Weekend Birder: Plum Island

This weekend, my Dad and I took a trip out to Plum Island in Newburyport, MA, one of Massachusetts' premier birding spots. We hoped to see some sea ducks, Snow Buntings, Lapland Longspurs, and especially Rough-Legged Hawk.

We arrived at about 7:45, and just as we were pulling into the refuge, a Coyote ran across the road about 15 yards in front of our car! We watched it run off into the marsh, and a couple of seconds later, 2 ducks flew off :) .

In the Lot 1 Ocean, we found a huge flock of ducks, loons, and grebes, containing Common and Red-Throated Loons, all 3 Scoters, Horned Grebes, Long-Tailed Duck, and Red-Breasted Merganser. Long-Tailed Duck, Red-Throated Loon, and Horned Grebe were lifers!

At the Salt Pans, the recently reported Avocet was nowhere to be found, but there were lots of Wigeons, Pintails, Hooded Mergansers, and Black Ducks to keep us occupied. Across the road were 4 American Tree Sparrows.

Down the road, Hellcat had lots of Bufflehead, Hooded Mergansers, Wigeon, Black Duck, and Mallard. Also present was a late Great Egret and an even later Snowy Egret! We also saw 2 Northern Harriers fly by, and a Bald Eagle was being harassed by a Great Black-backed Gull.

Next, we checked out the Pines Trail. Not 15 feet down the path, we happened upon a flock of sparrows, with Dark-eyed Juncos, White-Throated Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Fox Sparrows, American Tree Sparrows, and a Yellow-Rumped Warbler. I was scanning the flock, when a new sparrow landed nearby. It turned out to be a Field Sparrow, my first. When we arrived at the overlook, we saw the same Bald Eagle from Hellcat perched on a pole, as well as 10 Gadwall and 5 Hooded Mergansers.

Stage Island was pretty much dead when we arrived, and we missed the Rough-Legged Hawk by 15 minutes. However, we did find a flyover flock of Snow Buntings, the day's 5th lifer! Stage Island also had Hooded Mergansers, Bufflehead, and a Hermit Thrush.

Sandy Point was devoid of shorebirds, but 10 Common Loons and 4 Red-Throated Loons, as well as a close raft of 40 Common Eiders were cool to see.

On our way back, we stopped at Cross-Farm Hill, only to find that a Rough-Legged Hawk had flown out of view not 30 seconds before we had arrived. Needless to say, we weren't happy. But that didn't dim our spirits too much, after all, we had had a 5 lifer day.