During my visit to Silver Sands State Park yesterday, I took a bit of a detour to check on a pair of Piping Plovers that have set up a nest on the beach just east of the park. I've never walked out of the park's boundaries in this direction before, and the shoreline's definitely beautiful. I can see why people would want to have houses here:
The Piping Plovers (perhaps the same pair I saw at Silver Sands a few weeks ago?) were nicely settled on their sandy nest essentially in someone's back yard. The nest is surrounded by protective fencing that the plovers can wander freely through but which keeps predators and people away. (I don't have any pictures of the nest because I kept my distance.) The two plovers took turns incubating the eggs while the other bird went foraging. It was a little strange to see the plovers running past furniture as they hunted around their home:
After I'd finished watching the nest, as I was heading back along the shoreline, the male Piping Plover flew down to the water's edge and landed right in front of me to hunt. I avoid approaching these birds so as not to disturb them (especially now that they've got a nest), but if they come to me, then OK!
I settled down to hang out with this guy as he darted around, snatching up food every few steps:
Apparently there are tasty creatures hiding in the sand:
He really does have a handsome outfit; classy, even:
The hunting must've been good at this patch of beach, because he wandered around me but stayed close:
Open plover mouth!
I know, this is a lot of pictures, but who knows when I'll next get the chance to see these creatures so close:
Best of luck with your hunting, little guy, and take good care of your family. Here's hoping there'll be tiny plover chicks on this beach before too long!
A few flocks of Semipalmated Sandpipers were also foraging along the water's edge:
And the Horseshoe Crabs are appearing on the beach again for this year's breeding season. I saw several of these creatures half-buried in the sand (waiting for the approaching high tide, I assume). This individual was crawling around in the shallow water with part of its sand-burrow still on its head:
You never know what will show up at the shore!
Yesterday morning's trip to Silver Sands State Park was full of surprises. There were no nesting shorebirds (which is what I was actually supposed to be looking for), but the many other awesome creatures roaming the beaches and marshes more than made up for it.
A group of about 40 Brant (our small dark geese) was hanging out on the shore. That in itself wasn't too surprising, since these birds are in Connecticut in the summer (although I don't see them very often), but wait, what's up with those two weird-looking white and gray geese in there?
I'm still not exactly sure what to do with these two geese, but they are unquestionably something unusual. Parts of them look so similar to the Brant (which are on the right hand side and in the back of the above picture), but they've also got those splotchy white patches and orangey-pink legs (but dark beaks), which is, well, weird. And from other views, they don't really look much like Brant at all:
I circulated my pictures among some Connecticut bird people, and the consensus seems to point to a hybrid between Brant and Snow Goose. I can definitely see some Snow Goose in these birds. And I think this is really pretty cool. However unlikely it might actually be (and according to my internet searches, Brant x Snow Goose hybrids have happened before, but they are extremely unlikely), and even though it'd be pretty difficult to know for sure that this is what's going on here, I just really like the idea that somewhere, at some point, there was a Snow Goose who looked at a Brant and thought, "Hey, that is one attractive goose," and the Brant thought so, too, and so what if you're only supposed to mate with geese that look like you. It seems to have worked out, if these two unusual birds are any indication.
So that was pretty awesome. I'll probably never see another Brant x Snow Goose, and these guys are absolutely one of a kind.
In other parts of the beach, tiny Semipalmated Sandpipers pattered over the low-tide sand:
And then flew off on little wings when they thought I was too close (I was crouched in one spot, so really they were the ones who got too close to me):
In the marshes near the beach, a Yellow-crowned Night Heron was feasting on the little Fiddler Crabs that live in the mud, and I had a great time watching this graceful hunter close up:
There were tons of crabs all over, and the heron was busy snatching them up. There was a lot of crunching (note the crab's shadow in this next picture):
I had way too much fun taking pictures of this gorgeous bird as it danced and posed. I love the pattern of feathers on its back and the fancy marks on its face:
The heron was really very good at what it was doing. Oh little crab, I don't think you're going to be around much longer:
Nope, there you go:
Down the hatch!
Mmm, a satisfied heron:
Speaking of crabs, this little spiky creature caught my eye as it scuttled through a quickly-moving stream to the ocean:
I scooped it up to check it out, and it turned out to be a Hermit Crab! It immediately rushed back to the water, quickly enough that I couldn't quite keep it in focus:
And although not technically a crab (actually in a group of its own, separate from crustaceans), this Horseshoe Crab had buried itself in a swirled depression in the wet sand. I assume it's still alive, although I didn't disturb it to find out for sure:
The hot weather is really coming in now, and what better way to start off another season of summer weather than with an awesome and eventful trip to the beach!
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!
For several weeks now, I've been spending a chunk of my Wednesdays monitoring Silver Sands State Park as a volunteer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, looking for many species of birds, but especially Piping Plovers. So far, all of my searches have turned up negative for that one focus species -- which is fine, really, since negative data is just as useful as positive data for the people I report to, and I have lots of fun wandering the beach regardless. But that changed this morning, because look who decided to show up!
Piping Plovers are federally threatened -- which is to say, they're protected by the Endangered Species Act, but they're not quite at the "endangered" level (yet). These little birds nest along the Atlantic coast on sandy beaches (right where people want to be, too, which is the problem), and I believe I learned that only something like 50 pairs of Piping Plovers were recorded as successfully nesting in Connecticut last year. That's not very many.
So the point of the program that I'm volunteering for is to find out where these birds are making nests, so that we can then try to protect them better. The little creature I met this morning didn't appear to have a mate, let alone a nest, but I was enormously pleased to see him or her nonetheless!
Have I mentioned that Piping Plovers are probably one of the cutest birds ever? This little guy was about the size of a sparrow, just basically a big puffball running around on toothpick legs:
The weather was gray and chilly (and windy!) this morning, so no other people were on the beach, and the plover had plenty of room to run around. The pickings must have been pretty good here, because the little creature was snatching food from the sand every few steps, and didn't seem to mind my presence at all. I kept my distance and walked parallel and a little ahead of the bird as he/she enjoyed the beach buffet:
Here's hoping you find a mate and a safe place to raise babies, little one!
The Piping Plover was one of the highlights of the morning, but there were some other awesome creatures around, too. This group of Sanderlings (with a Semipalmated Sandpiper in the mix) was huddled by the water's edge -- more tiny toothpick-legged shorebirds!
Don't these creatures look super comfortable, with their long beaks nestled into the feathers on their backs? And I just love the rusty colors on some of these birds' feathers -- the last time I saw Sanderlings was in February, when they were all basically a uniform gray.
And a new wave of migrating birds has hit Connecticut now! Away from the beach, I came across several Yellow Warblers singing at the top of their voices, as well as the first Ruby-throated Hummingbird I've seen this year:
This handsome fellow seemed extremely happy about all the Autumn Olive blossoms surrounding him, and I'm sure he needed the fuel after his long trip north. I still can't believe these tiny birds fly across the Gulf of Mexico, not to mention the rest of the trek all the way up here.
With all these new creatures streaming in, I think I know what this means.... It's back to the woods for me sometime very soon!
