Plymouth County, MA

A big thank you to our leader and newer member, Will Fitzgerald, who provided a wonderful tour of Plymouth birding for seven lucky members.  We began our day by visiting Tidmarsh Wildlife Sanctuary, exploring trails, walking over 3 miles and gathering a few puddle ducks (incl. Black Duck, Am. Widgeon) and many land birds (incl. Downy, Flicker, Ruby and Golden-crowned Kinglet, Tree and Swamp Sparrows, a Palm and 6 Yellow-rumped Warblers).

From there we headed to White Horse Beach, Manomet, parking along side of the road.  Scanning the ocean, we picked up 5 Surf and 20 Black Scoters, 2 Long-tailed Ducks, 20 RB Merganser, 7 Red-throated and 2 Common Loons.  We were almost certain we were looking at 2 Dovekie, but they turned out to be Razorbills.  Just down the road at Manomet Point, we added 1 White-winged Scoter, more Long-tailed Ducks and RB Mergs, another Razorbill, a Bonaparte’s Gull, 3 Horned Grebe, a Northern Gannet and a surprise Bald Eagle flying across and well over the ocean waters.  

A rest stop at Leyden Coffee House was welcome by all, great coffee!  From there we headed to the Plymouth Beach parking area along 3A, where we added beautiful views of Red-necked Grebe.

Nelson Field was our next destination, and we checked off our usual sighting there, 20 Brant. We saw several already mentioned sea ducks but were delighted to add 12 more Bonaparte’s Gulls to our list.

Cumberland Farms, entered by River St., was our last and very rewarding stop. We walked and counted a total of 7 Northern Harriers and 24 Red-winged Blackbirds, but backtracked to the solar panel area, where we stood atop a structure in the field to get good looks at 2 or 3 Short-eared Owls making their way back and forth in the area of the solar panels.  It was an excellent way to end our day at the coast with a total species count of 51.