Words On Birds 08-16-24

 

     A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the spectacle of swallows that occurs on Plum Island during August. Last week, a customer came into the store all excited that he witnessed “the peak” of the event! He witnessed swallows covering the refuge road and tens of thousands of swallows swarming in the air. The next day, he saw very few. 

 

     A day or two later, Margo and I saw only a few hundred swallows. We did, however, experience another fantastic display of birds that happens on the island this time of year.  This year, it was happening at Stage Island Pool on the refuge.

 

     Hundreds of snowy and great egrets have been staging at the Pool during late afternoon and early evening. Tens of night herons are also being seen with numbers of yellow-crowned night herons mixed in with our more common black-crowned night herons.  As evening draws on, all of these long-legged waders fly off from Stage Island Pool to roost elsewhere and most of the night herons leave to feed. It is sad to think that this valuable staging and feeding area will be lost once the Refuge breaches the dike.

 

     Yellow-crowned night herons have also been prevalent in the North Pool. A high count of 28 birds was recorded by Steve Babbitt on August 11 with 18 adults and 10 juveniles. Least Bitterns have been seen regularly in the North Pool and Bill forward Pool. This late in the season, the juvenile bitterns can be seen perched on the lower reeds, stabbing at fish.

 

     The shorebird migration has brought thousands of birds to the Salt Pannes, Bill Forward Pool, and Stage Island Pool. Thousands of semipalmated sandpipers and hundreds of semipalmated plovers, along with a few least sandpipers, are blanketing the flats and shallow water of these pools. This week, tens of white-rumped sandpipers have joined the mix in the shallow waters.  

 

     Greater and lesser yellowlegs are commonly seen in the deeper water. Short-billed dowitchers are probing the waters with their long, straight bills, like sewing machines, and numbers of early long-billed dowitchers have joined them.  Also probing the deeper water are stilt sandpipers with their long decurved bills. 

 

     Soon the “grass-pipers” will arrive, those shorebirds that feed mainly on the grassy edges of Bill Forward and Stage Island Pools. They include the Baird’s sandpiper, buff-breast sandpiper and the less common upland sandpiper.

 

     Small flocks of black-bellied plovers have arrived and Rick Heil spotted an American golden plover the other day at the Salt Pannes. Birders are always searching for other less common shorebirds like the ruff, red knots, curlew and western sandpipers, and the larger godwits and whimbrels. 

 

     Last evening, we were pleased to see tree swallows following us as we drove down the island. They were moving mostly along the dune side of the road.  If we were stopped, we could easily count more than 100 moving past us each minute. That’s a lot of swallows! Apparently, they are still here in force.

 

     We headed to Hellcat and caught up with the BBC birding trip led by Dave Williams.  We saw only hundreds of sandpipers and plovers in Bill Forward Pool as we were told that a peregrine had just cleared out the majority of shorebirds. 

 

     With no breeze that evening, the no-see-ums were almost intolerable. The tree swallows were enjoying the insects, as they were constantly flying by along with a few barn swallows and purple martins. Single great egrets flew by as did a flock of twenty-five snowy egrets, heading south toward Stage Island Pool. 

 

     We could see five adult and a juvenile yellow-crowned night heron along the northern edge of North Pool.  Our scope view was actually blurred by the swallows, and as we prepared to flee the attacking insects, we could see a huge cloud of swallows over the distant phragmites. Dave Williams estimated 100,000 on his trip list, so the swallow show is still in full force!