Hawaiian Short Shorebird Safari 2009

The 2009 version of the Hawaiian Shirt Shorebird Safari to South Beach in Chatham, MA for the Brookline Bird Club was well attended this year.





The above picture of the group looking out at the ocean was taken by our friend Kelly, actually taking it below.





We saw some target shorebirds immediately upon landing at the south unloading point. Flying Wimbrel and Roseate Terns to name a few.

We soon saw a bunch of Hudsonian Godwits and a few Marbled Godwits. It is always good to have both in the same location to highlight the differences for identification.


Other notables were Red Knot, Piping Plover, White-rumped Sandpiper and Forster's Tern.


There was a point where the wind picked up and the resulting mixing caused a temporary heavy fog. We stopped for lunch at that point and waited for it to burn off.


All in all we got some great looks at the species that were present. I checked the tide tables and next years version will be tentatively scheduled for August 7th.

BwTBC

Yesterday Laura and I participated in the Birders who Tweet, Blog, and Chirp New England event. It was one of those 'I will sleep good tonight events' (however had to get up early to do an annual BBS in the rain today but that is another story).

This is the second time I have physically met people that I have 'met' on Twitter. It is always fun meeting new people on bird outings, but this was special. What a wonderful day, the people were fantastic and we discovered some interesting birds.

Well those were pictures of some of the birds that were cooperative.

We saw Least Bittern, Mississippi Kite and Looooong looks at Upland Sandpiper.

An early and late picture of the group was easier to get!

Wonderful day!

This Twitter Thing

I recently checked out Twitter, to see what it was about. It first is addicting. I also found it is hard to discuss different topics with one twitter account. I find it hard to follow a fly tyer who was also a fan of hockey. (I like hockey too but, it gets confusing, kind of like listening to two conversations at the same time.)

I need to check out apps to make seperation of topics happen. I am still learning so we'll see how it goes.

3

Yesterday we went x-country skiing at the Lincoln Woods trail in New Hampshire. It is a good place to go for the first outing as you only have to pay to park ($3). The snow was excellent but the track was trampled by snowshoers that didn't read the sign at the begining of the trail. The sign is the biggest one there but needs to be bigger I guess. The snow and the weather made for a great day however.

2

Last night the fly tying club I belong to (United Fly Tyers, MA) had their January meeting. We usually meet on the first Thursday of the month. Since the first Thursday fell on January first we had the meeting a week later. Fred Kretchman was the speaker and he told us a lot of information about bamboo fly rods, the construction, use and how to deternine a good one was discussed.

Our club will be having a 50th anniversary gala in March (on the 21st). It is the oldest fly tying club, and we hope to have a big turnout. There will be lots of auction items, including artwork and door prizes.

Hello

This will be the first post to this blog. It will contain information on Weather/Climate, Birdwatching, and Fly tying. I belong to clubs that feature all the above items and will talk about events that occur with each. Stay tuned I guess?