Shorebirds

My wife and I explored Goose Rocks Beach near Kennebunk, Maine for shorebirds Saturday morning, and we were not disappointed.

We observered Whimbrel, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Short-Billed Dowitchers, Long-Billed Dowitchers, Glossy Ibis, Piping Plovers, Semipalmated Sandpipers, White-Rumped Sandpipers, Snowy Egrets, Willets and Least Terns. All these birds were feeding during low tide in the Batson’s River and in the many tidal pools on the back side of the beach.

Photographing the many birds that were present had to be quick because of a cloud bank moving in that promised to block the sun. Twenty minutes later, the sun was behind the clouds and I didn’t get the chance to get a representative picture of each and every species listed. What I did manage to photograph are in the images below.

This morning, fellow birder Bob Malbon and I birded in the fog at Goose Rocks Beach and Granite Point. Clouds completely obscured the sun, but we managed to photograph an adult Snowy Egret with 3 juveniles feeding in the tidal pools at GRB.

Over at Granite Point, we watched fledgling Barn Swallows and Tree Swallows flit about and being fed by adults. Nearly a constant flow of Egrets were seen flying along the Little River, and a lone Glossy Ibis made an appearance. I will work on these photos later and post them on a rainy day.

Speaking of rainy days, many of you are probably unaware that I have a weather site on the web at BiddefordWeather.com. This site is completely automated with live uploads of the current conditions in Biddeford every second of every day. This is possible with a Davis Vantage Pro wireless weather station which is located at my home. An on-board radar software program uploads the latest radar data either as a still image or looped, which is animated radar images for the last several hours. Tide info, satellite data, watches and warnings, a weather cam and the latest National Weather Service forecasts are also available. A lot of the information is very useful for birders in the area.

Posted below are images I captured Saturday morning at GRB. Simply click a thumbnail for a larger view. Comments and criticisms are greatly appreciated.

Happy birding!

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