Blog de Puree

I was home sick for a few days this week, but even though I was under the weather, I took an opportunity to get some fresh air and spend quality time with my wife and son. On Thursday afternoon, we went to Cashman Park in Newburyport, Mass.

While we were there, we fed some bread and baby puffs to three juvenile Mallard Ducks and a handfull of Ring-billed Gulls by the rivers edge. It was low tide and birds can often be found feeding and sunning among the river grasses. My son also loves to watch and point at birds, so it was quite a treat, especially since some of the ducks were quite fearless and ate food from my wifes and my fingers.

The highlight was when a lone bird flew in low over the river and alighted onto the gravelly sand, right at the water’s edge. It did not seem bothered by us and looked like it was used to the frenzied activity of the gulls when they are scavenging food near humans.

At first we thought it was a Piping Plover, which are famous for their presence and local efforts to protect their summer nesting grounds on Plum Island in Newbury. We were a couple miles from the island and I figured it had to another type of shore bird. Upon further study I noted that it had a white horizontal stripe in front of its eyes (a white forehead) and white and black neck. The bird’s bill was black. The plumage was dark gray to light brown, with a white belly.

My wife and I did a bit of online research and narrowed it down to either a Semipalmated Plover or a Wilson’s Plover, which are very alike aside from the leg coloraton, nuances in the plumage coloration and the former has an orange bill with a black tip. The bird we saw had an all black bill.

I also thought it could be a Killdeer, which are far more common to the area. And while they are comfortable with being near human habitation, the “chronicles” state that this bird is not associate closely with other shorebirds, which were numerous. From where we were standing, it also looked as if the bird’s eye was all black—the Killdeer has an eye with an orange iris. It was a tough call.

In the end, we settled on a Wilson’s Plover.

A Wilson’s Plover