Boston Ma

Spotted Sandpiper

Spotted Sanpiper

Solitary Sandpiper

Purple Heron

Swamp Sparrow

Lesser Yellowlegs

Bluebird

Juv Bluebird

Eider

Sanderling

Cedar Waxwing

Ring-Billed Gull

Terrapin

Carolina Wren

Sulphur

Black Swallowtail

Great-Spangled Frittilary

Lesser Yellowlegs West Canvey Marsh

Turned up at West Canvey to be the last person to see the Red-Backed Shrike but it never turned up,  but as I arrived there at 9am I was told there was a Lesser Yellowlegs from the roadside Hide and sure enough there it was.  I travelled 4,000 miles last week to see some so this was a pleasant surprise.

It's not a Greenshank Jonathon.

Birds in Massachusetts and things

Plum Island is a great birding area with nearly every habitat you could want,  costs $4 to drive on to and park almost anywhere.   Probably the most important site for migrating birds along the east coast,  (look it up).  Everytime I go to Boston I have to give it a go,  it's about 45 minutes from Andrew and Michelles place  in Lexington to the (island).  It's really a long strip of coastal land reached by one road where you pay at the start then drive along and stop almost where you want.   There are freshwater and brackish pans along the route.  Just as we got onto the Island there was a notice indicating Tree Swallows on the road, Take care!  and they were.   34,000 were counted that day going through,  what a sight!   The downside was cloudy weather.

  They soon moved, don't know why they did this

Some of the 34,000 Tree Swallows

Great Egret

Kingbird

Juv Cedar Waxwing

Northern Harrier

Waders

Semi-Palmated Sandpipers

Greater Yellowlegs

Semi-Palmated Plover

S P Sandpipers

American Plover

American Goldfinch from Andy and Michelles Balcony

Same Again

Yellow Warbler From the balcony again

Nuthatch on the balcony

Not on the balcony,  Conservation area, Lexington,  Little Green Heron

Watched it catch a Frog.

Wood Snake, common.

Look where you're walking.

Massachusetts

It was fairly quiet in most places with sporadic migration but better in the known reserves such as Plum Island and Great Meadows.  The weather was poor at times and great at others.   Just to start,  here are a few Raptors.

Red-Tailed Hawk, Lexington on the complex.

Osprey, Martha's Vineyard.

Osprey, Martha's Vineyard.

Black Vulture, 

Bald Eagle and Northern Harrier, Plum Island, great place!

Bald Eagle.

Coopers Hawk,  similar to Sparrowhawk.