9.5.16 - Bird Nerd Moment - South Middle Beach
South Yarmouth, MA

There's a storm brewing... it's still off the Atlantic coast and is hundreds miles south of here, but it's coming....that's what all the weather folk are saying anyway.  When this happens on the Cape, what's cool is, often you can see a storm headed right toward you, from a distance because we can just go to Nantucket Sound and well... look southeast.  So I decided I wanted to do that.  Today has been BEAUTIFUL here in Yarmouth anyway, and I wanted to go see what the water was doing.  Curiosity got the better of me.  I took a quick drive to our resident (aren't we LUCKY?!) beach, which is about 2 miles from home....

Well... as you can see - conditions at South Middle Beach - were perfect.  It was breezy, the storm had evidently stalled out at sea as it was, pushed around by other pressure systems... meteorology is something I know nothing about.  I pretty much look outside to forecast the weather, and I rely on our gaudy, one-winged fence ornament - Placido Flamingo - to let me know about the wind.  I find him quite trustworthy.  

What was remarkable about this quick visit to the shore for me (sometimes that's all I get) was that I noticed a flocking of House Sparrows on the Rosa rugosa, AKA Beach rose.  I wondered what they knew about the storm that we didn't.  Typically you can learn a lot by observing wildlife and their habits and patterns.  When a bad storm is coming, they KNOW. They seek shelter long before most of we humans do... this amount of House Sparrows did seem slightly unusual to me though... so of course, out came the phone camera.  I know, not everyone is fond of House Sparrows (invasive species) and I've still got a beef with them from this spring.  They kicked Tufted Titmouses out of a nest box in my yard.  Stinkers.
I had to take photos of them... tough to count, due to camouflage, but I believe there were about 40 that I could see...surprisingly quite well-hidden in the roses.  See how many you can count! (double click photos to enlarge)

How many House Sparrows can you count?! (click on photo to enlarge!)

Happy Birding!