Monday, August 12, 2013

latest update on the invisi-birds

The nesting season is winding down and signs of the change of seasons are in the air. Besides the tree swallow phenomenon and the arrival of migrating semipalmated sandpipers I mentioned in the last entry, another sign of a new season is the ripening of rose hips and beach plums.

Rose Hips


We're having a very productive year at Parker River NWR.

The latest update on the invisi-birds from biological staff (aka Jim):
Refuge Beach:  Active pairs: 2, active nests: 0, chicks: 2, fledglings: 42.
Sandy Point:  Fledglings: 2.
Town Beach: 0


Totals:
Pairs: 32
Fledglings: 42
Fledglings per pair: 1.31.

According to biological staff there are still some least tern chicks running around on both the refuge and the Sandy Point beaches, but most have fledged.

Lots 2 and 3 are now open in addition to Lot 1. The refuge beach is still closed south of Lot 3.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

rain, swallows, kingbirds

Coffee of the Day: Ethiopian Yirgacheffe
Bird of The Day: Tree Swallow
Weird Wrack Item of the Week: none
Invisi-bird status: Still a few chicks that haven't fledged. Number actually seen by me: zero.

So my prediction that the rain would trick me like it did last Friday was wrong. However, I felt so badly about bailing on last week's shift because it was raining when I got up that I decided to go anyway. Hah! The rain lasted all day.  No need for plover wardens. Mother nature was doing fine at keeping people away.

It's that time of year again. The swallows are flocking. The annual sign warning drivers to look out for swallows in the road is up. Below is last year's sign. It was raining too hard to get a good shot of this year's sign. In any case, there were indeed swallows in the road. There were also starlings, American robins, semipalmated sandpipers, mourning doves, turkeys, purple finches, and a toad in the road.  The road was clearly the place to be.
Last Year's Swallow Warning Sign
I'm used to seeing peeps of various species in the puddles on the unpaved part of the refuge road, on the road to Nelson Island, and other dirt roads in the area, like Stackyard Rd. and Patmos Rd. What amazed me was semipalmated sandpipers on the paved road. There were plenty of them foraging in the salt pannes (which I will forever spell the correct way regardless of the spellchecker and the MassBird listserve conventions -- salt pannes are wet, salt pans are dry -- you could look it up). Shorebird migration is barely underway, so there weren't enormous numbers of semipalmated sandpipers yet. There were a few lesser yellowlegs and two greater yellowlegs too, but they seemed to know to avoid the road.

Sandpiper in the Road
Tree swallows swirling around in the rain are hard to photograph. I even tried to record video, but my feeble equipment cannot convey how the sky looked all full of swallows, eastern kingbirds, and rain. The mixed swallow and kingbird flock over Stage Island pool attracted a least tern, who tried to join in the action. An eastern kingbird got into a pitched battle with the tern, harassing it and being harassed back. The swallows ignored the whole thing.

Sky Full of Swallows and Rain
Sometimes groups of the swallows landed on trees by the side of the road and rested for a few minutes before swirling back up into the larger flock.

Swallows in Tree
Three turkeys crossed the road by the speed limit sign near the S-curves. I got their picture once they made it to the other side. You can't really see the third one at this angle, it was smaller and had its head down.

Turkeys
Starlings were doing the massive flocking thing too and blocking the road. At one point there was a giant flock that included American robins and common grackles too.  Smaller flocks of robins took to the road in several spots as well. Everything seemed to be flocking except the mourning doves, who always stand in the middle of the road anyway.

I took a photo of the mixed starling/robin/grackle flock through the wet windshield  to capture more of a sense of how rainy it was.
Starlings with Some Robins and Grackles
It's amazing how much the wet pavement looks like wet sand, but I can't imagine what there is of interest to semipalmated sandpipers on pavement.

Uh, This is the Road, Not the Beach
I couldn't get a photo of three purple finches in the middle of the road, nor of various gray catbirds, brown thrashers and northern mockingbirds walking across. So many birds walking instead of flying--maybe the swallows and kingbirds were taking up all the air space.

The best sighting of the day was a not even a bird. A toad hopped across the road from the marsh side to the dune side and obligingly posed for a photo. I brake for toads.

Toad in the Road

Thursday, August 8, 2013

long overdue update

The weather has not cooperated with my schedule lately. It seems that every time I am on the schedule for Friday morning, or just happen to be available on Friday morning, the day starts out pouring rain. It looks likely that there will be thunderstorms tomorrow morning too. If so, I guarantee that the rain will end around 11:30AM -- just in time for the next shift. Anyway, I have been neglecting the blog. After all, how much is there to say about not going to the beach? Most of these photos are from mid-July, but one can never have enough photos of Parker River NWR, right?
Looking South (July 12)
The invisi-birds have had a very productive season. Picture me doing a happy dance in the rain.
The latest update from biological staff (aka Jim) on August 2 listed 40 fledglings on the refuge beach and 6 at Sandy Point. He also reported 6 active pairs and possibly 5 chicks on the refuge beach.

If you've been following along at home with your own spreadsheet  32 pairs with 40 fledglings gives us 1.25 fledglings per pair. That is an excellent rate of productivity. By the way, I really wish that media coverage of piping plovers measured success by fledglings per pair rather than total number of nests. That's just a pet peeve of mine.

Looking North (July 12)
The least terns have been doing well also, though I don't have numbers. There are still least tern chicks hanging out on the beach. They should  be fledged soon.

Better Than A Stick Fence!
In other news, I like the new plastic posts that can be deployed at low tide. They are  better than a  Big Steve stick fence.

Hooksett Disc

There are still Hooksett discs around. And although I have met visitors from New Hampshire who asked about them, none of the visitors were actually from Hooksett.

Waves