Bird of the Day

I had pics with nicer color and shading illustrating this shorebird’s beautiful markings for ID purposes, but just had to use the one of it slurping up a worm! Dowitchers are shorebirds and sandpipers too, but you mostly see them roaming around the flats, stitching away on the mud like old Singer sewing machines as they probe for snacks. This is a Short-billed Dowitcher. During migration they are more common along the coast than the Long-billed, which is much the same except for bill length, call, and a few other tricky subtleties. Both species breed in Alaskan and Canadian muskegs found south of the timberline. They’ll eventually take on a drab grey coat to winter in the southern States, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern coasts of South America. Fetched in Hampton, NH.

Lesser Yellowlegs are a big sandpiper, but aren’t consider a peep, which is the colloquial term for smaller shorebirds, instead belonging to the long-legged category of the shanks. We have two Yellowlegs species that migrate through New England in spring and fall, the Greater and the Lesser, and it’s a challenge for the casual birder to tell them apart. The Lesser is about 25% smaller than the Greater, but that only helps when you have them side by each. The most reliable clue, even at distance, is the bill. In the bird above, notice that the bill has a similar length to the width of the head just behind it and that it’s straight. In a Greater Yellowlegs, the bill length is easily longer than the head width, and the bill upturns just noticeably. Another good clue is in the spotting along the lower edge of the folded wing or flank, in the bird above, any spotting there is quite faint, whereas the flanks of a Greater are quite prominently spotted.

Baird’s are one of the Calidris sandpipers we don’t often see, as they migrate up and down the central part of the continent, but every year a handful show up on the New England coast, and I was lucky enough to find this one at Seapoint Beach. They are long-legged and long-winged—notice how the wingtips extend beyond the tip of the tail, and the bill is relatively short with a slight droop. Overall they are a more golden brown than most other peeps. Like many juvenile sandpipers the scapular feathers on the back and wing are edged in white, and have white lores between the eyes and bill. Compare this bird with the somewhat smaller juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper and the somewhat larger adult Sanderling, both of which are a little similar in color.

Here’s my backyard family of American Crows on a hot summer afternoon. The bird lower left is having a splash in a small hidden puddle from the recent rain while its siblings wait their turn. At this time of year they are often stalking and strutting about the lawn looking for ants and probing for worms as well as foraging on the acorns which have begun raining down from nearby oaks, or making a racket down by the compost heap. I never get tire of  their comical antics and love collecting crow stories. These are the Eastern and largest of the 4 subspecies, and are larger and more robust than the uncommon Fish Crow which also occurs in the area. Fetched in Kittery Point, ME.

Double-crested Cormorants are the only North American cormorant that lives and breeds inland as well as along the coasts. In this pic are two adults and a juvenile, the youngsters are the ones with the pale breasts and throats, which sometimes appear white. Often called “shags,” they dive for fish in both fresh and salt water. They are heavy in flight, needing a log runway to get airborne and often forming loose Vs when you see a flock passing overhead. In the last couple of weeks I’ve been seeing large groups congregating offshore anywhere the fishing is good. At this time of year the double-crests on the adults are less apparent. Fetched at Seapoint.

Semipalmated Sandpipers are the most numerous of the shorebirds currently coming through Seapoint on their way south. Adults arrive first, starting in late July with the biggest concentrations in mid- to late August, when large numbers of juveniles also start arriving. Right now both age classes are overlapping and in the photo above, you can see one of each. The adult is in the foreground, it’s a small-sized peep (about 6.5 inches) with an all dark and straight sandpiper bill and all dark legs, a streaked breast and a bit of speckling down the flanks of the wings. The juvenile in the background is softer and more golden, with more brown on the back and its breast streaks are more of a blush than distinct streaks. There’s little or no speckling down the flanks, and the back and wing scapulars are strongly patterned with white edging on some of the feathers, which is typical of many juvenile sandpipers. If you’re just learning shorebirds, knowing the common plumages of this bird can be a great help, since once you’re familiar with them, anything different tends to stands out in the crowd.

This morning at Seapoint I was scanning a medium-sized flock of shorebirds for unusual suspects while they preened on the rocks waiting for the tide to turn. Out of the blue a bullet came through, and every bird took off over the water. It was a Peregrine Falcon on the hunt, and I got a pile of uselessly blurry photos of an unsuccessful chase. Then it broke away, climbing back into the sun, and just as the shorebirds circled back and looked ready to resettle, the Peregrine stooped out of nowhere, missing a second time. This time the flock broke up into several groups, each heading off in different directions, and the Peregrine cruised low overhead then rounded the point, heading west over the marshes and Chauncey Creek to try its luck elsewhere.