Weekend birding - Tree Swallows

For those of you who may not know, I will be getting married in just under three weeks, so this past Saturday, we had my bachelor's party, in which we - you guessed it - went birding! Eight of us met at Plum Island in the afternoon (one who had actually been there since early in the morning leading a shorebird ID trip for NH Audubon) with the intention of birding the island until we decided it was time for dinner. Apparently, nobody told mother nature that this was a guys-only event because she quickly showed up and made herself very evident.
The clouds that had been staying somewhat distant moved in, with a little rain - which never really stopped anybody - but the thunderclaps, as well as lightning hitting the ground within a quarter mile of us, made us think twice about sticking around for long. It did eventually pass and we got a bit of birding in. A pair of fawns, which evidently didn't quite understand humans yet, casually trotted past us.
The birds were typical for this time of the year, with plenty of Eastern Kingbirds, and one that simply sat and posed for me, so I couldn't resist a shot or two...
Once again though, the big story on the island was the tens of thousands of Tree Swallows. I blogged about this last weekend, but the numbers have continued to grow, and it is simply amazing. I took a lot of photos because it seemed that the only way to try to convey the numbers...



It (finally) occurred to me to try to capture it in video. It looks great at home, but not sure if the YouTube quality will transfer well here. Nevertheless, here it is:



We then headed off to the world famous Woodman's Restaurant in Essex for dinner, where the Fried Clam was invented, and where you will never go away hungry. The quantity of food at our table was staggering. (As were the constant puns - I'm starting to wonder if this is a "birder thing" of if the whole world is like this. Although I have to be honest, it would be hard to beat the quality of puns we have with this group. The were more groans from the jokes than the full stomachs!) We topped it off with some ice cream, then to a bar for some beer and billiards. In all, a great day.

Thanks to Mark, Kurk, Mark, Eddie, Mike, Rob, and Paul for celebrating with me. I had a blast!