Plum Island 7/31

Today I spent some time on Plum Island. Instead of looking for all the rarities that have been seen there lately, I decided I'd look at some of the common things in a little more detail.

Every fall there are lots of Tree Swallows that Stage on Plum Island. I've never seen it before since last fall I was obsessed with chasing down every rarity in NH. Today, I was absolutely blown away with how the swallows filled the sky. And it's not even to its peak yet!!! Here are some of the birds taking off today.

Not only do they fill the sky but the fill the road too! I wonder how many birders zipped through not bothering to stop and appreciate how cool this was on their way to chase down a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Royal Tern, etc.

One of the other neat things I got to see there was this Semipalmated Sandpiper which was actually tagged!!! I like how you can see the reflection and the habitat in the photo instead of a full frame shot. It may not be field-guide worthy, but I didn't have to flush any birds and it shows a different side of the birds that is often overlooked in my opinion.

Finally, I ended the day taking photos of terns and appreciating all the diversity in looks amongst terns this time of the year. You get adults, juveniles, and some making some neat transitions and there is also individual variation! And when you consider that there are 3-4 species around this diversity is quickly multiplied!!!

I didn't get any spectacular shots but I did manage to pull this shot off which shows a Tern diving from the underside... Kind of neat ... but not perfect!!!