Brewster, MA
It's still fairly freezing out there, but we're also fairly used to this weather on Cape Cod in March. As our bundled up bird nerd bunch walked the trails, we did notice a certain quiet. Birds that have normally migrated by now are still around, and there aren't too many new sounds of spring, despite us all craving them! This March, Mother Nature has been brutal in this area and perhaps that is why we're all hoping the birds will get us through this next stretch of cold. It's pretty crazy driving around and noticing SO many trees down, well, the trail was the same. Fortunately for the museum and the Town of Brewster, there are committed volunteers who donate their time to ensure the trail-loving hikers can enjoy their walks on the John Wing Trail.
We did have a funny moment while listening to the bird calls we encountered. There was definitely a weirdo one... When a call sounds different to me, I don't like to identify it right away. I try to be patient. This call though, it sounded SO new. I did pause and mentioned, "...well it could be a Blue Jay just messing with us...", which is exactly what it turned out to be! Those crazy birds are outstanding mimics, and any bird nerd has had times when a Blue Jay was mimicking a hawk overhead, or even a rusty clothes line pully! Blue Jays are in the corvid family & are closely related to Crows, who have an incredible range of different sounds. This guy/gal had me stumped for a few minutes, but it was so cool to all of a sudden be sure, once we saw that bright blue flash, dashing from pitch pine treetop to treetop, seemingly laughing at the silly humans below. It totally reminded me of Gary Larson's Far Side comic strip; not any one in particular... just the silly humans part.
While on the trail
Our List:
American Crow
Song Sparrow
Blue Jay
Carolina Wren
Northern Flicker
Tufted Titmouse
Brant
Herring Gull
Ring-Billed Gull
Double-crested Cormorant
American Black Ducks
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| Large Pitch Pine down along the trail |
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| Someone's former vertebrae? |
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| An "underpants" downy feather |
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| Committed Bird Nerds |
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| Crow tracks along the beach |
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| Whelk egg-case |
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| Skate egg case, AKA Mermaid's Purse |
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| Bundled up Bird Nerds |
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| This tiny slice of green in the grey made us happy & hopeful for warmer temperatures |
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| Oyster shell bouquet! |
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| Looks like the Crows found this shell fish trap as interesting as we did! |
Happy Birding!
