Brewster, MA
"Birds In The Distance" - seems to be our theme this October. Just the other day, it was very much the opposite though. After my presentation Birdwatching For Beginners, I headed toward the salt marsh, because Rick, one of the museum's workers had just seen a Great Blue Heron there. We saw several on that day, thanks to the high tide, which made for great herons' breakfast! This morning however, we were at dead low tide for our Tuesday Tweets walk, which is necessary to hike either of the trails. Suddenly we heard a Belted Kingfisher, who seemed to be on the other side of 6A, where we have seen them before... so we headed to the Lee Baldwin Trail.
No sign of the kingfisher... no sound of him/her either, but we had plenty of sightings of active birds, though they were mostly in silhouette. We were also in pre-storm mode on the Cape. The birds know when inclement weather is approaching. They don't need to listen to any weather forecasts, they're well aware. It was a breezy day as well, so I'm not surprised that we didn't get many close encounters. Hanging out on the platform over the salt marsh is always rewarding because it seems you spot species after species, doing their thing. it's rewarding to watch.
We also enjoyed a peaceful walk through the Beech Forest on this south side trail. It was mostly quiet, sprinkled with muted lovely fall colors. We did catch some brief glimpses of both a Great Blue Heron flying over the marsh, as well as a Northern Harrier (AGAIN!). The weather is still warm & humid on Cape Cod this fall...temperatures that are hard to believe! There was a discussion about what so many acorns on the ground might mean as far as future weather casting...
What do YOU think? I'll be quite pleased with another mild winter. I'm a summer girl. We'll see. (double click photos to enlarge)
Our List:
American Crow
Northern Cardinal
American Robin
Belted Kingfisher
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Ring-billed Gull
Northern Flicker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Blue Jay
Common Grackle
Northern Harrier
Great Blue Heron
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove
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| Northern Flicker |
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| Bird Nerds on the marsh platform |
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| We saw so many different species, as usual from this well-placed lookout over the marsh |
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| Common Grackles silhouetted against the overcast sky |
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| Mud Fiddler Crab |
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| The welcoming entrance of the Beech Forest section of the Lee Baldwin Trail south of Route 6A |
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| Poison Ivy entangling a Pitch Pine trunk |
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| The remaining scarlet leaves of this Tupelo that reaches from the forest out over the salt marsh |
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| Our decorated trail |
Happy Birding!
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