Plum Island (7/3)

I took the Monday before Independence Day off and my sister and I headed out to Plum Island. We started at Parker River NWR. After passing thru the gate we stopped to check out the Purple Martins at parking lot #1. I see these birds only very rarely but Plum always has a nice colony.

Next we drove up to the Salt Pannes and discovered a nice assortment of birds. Great and Snowy Egrets were hunting in the shallows and Common and Least Terns were plunge diving in the deeper sections. But my favorite were the Willets who seemed to spook at the smallest movement. As they flew in circles over the pannes we got great looks at their striking plumage.

We moved on before stopping again at the maintenance buildings. There we found a few Bobolinks. One male in particular got our attention. He let us get so close that we theorized that he must be protecting a nest in the area.

The next stop was Hellcat. We looked around the water but all of the ducks were too far away to see with only binoculars. So, we decided to take a small hike along the trail. Not much was active at this point in the day but the view was nice.

We got back in the car and drove down the dirt road. About halfway down we noticed a medium sized bird perched awkwardly on top of a post. It looked like a large sandpiper to be but I couldn't work out the identification (more on that later). The bird sat very still as we watched, probably because we never got out of the car.

We continued to the end of the road and as luck would have it, there was one parking space open so we stopped for a quick dip. The water was very cold but I found it totally refreshing on such a hot and humid day.

On our way back we stopped to look out on the Osprey platform. Earlier at Hellcat we couldn't see any birds on the platform. But now as we watched an Osprey flew in and, as it did, a second head peeked up over the walls of the nest. The parent didn't appear to have any food so the immature bird layed back down.

That was it for us at Parker River. Before starting for home we couldn't resist stopping at Joppa Flats MAS to see what was there. It was mid-afternoon so the bird activity was low. But we did have a Black Swallowtail fly past as it went from flower to flower in the garden. Hoping for something good on the water, we headed up to the observation platform. The birdwatcher volunteering there asked us what we had seen out on the island and we told him of our mystery bird. He thought that it might have been an Upland Sandpiper since pole sitting is a typical behavior for this bird. He brought us downstairs to pull up pictures of the bird on the sanctuary computer. They were a pretty good match to what we remembered seeing but I can't be 100% sure.

Birds - Purple Martin, Great Egret, American Goldfinch, Red Wing Blackbird, Willet, Mute Swan, Snowy Egret, Common Grackle, Greater Yellowlegs, Common Tern, Least Tern, Yellow Warbler, Turkey Vulture, Double-crested Cormorant, Eastern Kingbird, Tree Swallow, Killdeer, Sanderling, Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, Gray Catbird, Mourning Dove, Brown-headed Cowbird, Eastern Towhee, Northern Mockingbird, Black Duck, Mallard, Purple Finch, Cedar Waxwing, Common Yellowthroat, Blue Jay, Song sparrow, Osprey, Black-capped Chickadee, Upland Sandpiper (?)

Butterflies - Cabbage White, Clouded Sulphur, Tiger Swallowtail, Monarch, Orange Sulphur, Black Swallowtail