Keep Calm and Bird On: August 17, 2020
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.”
-Edith Andrews
Unlike many other outside activities, birding engages you to tune all your senses to the landscape; to be aware of sounds as well as sights, think about the tides, the wind, the light. But where to go? Birds are everywhere, they don’t stay still. But if you look, you may find a few. We have a few suggestions. So, keep calm and bird on.
The Land Bank property overlooking The Creeks at the end of East Creek Road, along with the Hays property to the east, are worth a visit at just about any time of tide or day. At East Creek Road, you will see the “Vern’s Rock” eBird location and a stone engraved with his reminder to, “Keep your eyes to the skies.” At the Hays, property you peer into the eastern crannies of the marsh.
Being up on a rise gives an expansive wetland view. If the tide is low, there may be birds on the exposed sand flats. If the tide is high, there is less room for them to hunker down out of sight in the ditches.
The marsh is a good place to see Snowy Egrets (below), actively splashing with their bright yellow feet, black bills probing. Elegant and stately, Great Egrets, with their exceptionally long necks, often pop their heads up out of the grass even at low tide. American Oystercatchers, with their bright red “shucking knife” bills, stand out in a crowd. You might hear Willets calling and can identify them in flight by the bright white stripe in their wings. Ospreys often soar overhead. Out over the harbor, Least and Common Terns, with strident high-pitched screams, may be fishing. If you are lucky, you might see some Whimbrel, with their long down-curving bills, probing the marsh for fiddler crabs. Long-distance migrants, they pause here to feed and rest a moment on their journey from Hudson Bay to Tierra Del Fuego.
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