of spring migration and today I want to discuss an interesting bird.  It is a member of the blackbird family - the Bobolink.  What makes the bobolink interesting, it's not only the bobolink's bubbly song, but the color change in the male.  The male undergoes to complete molts every year, when the fresh alternate feathering of the male wears off results in the striking black and white plumage that you see during the breeding season.  After the breeding season is over, the male starts to molt and then looks just like the female.  So in the fall, you cannot tell the male from the female bobolink.

Bobolink Winter Plumage

Bobolink Winter Plumage

Bobolink

Female Bobolink

Bobolink in flight

Bobolink's are found in the summer and agricultural fields, grasslands and meadows.  In southeastern Massachusetts, they can be found at the fields of the Allens Neck trail system of Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and that the Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary in Marshfield, Massachusetts.

Bobolink's were also immortalized by the poem "Robert of Lincoln" by William Cullen Bryant.
"Merrily swinging on brier and weed,
Near to the nest of his little dame,
Over the mountain-side or mead,
Robert of Lincoln is telling his name:
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
Snug and safe is that nest of ours,
Hidden among the summer flowers,
Chee, chee, chee.
........"