Summer's End Septmember 9, 2018

Josh and I took a great hike out to Eel Point on Saturday.   Lots of  shorebirds:

Mourning Dove  1
American Oystercatcher  6Black-bellied Plover  24Semipalmated Plover  3Sanderling  10Willet  15Herring Gull  50Great Black-backed Gull  12Common Tern  1Double-crested Cormorant  20Great Blue Heron  1Great Egret  1


Too late to see the Sea Lavender in bloom,  but beautiful colors throughout the marsh.  Two monarch butterflies.

At the Sunday bird group,  a Kestrel over the Cranberry bogs was the best bird seen,  although we counted 31 species:

Canada Goose  24
Wood Duck  0
Mallard  7
Green-winged Teal  3     Folgers Marsh 
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  4
Mourning Dove  2
peep sp.  1
Greater Yellowlegs  5
Lesser Yellowlegs  6
Greater/Lesser Yellowlegs  10
Herring Gull  30
Lesser Black-backed Gull  1
Common Tern  9
Great Shearwater  0
Double-crested Cormorant  10
Great Blue Heron  2
Great Egret  1
Snowy Egret  2
Black-crowned Night-Heron  5     In the Pond at the field station
Turkey Vulture  3
Osprey  2     Hatch year bird 
Red-tailed Hawk  2
Belted Kingfisher  2     Flying with a fish
American Kestrel  1     Cranberry bog 
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  6
Black-capped Chickadee  1
Carolina Wren  1
American Robin  1
House Finch  1
American Goldfinch  1
Song Sparrow  1
Eastern Towhee  3
Common Grackle  1


There was a lot of discussion of our finding Bidens Cernua,  the Bur-Marigold,  in the ditches at the Cranberry bog.

Later,  Josh and I hiked the beach and the Sconset Bluff Walk- always beautiful with the Autumn Clematis at this time of year.

Bidens Cernua,  But-Marigold

Clematis paniculata