Birds on the Move

Bird activity has increased as the summer wanes. The youngsters have fledged. The adults have finished their seasonal molt. Migrants are preparing to leave, passing through or moving in. Here is some of the action I captured a few days ago.

Various shorebirds continue to congregate as they pass through the area. Two common species are Semipalmated Sandpiper and Semipalmated Plover. A sandpiper flew into some mudflats to join a plover to poke around for breakfast.

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A flock of Yellowlegs flew in to join some Dowitchers on the edge of a pool. The smaller, chunkier Dowitchers seem a bit overwhelmed by the crowd.

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There was one clumsy Yellowlegs in the flock. Ooops!

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An Osprey was fishing further south in the pool. I overshot him as he made his dive but still got a bit of the action. He managed to make a pretty big catch and it took a lot of flapping and thrashing to get airborne again.

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There were some other hunters at the pool. The shorebirds kept taking to the air in order to foil two falcons that were prowling the area. The shorebirds swirl around in hopes of confusing a falcon and escaping its clutches. It worked while we were there as both predators left “empty-taloned”. Falcons are very fast but I did get some shots of the Merlin. The Peregrine Falcon was just too fast for me.

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Here’s a look at the “targets” as they swooped by me.

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This is nice grouping of multiple species, all of whom will soon be gone until spring. There are two Great Egrets, a smaller Snowy Egret, a Great Blue Heron and a Double-crested Cormorant.

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And for all duck lovers, this is a male Mallard that has molted into its non-breeding plumage. He’ll molt back to his bright green head when it is time to attract the ladies again!

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