I couldn't find the Piping Plover pair that's been hanging out at Silver Sands State Park when I visited yesterday morning. They may have decided to nest somewhere else, or perhaps they were just particularly well hidden.... I'll continue to keep an eye out for these little birds on future visits. Even without nesting plovers, however -- and despite the occasional drizzle -- there were tons of cool things to see. The park was positively overflowing with activity!
One of the first creatures I saw when I first arrived was also one of the most exciting, because I've only seen them once before, and never before a male in his super strange breeding plumage. Look, a Bobolink!
Make that a whole bush full of male Bobolinks, with their black bellies and yellow caps:
When these birds weren't perched in bushes and singing their weird metallic bubbling songs, they were foraging in the grass. The dandelion heads were apparently particularly interesting:
Bobolinks are pretty uncommon in this part of Connecticut, so I consider this a lucky encounter indeed!
In the marsh, two Willets (large-ish shorebirds with distinctive black and white wings) were preening:
This happy Willet made some cool ripples as it bathed:
Also wandering through the marsh were several Semipalmated Plovers. These birds are small like Piping Plovers but they have brown backs and wings like Killdeer; and, like all plovers, they're adorable:
I've commented many times in this blog on the secretiveness of Clapper Rails, who I often hear calling in these marshes but who typically remain hidden among the grass. The more I visit Silver Sands State Park, however, the more these birds defy my expectations. I've seen them several times now in July and August, after their chicks have hatched. A couple of weeks ago, I actually saw one calling from a slight rise in the marsh landscape. And then yesterday, who should come walking out onto the open mudflats, bold as can be, but a Clapper Rail:
The bird spotted me, but it only ambled (rather than raced) toward cover in the grass, walking right by me in the process. In fact, it seemed to strut and pose as it passed.... Well, sure Mr./Mrs. Rail, I'll gladly take your picture. What a gorgeous bird!
Rail tail!
Clapper Rails have such unusual body shapes. I'm struck by how skinny/compressed this bird looks from behind. It's thin as a... haaaang on.
I've now looked up the phrase "thin as a rail" to try to find out where it comes from. Several online sources say that no, "rail" in this phrase doesn't refer to a man-made bar or post (as I've always assumed), but rather to the bird, which is quite thin and thus better able to move through marsh grass. But then a few other sources say that in fact, no, you had it right the first time: It's not the bird, as some people have recently suggested, but rather the man-made object! So basically, if I say that the Clapper Rail is "thin as a rail," I still have no idea whether I'm being clever, or redundant, or silly. Ah well. Regardless, I'll think of this bird now whenever I hear that phrase.
A second Clapper Rail was even camped out nearby, again in plain view, and the two birds cackled at each other when the first one got close:
Are these birds not actually as secretive as I thought? I'm not complaining! Be as bold as you like, Clapper Rails.
On the beach, a trio of Common Terns were chasing each other across the sky, one of the terns carrying a fish (perhaps for courtship purposes):
There have been so many male Red-winged Blackbirds in this park in recent weeks, it's nice to see the females showing up as well:
Yellow Warblers nest in this park's fields, and a few males were fluttering around and calling during my visit:
These bright little birds make quite a sight, even from a distance:
And this is why people (in North America) don't like European Starlings. I checked on the nesting cavity that the Northern Flickers worked so hard to excavate over the past few weeks, only to find a starling sticking its head out of the hole:
I know it's not the starlings' fault that they're on this continent, and it takes a feisty bird to chase off a powerful Northern Flicker, but... starlings have so many nesting options. Couldn't they have left this cavity to the flickers? Yes, you're very fancy with your spiky throat and triangle wings, but I'm not impressed. Eh, starlings:
In more overall positive nesting happenings, I was happy to see this cool structure hanging from a tree branch:
A Baltimore Oriole nest! The male oriole was singing nearby and keeping another male from his territory, while the female oriole was busy using her excellent weaving skills:
This is such an amazing structure, and I'm curious about the material she's using. Some sort of plant fiber perhaps? Here's a video of the female at work:
Here are a couple more happy sights to close out my visit. This patch of Lance-leaved Violets (Viola lanceolata) made a small field of stars shooting up from the muddy ground:
And I loved seeing this Savannah Sparrow perched near the ground, its yellow eyeshadow so perfectly matching the blooming dandelions:
There are so many amazing things to see right now!
This morning I made my last scheduled visit to Silver Sands State Park for the year in my official capacity as a volunteer shorebird monitor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I'm sure I'll be back to the park again at some point (and without my semi-dorky official hat), but the end of these weekly visits makes me feel like summer may actually be coming to a close.
The birds certainly know that summer is ending, and I saw just gobs of shorebirds on their southward fall migration. Whole stretches of the shoreline were packed with Semipalmated Sandpipers (the mottled gray and white birds) and Semipalmated Plovers (the brown and white birds with fancy black bibs), blending expertly in with the rocks:
I counted over 300 sandpipers and 100 plovers in just one area -- hardly the largest gathering of shorebirds ever, but more than I've ever seen at this beach before.
Many of the sandpipers were sleeping, just completely zonked out. We'd had a heavy thunder storm earlier in the day, so I wonder that contributed to the birds' tiredness:
(I know these birds look dead, but I promise, they're just sleeping. Or at least, I think I saw most of them open their eyes while I was there....)
Hanging out with the group of semipalmated creatures (the internet tells me that this adjective refers to the webbing between these birds' toes... who knew!), there was also a sleek Least Tern -- I love the markings on this bird's beak:
And this totally weird-looking shorebird, a Ruddy Turnstone:
That's a nice angry mask you have, bird!
Away from the shore, an immature Cooper's Hawk surveyed the area from its perch on a small tree:
And when it took off, it flew past me, right at eye level -- what an awesome bird:
It was great to see so many creatures, and I definitely enjoyed the cooler breezes on the beach. It's hard for me to believe, but summer really does seem to be winding down!
We got our visit from Hurricane Irene (actually more of a tropical storm by that point) on Sunday morning. There was a lot of rain and wind, but it wasn't as bad as the weather people had been predicting, and we were lucky enough to not have any lasting damage to our apartment. By Sunday afternoon, when the rain had stopped (but not the wind), Paul and I got tired of sitting around with no power, so we decided to go on an adventure... to the beach!
We chose Silver Sands State Park as our destination, even though we had heard that Connecticut's state parks would be closed due to the hurricane. Sure enough, the road into the park was blocked off when we arrived, but several other people were parking outside the gate and walking in right past a seemingly unconcerned ranger, so we did the same. This all seemed like such an insane idea -- is immediately-post-hurricane really the best time to hang out in an open space with wind and waves? As it turns out, the answer seems to be "yes"! There were so many things to see, and we had a completely awesome time.
One of the first creatures we saw was also one of the most exciting. After we'd walked only a short distance down the road into the park, we came upon this Red Fox watching us calmly from an adjoining road:
This is the first fox I've seen in Connecticut, and something about this creature gave me the impression of a teenager -- it's something in the face, I think, and in the overall lankiness -- although I couldn't say for sure whether this is actually a juvenile. The storm, it seems, was not kind to this fellow, and that looks like a pretty bad scrape on its front right leg. After a minute or so of staring at us, however, the fox bounded off into the woods, so hopefully he or she will be OK. These are such impressive creatures, and it was cool to get to see one of these guys.
I didn't see any "hurricane" birds while we were there -- rare birds that would have been blown far north of their normal range by the storm -- but I did see some cool birds that were completely new to me. (As I've said before, I don't know shore birds very well.)
This juvenile Forster's Tern was really something to watch, as it sliced its way through the battering winds with those razor wings:
There were several small sandpipers scurrying around in the sand (I still can't figure out exact identifications with these guys), and with them a few Semipalmated Plovers:
I think these birds are just too cute, so dinky and plump. They looked like they were in danger of being blown away by the wind as they rushed around on their stick legs:
Here's a wacky bird that I've never seen in real life before: a Black Skimmer, hanging out in a flock of Ring-billed Gulls. It's a juvenile, so its beak isn't quite as remarkably strange as that of a full-grown skimmer, but it's still pretty crazy-looking, with that big lower mandible perfect for snatching fish as it skims the surface of the water:
We happened to arrive at the beach during low tide, and the storm's waves had brought all sorts of interesting shells and living ocean creatures up onto the shore. Several of these colonies of what I think are Common Slipper Shells (Crepidula fornicata, is that a great name or what), for instance, dotted the sand:
For more on Crepidula fornicata and its fascinating sex life, check out this post from another nature blog, Sandy Wildlife.
There were so many colors in the sand, like this blue/purple mussel:
And this orange/red formation, which was soft and porous and suggested a sponge:
It was definitely worth braving the after-effects of the storm to go on this adventure. I'm starting to appreciate the seashore more and more, and we already have our next trip tentatively planned. Such cool things to be found in the sand and surf!
