Birding This Week

In general the best birding for spring migrants is from about May 10-20. This year because of the warm weather birds have been migrating through our area a little early. The trees and flowering shrubs are about a week ahead of schedule, consequently so are the birds. If you are to read this blog, I suppose you need to know a few things about birding if you are new to it.Here is a quick glossary and explanation.


I assume many people reading this don't understand the reason to drive an hour away to go birding. Why would anyone go through all the effort to see a cardinal? That is what I thought years ago also. If you look at the birds you see everyday driving to work or at your feeder in your backyard, you probably think its crazy to go out of your way to see the same birds. There are birds we all recognize from robins, house sparrows, hawks, blue jays etc... There are so many species that either live in our area or pass through that you would have no idea are out there unless you purposely look for them. Many people have an old bird id book in there library, and think most of the birds are exotic and can't really be from our area, truth is they are, but they need the right habitat. Your going to find your usual birds in Suburbia, USA but go to the right places and you will be completely surprised whats out there.

Life Bird -Most birders keep a list of the number of species they have seen. When you see a bird that you have never seen it is a life bird.

FOY- First of the year bird- First one you've seen this year.

Binoculars- duh, obviously you know what they are, I'm not insulting your intelligence. You absolutely need them for birding. I own a pair of 10x50. This means they have a magnification power of 10 and they are 50 mm across. They make stronger pairs then a 10 magnification, however they are very hard to use because the slightest shake will make the object blurry and out of focus. I have pretty steady hands and I'm comfortable with ten, but have trouble holding anything stronger perfectly still.
As for the size, 50 mm, works for me. The larger then lens size, the more light they can let in, the clearer the view.
Spotting scope- Good for close up views of far away birds. They need to be mounted on a tripod. Mine is an adjustable 15-45 magnification with a 60 mm lens.

Tuesday 5/3 - I went to Great Swamp in S. Kingston RI off of Route 138. This is a good place to see a variety of birds. It is absolutely massive ( over 3300 acres). It would be very easy to get lost here. I stay on the main trail around the pond for a four mile loop. There are fields, hardwood forest with plenty of pine trees mixed in, swamps, pond, rocky outcroppings. The place has so much habitat, you can find almost any species there that doesn't live on the open ocean.
I started my walk to the sound of a red bellied woodpecker near the parking lot. After spending ten minutes looking for it, I realized if I wanted to get home before dark, I should get a move on. Before long I came to the first marshy area. There was a largemouth bass in the little culvert stream. Not to many birds were visible in marsh so I moved on. I have been trying to make an effort to see more snakes this year, so I've been looking at shorelines and stone walls more this year then ever. Along with looking at the ground for snakes and stopping every time I hear a bird, you can imagine how long it took me to go 4 miles.
In the fields nearing the big marsh I came across tree swallows and my first of the year Baltimore oriole in a tree near the fields. I saw plenty of towhees and a red tail hawk circling the field closest to the marsh
This marsh/ shallow lake is huge. It took me about an hour and a half to go around it. I stopped many times to look for birds, but tried to make an effort to keep a quick pace while I was moving. There are power lines that go right through the center of the pond. On the tops of these powerlines are huge osprey nests. At least two of the nests had breeding ospreys while I was there. Another nest has GREAT HORNED OWLS. I got great looks at the baby and an adult. sitting about 5 feet apart.
There were suprisingly few birds in the water. I was hoping to see a blue wing teal that was spotted earlier in the week. I didn't see any great blue herons either, just a couple Canada Geese.
On my way back from the pond I saw my FOY yellow warbler and warbling vireo( only my second one ever). Also of note were a ton of butterflies but I didn't take the time to id them.

Plum Island, Newberryport
Parker River National Wildlife Refuge is on Plum Island. Mass Audubon sponsors bird walks there every Wednesday. Plum Island is a barrier beach with one side getting pelted by the open ocean. The west side has a large estuary. There are shrublands and forest. The Merrimack River dumps into the ocean at the north end of the island. Pretty much every species that has ever passed through New England has been seen from the refuge.
To get to the 9:30 bird walk, I had to leave the house at 7:20. Also since I can only imagine what Route 128 looks llike at 8 am, I chose to go the extra twenty miles and drive up Route 495. At the Joppa Flats Visitor Center, the leader told us what we were expected to see and also on Saturday 100 species were recorded on the island.
I have to tell you, going on one of these bird walks on Plum is something I have always wanted to do. I picked the perfect week to go, smack dab in the middle of the spring migration , and was real excited about this. Going one one of these bird walks has been on my fun " to do list" for a couple years. Many species of warblers migrate or breed on the island. On Saturday 22 species were seen. I have only seen about 10 in my life so I had a real good chance at seeing a lot of life birds.
He all jumped in cars and caravaned to the island. I jumped in the backseat of some guys Lincoln Navigator, while some lady from the United Kingdom got up front. This was awesome for me, because I had the backseat to myself, I could lay down my camera, binoculars, and water, and look out both windows.
I ended up seeing some really cool birds. Greater Yellowlegs , Lesser Yellowlegs, Gadwalls ( type of duck) and Willets were plentiful in the marsh. There were bobolinks in a field, and a kestrel flew over. Both Great and Snowy Egrets were feeding also. One of my favorite ducks was in the marsh also, a green wing teal.
As for life birds, my dream of seeing 10 was not to be. I ended up seeing two. A Black throated blue warbler was in the bushes along one of our stops, and a savannah sparrow, was sitting on top of a lonely sapling in one of the marshes. I managed to see ten FOY birds. Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs, Gadwall, Semi-palmated plover, Great Egret, Willet, Purple Finch, Barn Swallow, Eastern Kingbird, Bobolink were all FOY. I had seen a couple snowy egrets on the previous day. The total for the day was 36 species, a far cry from the 100 over the weekend, but still I saw a lot of birds I rarely see. At 12:30 we headed back to the visitor center. I'm telling you straight out three hours is not enough time to bird that island. If it would have been a weekend I would have stayed a couple more hours, but I wanted to stop at Great Meadows in Concord and still get off Route 128 before 3:30.

Great Meadows- I made it down to Great Meadows at 1:45 pm. I told myself I only had one hour, so no dilly-dallying. Wouldn't you know it, the place was loaded with birds. Within 30 feet of the parking lot I came across a muskrat about 6 feet from the trail. I was close enough that I could have jumped on him in one hop. I watched him longer then I should have and moved up the trail between the two impoundments. I heard a loud noise coming from some cattails and based on talks earlier in the day at Plum, it was probably a marsh wren. This is a very secretive little bird. Much easier heard then seen, I had never seen one. After much patience following the loud voice along the path, SCORE!!. He came out long enough for me to look at him with binoculars. Another lifebird for me. To keep this post from getting longer then War and Peace let me say, I saw 15 species at Great Meadows that I hadn't at Plum, giving me a total of 51 for the day. The other highlights were a FOY Yellowthroat, and a yellow perch school swimming right next to shore following some small (3-4 pounds) carp

Swan Point Cemetery, Providence ( May 6)- A cemetery? Yes, When birds migrate they need a place to rest. If they get to the city theres not a lot of places to rest and refuel. Swan Point Cemetery is on the Providence River and is nicely landscaped. Theres a large variety of trees and shrubs for birds to rest and feed on. Mike Tucker led a bird walk there at 8 am.. The target species were warblers as this is onew of the best places in Rhode Island to see a concentration of them. There were some expert birders on this walk. A couple of ladies I'd seen from previous walks, know the song of every bird that seems to call. Unfortunately most of the birds kept hidden. I got another lifebird in a Great Crested Flycatcher and five other FOY birds Orchard Oriole, Blackpoll Warbler, Chimney Swift, Turkey, Hairy Woodpecker. Now the bad news, for birds only heard not seen I could have gotten five more FOY and two other life birds.

In summary I think I may have had really high ( unrealistic) expectations for my three days of birding this week. I think I ended up doing okay. I got four lifebirds and sixteen FOY birds, and three FOY other vertebrates ( yellow perch, bullfrog, snapping turtle). I have never kept a list of how many species I have ever seen ( lifelist) I have only kept lists of what I've seen that year. This post got me thinking, I'm putting a list together to count how many I've seen. Its a bit tedious, because I have to cross check each species to make sure I only put it down once. When I get it together I'll post the results.