Marbled Godwit

Marbled Godwit

The last three offdays from work I've gone surf fishing. I had one good day where I caught eleven stripers, three of them keepers. The other two days, including yesterday, I had a grand total of one schoolie and two other hits. I decided I needed to do something else. There are only three more weekends before September gets here. I have mch different plans in September than I do for July/Aug. I thought I should start doing some of them before it is too late.

So today I went to one of my favorite summer destinations, the mudflats behind Charlestown Breachway. Although we tend to think of birds going south for the winter as an autumn thing, shorebirds head south starting in mid-July. August and September are great times to be on the mudflats looking at shorebirds. Low tide was around 2 pm today, so I left the house at a relaxed 10:45 am (as opposed to 4:45 am  yesterday to go fishing).

There were a ton of terns on the mudflats but not too many peeps (slang for little shorebirds) at first. While I was looking for birds, I found a big bird in my scope far away. I couldn't tell what it was so I walked closer to it. It had its beak tucked in while it rested. I assumed it was a Willet, which is a very common wading bird. Still I wanted to be sure. As I got closer, I saw brown markings on its back, Willets are grey. I waited and saw the unmistakable upturned orange and black beak. Marbled Godwit.

I watched it for ten minutes. I was the only person out  on the flats and had been for the hour I was there.. Finally tow other people came by with spotting scopes. I waved them over and showed them the Godwit. The two people were Linda Gardrel and Jan StJean. Jan is the most famous birder in Rhode Island. Rarely does she get beat for seeing the most birds in the state. Now that she is retired, she is probably unbeatable. They were very excited to see the bird. It was a first of the year bird for both of them. Come to find out, the Marbled Godwit was the first sighting of one for the year. We reported it on various rare bird alerts and went back to birding.

The Godwit flying to a resting spot

For me, the other "best" birds were white rumped sandpiper and black tern. Both were first of the year birds for me. We also saw some gorgeous Black Bellied Plovers, Saltmarsh Sparrows, and roughly 400 Common Terns. I spent over four hours on the flats. Unlike the last two times I went striper fishing, my drive home was pleasant. I had happy endorphins running through me. It is not everyday I get to report a rare bird and to be the first to see that species in the state this year. It was a good day

The chunky bird is a White Rumped Sandpiper

Black Bellied Plover in Breeding Plumage

One more look at the Godwit