South Beach Birding~Chatham, MA

Howdee all,

Hope you all are having a nice September.

We have been out of our Homey for one and a half weeks while it is in the repair shop for a minor fender bender..Jeff ran over a big rock a few months ago. We have been staying in Jeff's sisters home on the Cape during the repair. We are hoping our Homey will be finished today and we will then head just a bit north to Lexington, MA for a few weeks.

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Last week Jeff and I went birding South Beach, Chatham again..

This was the second time in a few weeks and it wasn’t our last.

We invited Kathie Brown of Kathie's Birds to join us. We took the 7am water taxi. We met Matt Malin on the water taxi~he joined us for the day.. and shared his birding knowledge.

We  decided to leave the bay side and go for do some ocean birding as the tide wasn’t quite right for birding on the bay.

It was a beautiful morning…

We had great views of Parasitic Jaegers and distant views of Wilson's Storm-Petrel and Northern Gannet

Kathie, hasn’t birded that much on the shore…she started racking up Lifers.

We were being watched by Gray and Harbor Seals

I found tracks in the sand.

Coyote tracks..

OH NO!

You never know what you might find on the beach….

Nothing we could do to help this naked gal…and..we were rather afraid to touch her.

Seals hanging out at the shore..

Hundreds..

I found coyote tracks leading to this carcass..The coyote dragged this away from the shore to eat…the gulls were having a feast on the leftovers.

After great fun birding the ocean side of South Beach we headed to the bay side.

Beautiful isn't it?

Plenty of Tern..

Matt helped us with Tern ID~ there were Least, Black, Roseate,Common and Forster’s Tern

Kathie counting more life birds…

Oh lookie here…I love finding hearts.

Least Sandpiper

Two Shell fishers~Human and Bird

(American Oystercatcher)

We saw many birds…but not the numbers we had hoped for…

Kathie was pleased~ 15 life birds for her this day!

Congrats Kathie!

We were running out of time…and had to hurry to catch the 4pm shuttle.

On the way back to the shuttle…

We started seeing piles of birds..

We couldn’t stop to give them proper notice..

We had a shuttle to catch and water to wade thru..

Jeff and Kathie walked the shore rather than wade thru the water.

We passed

Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs

And then this..

And this..

With no time to sort thru them..

Scads of birds…we had to walk by..

To catch our shuttle home…

Such is birding, on a schedule..I need a boat.

 

Birds of the Day~via Ebirder Kathie Brown

White-winged Scoter
Common Loon
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
Northern Gannet
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Northern Harrier
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
American Oystercatcher
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
1 western, 2 eastern
Lesser Yellowlegs
Whimbrel
Hudsonian Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Red Knot
Sanderling
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin
Short-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Least Tern
Black Tern
Roseate Tern
Common Tern
Forster's Tern
Parasitic Jaeger
jaeger sp.
Horned Lark
Tree Swallow
Savannah Sparrow
Saltmarsh Sparrow

Thanks Kathie for your wonderful record keeping!

Thanks Matt for your helpful Birding skills!

It was a super day!

Links of the Day

Outermost Harbor Ferry

Birding on South Beach

Kathies blog post on the day

Kathies blog post on the Jaegar

Kathies post on the Whos hiding on South Beach.