Autumn weekend Birding

It felt great getting out this past weekend. Saturday morning Pamela and I headed up to our favorite stomping grounds - Plum Island. It seemed like Yellow-rumped warblers were simply everywhere (see my previous post) and even though they are our most common warbler, when you have them in this quantity, it brings a new level of interest. (And when you have flocks of warblers, you never know when something less common might be mixed among them - this time we didn't).
While scanning the ocean another group of birders were checking out a sandpiper that caught their interest...

After spending a bit of time watching it, he did fly a bit and show off it's white rump.

We did have a few other nice sightings, although nothing particularly rare - a Blue-grey Gnatcatcher was a surprise, and we enjoyed prolonged looks at a very strongly marked Peregrin Falcon.
After lunch at one of our favorite Thai restaurants, we decided to head into Cambridge to add a bird to our Massachusetts lists. (OK, honestly - I wanted to add a bird to my MA list - Pam isn't quite as much a lister I am.) A Lark Sparrow had been spotted a Danahey Park for the previous few days (and had been in the same place last year at the same time, but we never checked it out). We quickly found the bird mixed in among several Song, Savannah, and a few Field Sparrows.


On Sunday morning, we picked up Paul and Diana early and headed down to meet our friend Eddie, who was leading his annual sparrow walk for the Brookline Bird Club at Cumberland Farms Fields in Middleboro. We did pretty well, seeing plenty of Song, Savannah & Field Sparrows, a single Lincoln's, a few Indigo Buntings, Bobolinks and Eastern Meadowlarks, and surprisingly (well to me) quite a few Tree Swallows still. Also, there were two Dickcissels that had been around for a few days...We continued on to Burrage Pond WMA in Halifax where we saw a few birds, but I found a lot more interest in some of the other wildlife...





Last but not least - when we dropped off Paul and Diana in the afternoon, they pointed out a large spider that had been building some large webs near their front door. I've yet to determine what it is...