September 12, 2021
Dave was ably assisted on this field trip by Connor Thompson and Brian Wales.
We drove to the Lighthouse Parking lot by 7:55 am where Colin and Hilda were already waiting. Dave, Connor and Brian arrived shortly afterwards.
We walked to the lighthouse and saw tons of Yellow-rumped Warblers, but photos were hard to come by because of the poor light and flighty birds.
We walked around to the end of Bayshore Drive. We saw some warblers, but photos were all but impossible. We did manage one of an Eastern Wood Pewee.
Somewhat frustrated, Dave had us move on to the Calf Pasture. While driving on Atkins Lane, the convoy stopped, as Dave had spotted a Merlin and Sharp-shinned Hawk. Barbara also spotted two distant Northern Flickers.
At the parking area, we saw several Scarlet Tanagers in their green winter plumage.
We walked around the loop and got some good land birds.
It was time to go to Owen Point to look for shorebirds. We parked at the trailhead and soon got into bunches of warblers. We met Jon Ruddy with his clients, and Jon was doing his magic pishing. Man, the warblers really responded. We got great looks at a number of different species.
We continued out to the point, and checked out the shorebirds first from the same vantage point that Jean Iron had used. But this time, we were allowed to go beyond the rope since it was after September 10. We also noticed many Monarch Butterflies staging for migration.
We saw a few kinds of shorebirds, but not the variety we hoped for. We hiked back to the cars and had our lunch at a nearby picnic table, watched by another Merlin.
After lunch, we briefly checked out the 1st Beach, but there was nothing new. Then Dave led us out of the park, over to Gosport, where we added to our list with some water birds.
Our last stop for the day was at the Brighton lagoons. Here we picked up Northern Shoveller and Bonaparte Gull, among others.
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