Category Archives: Birds of New England

Clap Trap!

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Dear Friends,

Last week I had the chance to go visit a wonderfully innovative and tremendously effective ‘trash interceptor called a “Clap Trap.” The Clap Trap is photographer Roberto De Souza’s invention and can be found stationed at Fowle Brook, one of the waterways that flows into Horn Pond. The Clap Trap intercepts trash before it enters the pond.

Outfitted in waterproof boots and coveralls, Roberto can be found nearly every day wading in the brooks and streams, collecting the trash that accumulates in the Clap Trap, as well as the trash found along the banks of the Pond.

The trash comes from  visitors to the pond and also from the city.  All manner of  plastic, especially soda bottles and nips, are carried by storm drains, eventually making their way into the Pond’s waterways.

Roberto is a passionate advocate for wildlife. His photos are beautiful and stunning while his images of wild creatures entangled in fishing lines and lures profoundly disturbing. The photos drive home the urgent need for we all to be better stewards of our environment.

People began taking notice after Roberto began displaying the trash as art. There is a temporary exhibit of just a fraction of the trash collected at the pond, adjacent to the interceptor. Roberto’s Trash Interceptor also prompted the city to place trash barrels around the pond.

The Clap Trap is located on Fowle Brook, near marker 7

The Clap Trap is made of recyclable materials. Two of Roberto’s sculptures made from recycled trash are on display at the Woburn Public Library, along with lots more more information about the Horn Pond Trash Interceptor.Courtesy Photo

Important Hummingbird Notice for Earth Day!

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Time to get out your hummingbird feeders out. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have been spotted in Rhode Island and Cape Cod! It won’t be long before they begin to arrive at our Cape Ann gardens. Many of the flowering trees and shrubs they depend upon early in the season are slow to awaken this spring and they sure could use the nourishment provided by the sugar water in our feeders. Happy Earth Day!

Joyous Earth Day!

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Treasuring our wild creatures and wild spaces <3

When you’re standing stone still focused on filming a territorial Big Fight between Red-bellied Woodpeckers and a Great Blue Heron in gorgeous full breeding plumage swoops across the water, landing mere feet from where you are perched. Treasuring our wild creatures and wild spaces <3

Urgent – Please Drop a Quick Line to Your Legislator Today to Phase Out the Use of Rodenticides!

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Dear Friends,

On Wednesday, April 15, the State Senate will vote on whether to adopt a proposal to phase out the use of anticoagulant rodenticides that are harming wildlife and pets. 

Adding the bill as an amendment to the Mass Ready Act will help ensure that our state phases out the use of rodenticides that are poisoning thousands of wildlife and pets in Massachusetts every year.

We need them to hear from as many supporters as possible before they vote this Wednesday. Let’s get this amendment passed to protect our wildlife and pets! Please sign the form at the link provided below.

Link to easy-to-fill-out form

​What a difference a few weeks makes compared to the balmy 70 degrees temps today! This ​sleepy pair of Long-eared Owls ​seen in the video are hunkered in​, weathering snow and wind​ during a late season snowstorm. LEOs roost in dense stands of vegetation and are seen in Massachusetts primarily during the winter months. Their diet consists mostly of small rodents including mice, rats, shrews, and voles. LEO’s, along with all birds of prey, are at extreme risk of being poisoned by rat poison. As the rodent ingests the poison, so does the bird, and the consequences are often deadly to the predator.​

Nova Scotian Guest Plover at Good Harbor Beach!

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​A​ Bluenoser at Good Harbor Beach – the fascinating world of shorebirds!

At this time of year, we Gloucester Plover Ambassadors are at Good Harbor Beach (trying) to keep track of the comings and goings of the Plovers. Some birds are arriving to set up house while others are passing through on their way to their summer nesting homes. Last week while out on Plover patrol, Super Dad was spotted, along with a sweet pair that we’re fairly certain is a mated pair from last summer, and a new little friend. It wasn’t until I returned home and began looking at the footage that I noticed that this unfamiliar one was banded!

Finding a banded bird at Good Harbor Beach is pretty exciting because instead of wondering where the bird came from, you can learn from just looking at the tag . Several years ago Good Harbor Beach was a stopover for a Plover with a green tag and white letters, which indicated that it was banded by Virginia Tech. He had flown from the southern coast of Georgia to Gloucester in just under five days!

As you can see in the photo, N5’s band is white with a black alphanumeric code, which indicates he was banded in Canada. A quick Google search led to several contacts where to report Canadian banded birds and we sure hit the jackpot of information from these kind wildlife biologists, Dr. Cheri Gratto-Trevor and Hilary Mann.

People are always asking us Ambassadors, where do the birds go after departing GHB in August? The following is not a complete picture, but does provide a tiny widow into the flight pattern of one of these remarkable little travelers.

Cheri writes, “White flag N5 was banded as an adult in June 2024 at Sandy Bay, in southern Nova Scotia.  The bird was seen in Fall (Aug) 2024 at Sunset Beach, Tubbs Inlet, NC.”

Hilary writes the following​, ” In 2024, we put a nanotag on N5. This is a small radio transmitter that helps us track birds, when they fly close to a station that is part of the motus wildlife tracking network. We got a track of N5, which you can see below. The dashed lines show the ‘direct flight’, and if this is no line connecting dots as the plover moved south, it just shows that they may have stopped somewhere along the way. N5 crossed from southern Nova Scotia to Cape Cod in about 10 hours, on the night of August 6, 2024. By August 10, it was down in North Carolina. We do not have any detections past August 10, but there are fewer stations to detect the tags south of North Carolina. The tag is glued on, so it falls off in the winter when the battery dies, and we do not have tracks of its Northbound movements.”

Think about that – In 2024, N5 flew from Nova Scotia to North Carolina in four and half days! After first departing Sandy Bay, N5 flew nonstop to Cape Cod, when it appears he was next tracked at either a Rhode Island or Connecticut beach, across the sound on to Montauk, at the eastern end of Long Island, then a non-stop flight to Cape May, which is also an important holdover location for Monarchs waiting for the ideal wind to carry them over the mouth of the Delaware Bay. He is next hitting locations at Virginia beaches and North Carolina’s Outer Banks before arriving at Sunset Beach, which is just south of Ocean Isle at the southern point of North Carolina. 

And in 2025, N5 returned to Sandy Bay, Nova Scotia and successfully fledged two chicks!

Our deepest thanks and appreciation to Dr. Cheri Gratto-Trevor, research scientist emeritus with Environment and Climate Change Canada and to Hilary Mann, wildlife biologist with Canadian Wildlife Service.

I pulled this map off Google to show what a direct flight it is for Plovers flying from Cape Ann to southern Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia Piping Plover N5 in the foreground. The film clip is in 10 times slow motion so you can see the band placed on the upper right tibia.

Read more about banded Piping Plovers seen at Cape Ann beaches here –

FUN 411 UPDATE ON ETM, THE CUMBERLAND ISLAND BANDED PLOVER

BANDED PIPING PLOVERS FROM THE CANADIAN MARITIMES, BY WAY OF ABACO BAHAMAS, NORTH CAROLINA, AND MASSACHUSETTS!

Many, many thanks to Gloucester Daily Times reporter Bobby Grady and editor-in-chief Andrea Holbrook for the Times​‘s continued coverage of our Gloucester Plovers. The story appeared in Thursday’s Times with a gentle reminder to give the Plovers lots of space as they are establishing their nesting territories.

The coverage the Times has provided since the Plovers first arrived back in 2016 has been invaluable in helping to create an awareness about these very vulnerable, yet valiant, threatened shorebirds. Thank you again Andrea, Bobby, and the GDTimes!

​Happy Spring,

xxKim

PiPl N5 at time of banding provided by Hilary Mann

Shout Out To Bobby Grady, Andrea Holbrook, and the Gloucester Daily Times for Plover Coverage!

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Many, many thanks to Gloucester Daily Times reporter Bobby Grady and editor-in-chief Andrea Holbrook for the Times continued coverage of our Gloucester Plovers. The story appeared in today’s Times with a gentle reminder to give the Plovers lots of space as they are establishing their nesting territories.

The coverage the Times has provided since the Plovers first arrived back in 2016 has been invaluable in helping to create an awareness about these very vulnerable, yet valiant, threatened shorebirds. Thank you again Andrea, Bobby, and the GDTimes!

Happy Easter, Happy Spring!

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Dear Friends,

I hope so much you are doing well. Spring weather hasn’t quite sprung here in our region, nonetheless we know warmer days are just around the bend.  I haven’t been writing lately, managing health hurdles but they are manageable and things are looking better.

The wonderful good news is that Piping Plovers have been returning to their breeding grounds all along the Great Lakes and Atlantic Coast nesting locations and ours are no exception. The first PiPl arrived on March 26th, one of our females from last year, and Super Original Dad has returned for the ELEVENTH year to nest at Good Harbor Beach. He only landed several days ago and is wiped out from the migration. Super Dad is staying close to his territory and seems to be waiting patiently. Waiting I think for the return of his love, handicapped Super Mom. It will be nothing short of a miracle if she returns, too, as maneuvering with a missing foot takes a great deal more energy. The average lifespan of a Piping Plover is 3 to 5 years. Our Original pair is at least 12 years old and has far exceeded that statistic. Despite the fact that Plover pairs may winter over in two entirely different locations, last year Mom and Dad returned on exactly the same day, March 19th.

Super Dad March 2026

Plovers typically arrive at their northern breeding grounds needing plenty of R and R so if you see them on the beach, please give them lots and lots of space. If they pipe in your direction, you know you are too close. A gentle reminder to all our beach friends – the earlier Plovers can court and mate undisturbed on the beach, the earlier they begin laying eggs, and the sooner the chicks will have fledged. Although Good Harbor Beach is now closed to pets for the season, Wingaersheek is open until May 1st, and Crab Beach, which is downtown adjacent to the dog park, is open all year round

Hats off to our incredibly hard working DPW Crew. Thank you to this great group of guys for placing the symbolic roping and threatened species signs up prior to April 1st. And thank you to the DPW Crew for taking such care and pride of our City beaches.

More good news for Plovers is that we are again partnering with Mass Audubon to watch over the Plovers. The Audubon team of young biologists are some of the most conscientious and caring individuals you will meet and we are so delighted to learn from, and work with, Mass Audubon. If you would like to be a Piping Plover ambassador this summer, please contact me. We would love to have you!

Happy Easter, Happy Spring!
xxKim

A short video of our newly arrived and very loveable, sleepy Super Dad –

Happy Valentine’s Day!, ¡Feliz San Valentin!, Bonne Saint-Valentin!

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This morning while at a local shop I was greeted in the most lovely manner, with ¡Feliz San Valentin! So here is my annual Plover Valentines but this year in English, Spanish, and French. Thank you Elizabeth for the Spanish Valentine’s wishes!​

Piping Plovers (like a great many shorebirds) are a link that binds the Americas, especially in our shared goals of protecting this very vulnerable species. Piping Plovers winter over in the Caribbean and along both the Gulf of Mexico and lower Atlantic United States. They breed in the mid- and northern Atlantic states and maritime provinces of Canada, as well as the Great Plains and Great Lakes regions.

The photos are of the sweetest Plover family that miraculously hatched from a nest smack dab midway in the sand of a popular urban beach, with absolutely no camouflaging vegetation, stones, shells, no nothing!  This very vulnerable nest of three made it through to hatch day and all three chicks went on to thrive and eventually fledge. Miracles do happen <3

Plover chicks begin walking within hours after hatching but they are adorably klutzy for the first day or so, with many face plants, tumbles, and stumbles as they are learning to navigate the varied terrain. The chicks hatched on a boiling hot day and the very excellent Dad you see here was protectively trying to help the chick up on its feet and push back under his wing to shield from the midday sun.

 

Why We Love Pokeberry (and so do Scissor-tailed Flycatchers!)

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Dear Friends,

Taking a break from thinking about the heart-rending reality of our national politics to talk about a native plant that you may want to encourage to grow in your wildflower garden. Pokeberry is a large, gangly native plant that goes by many names: American Pokeweed, Dragonberry, Pigeonberry, and Inkberry, to name but a few. Although all parts of the plant can be toxic to livestock, the berries are much beloved by a variety of songbirds including Mockingbirds, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Cardinals, Brown Thrashers, Cedar Waxwings, Bluebirds, and many more.

Pokeberry was one of several fruiting plants favored by the exquisite (and rarely seen in the Northeast) Scissor-tailed Flycatcher that was visiting the Spencer-Pierce-Little Farm. The Pokeberry was growing in the pigpen and around the edges of the farm fields. If you plan to grow it in your garden, know that Pokeberry can reach five to six feet and is a good candidate for the back of a border or along property edges.

In our own garden, we never had Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers until I let a volunteer Pokeberry grow where a bird had deposited a seed. Now we have a tribe of YBS stopping over during spring and autumn migration, a male, a female, and even a  juvenile. This past autumn, our “pet” Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, as Charlotte likes to call the male who comes daily, was with us from October through December. He was mostly focused on procuring  sap from our tree garden but I don’t think it would be here unless it had been initially attracted to the beautiful deep purple berries of the Pokeberry plant.

Grow Native and They Will Come!

P.S. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds drink nectar from the tiny white Pokeberry flowers.

Looking to 2026

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Dear Friends,

I hope you are finding renewed hope in the new year.  As we turn the page away from 2025, one thought burns so brightly in my mind and that is to Power On. We’re all in this together and as we become united, we will be empowered to right the wrongs.

This last photo of 2025​, from the 31st, is​ of a Wild Turkey taken in the Wolf Moon a few days before it was completely full. Charlotte and I watched in wonderment as the turkeys took flight at twilight. It takes a good amount of energy for their ungainly bodies to become aloft and ​turkey flying comes with much noisy whooshing and vigorous wing flapping. They sleep in trees for protection from mammalian predators and even young poults learn to fly and roost on low branches, at the ​very tender age of only a week or two.

I have been meaning to share this video of Gray Seals singing. For about ten years or so I have been watching the growing population of seals at Brace Cove, which isn’t really very long in the grand scheme of things. When I first began to notice the congregation there, it seemed as though it was all Harbor Seals. More and more Gray Seals seem to be coming each year. One day in November I counted 14 Gray Seals hanging out together in the water, not on the rocks. Another day, there were 34 all told, both Harbor and Gray, in the water and on the rocks. There possibly may have been many more as they move around the cove and are often emerging from underwater.

The first clips are of a chorus of Gray Seal bull songsters; the last two clips happened several days later when two were behaving very affectionately towards one another. Notice how the more active the males became, the more anxious the small seal in the center of it all became before giving up its spot on the rock. Turn up the volume to hear the full chorus! Gray Seal mating season is happening now and the singing can be either amorous or territorial. Mating takes place underwater but I wonder if the clips where they are behaving affectionately is a form of courtship. Everything I have read states mating is violent but watching the seals playfully rub each other and dive together for fifteen plus minutes makes me think perhaps there is another side to Gray Seal breeding.

Power On Friends,

xxKim

 

Wild Turkey in the Wolf Moon

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Last photos of 2025 –  Just as i was readying to return home after a twilight walk, the local turkeys began migrating up into the trees for their nightly rest.

Miss Celebrity Scissor-tailed Meets Miss Annie and Miss Ethel Piggies

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The elegant Scissor-tailed Flycatcher gracing our region is the second Scissor-tailed to land in Massachusetts in as many years, two winters in a row. They both made their stopovers at similar habitats, wide open fields with berry-rich shrubs and trees outlining the fields. Last year’s Scissor-tailed perched on the Bluebird boxes at Audubon’s Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary, foraging over the field for insects and dining on crabapple and bittersweet berries. This year’s beauty is making her home in a field that includes a pigpen!  She skirts the edges looking for berries and insects but spends most of her time perched in the pen with Ethel and Annie. In addition to the insects the Scissor-tailed forages for in the pen and farm fields, there are crabapple trees, bittersweet, Staghorn Sumac, and Pokeberry.

She has the gorgeous tail characteristic of the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher however, the male’s tails are even longer. The long forked tails assist the expert aerialists in catching insects mid-air, a behavior called ‘hawking.’ Hawking is described as a feeding strategy where the bird sallies forth from a perch to snatch an insect mid-flight, then returns to the same, or to a different, perch.

If we lived in Texas or Oklahoma, these birds would be run of the mill, but here in Massachusetts she is a rare treat. As much as she is a joy to observe, Miss Scissor-tailed is sooo far north and east of her range, I truly hope she departs soon. She should be in Central America by this time of year!

Many have noticed when observing her, she tolerates very well the farm animals and small quiet groups of onlookers however, one recent Wednesday we observed a birding group of 16 tromping noisily through the snow-crusted field. The were boisterous and talking loudly amongst themselves. The Scissor-tailed suddenly became very still. She did not budge from her perch for a good 25 minutes while the group was there. The very moment they left the field, she resumed foraging. With temperatures in the teens, these migrating birds need every minute of the shortened days of sunlight to forage. Several of us turned to shush the group, but they ignored and even the group leader was holding a very audible discussion in close proximity to the bird, about the bird.

It would have been so much kinder to the little migrant if the very large group broke up into smaller groups. The leader sets the tone of the encounter. She could have offered the bird’s life history back at their vans and made an effort to keep the chatter down. There were many other interesting birds in the surrounding field to look at while they awaited their turn. The group didn’t get to see the beautiful Scissor-tail in action displaying her fascinating foraging habit because she was frightened and stayed very still. Tenderly and reverentially is the way to approach wildlife, especially one so vulnerable. People will surely see much more of the animal’s natural behavior if we at least try to make ourselves invisible.

Orange = breeding, yellow = migration, blue = wintering.

 

Great Horned Owl Rescue

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The Great Horned Owl that has been seen at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge the past several days was found alive but immobile in the Hellcat parking lot this morning. A kind photographer shared the information but that is all she knew. I was just glad to hear of the rescue because when we saw him from the road Sunday morning, he was tucked way back in a tangle of trees and appeared as though his left wing was drooping. I am hoping one of our readers may know more about the rescue. Please write if you do, thank you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours <3

I am thankful for your friendship and for your support of our film projects, Beauty on the Wing and The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay. Both films are continuing to do well and were only made possible because of your generosity and kind support. A most heartfelt thank you!

I may have but don’t think I did, shared this clip of a late hatched Turkey poult. Watch how Mom patiently waits for her poult to take a tiny seed from her mouth. Turkeys are so outwardly cumbrous but have such tender tendencies towards their young.

Happy Thanksgiving!
xxKim

 

No Soliciting Boys!

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Happy Thanksgiving Eve <3

 

 

 

 

Good Morning!

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One of a pair of Snow Bunting spotted recently, on a sunnier morning. 

Golden-crowned Kinglet – tiny bird with the outsized name!

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A mini flock of mini birds – every few years or so I am fortunate enough to catch the Golden-crowned Kinglets traveling through our neighborhood. In perpetual motion when foraging, they are challenging to film and even more so to photograph. You would think the Kinglets would be interested in the magnificent buffet of ripe crabapples but no, they were devouring the insects and web encased egg sacs found mostly on the undersides of leaves.

One of these days I may be lucky enough to see a Golden-crowned Kinglet with his crown puffed out like this-

Photo courtesy American Bird Conservancy

Best Director at the London Vision Film Festival!

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Dear Friends,

I hope you are doing well. What a lovely weekend weather wise for we in southern New England although we’re getting ready for the big cold snap coming. Right after Dia de Muertos, we plant paperwhites and amaryllis bulbs to force indoors. We switch up the colors of the soft furnishings in the music living room from warm weather blues and greens to white, rose, red, and greens. It’s a cozy (and gradual) way to get in the holiday spirit.

I am so very delighted to write that we received the Best Director Feature Film award at the London Vision Film Festival. It’s a wonderful honor and my first ‘Best Director’ award. I thank all of you everyday. Both Beauty on the Wing and The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay would not have been made possible without your generosity and I am so very grateful for your interest and kind support.

If you have a chance, there’s a very fun new film about the vibrant music scene in Boston during the 70s and 80s, Life on the Other Planet. Beautifully produced and directed by Vincent Straggas, we went to the premiere at the Regent Theatre in Arlington several weeks ago and it is again playing at the Regent on Thursday, November 19th. Along with a great many Boston musicians, my husband Tom Hauck and Fred Pineau from The Atlantics are featured, as well as local Gloucester musicians Willie Alexander and Jon Butcher. There is talk of Life on the Other Planet coming to The Cut!

The Rat

Here’s a link to a short video and photos of the amazing Pectoral Sandpiper that stopped over for a day on its arduous migration to southern South America. I mentioned the pair last time I wrote and wanted to make the video before too much time had passed. I wonder what the predicted whoosh of arctic weather will bring to our shores next!

Sending you kind thoughts and much gratitude,

xxKim

 

 

Thank you Scott Memhard for the City of Gloucester Kindness Nomination!

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I am so very honored to receive a nomination from our Ward One City Councilor, Scott Memhard, for the City of Gloucester’s 2025 Kindness Campaign.  I accept this nomination on behalf of myself and all our Piping Plover Ambassadors, DPW, Conservation Commission, and Mass Audubon. Our Gloucester Plovers are very fortunate to have such a dedicated and kind team working to keep them safe and their habitat intact.

I’d also like to thank Scott especially, who has been a supporter since the Plovers first arrived in 2016. He has been a tremendous help navigating with the City to develop conservation protocols for the Plovers. The Plovers are under Scott’s ‘jurisdiction,’ so to speak, as Good Harbor Beach is part of Scott’s ward, and we couldn’t ask for a more helpful and engaged advocate.

Thank you to Scott, all our PiPl Ambassadors, the Gloucester DPW, Conservation Commission, Mass Audubon, and all our Plover friends and advocates <3

“I would nominate Kim Smith for her tireless environmental advocacy & her documentary photography and film educational outreach, now on PBS.

For years Kim has worked tirelessly with the Gloucester DPW, Conservation Commission & MA Audubon.  Kim has organized the local citizen group of the Piping Plovers Ambassadors at Good Harbor Beach.

In addition to the Piping Plovers, with her new documentary “Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay”, and working to protect Good Harbor Beach and dunes, Kim has produced a remarkable film documentation “Beauty on the Wing” of migrating Monarch butterflies which pass through Cape Ann every Fall.

Kim is a blessing & a credit to Gloucester. “

To learn more about  Gloucester’s Kindness Campaign, please go here.

And thank you to our little photobomber, Holly, who is generally not allowed on the dining room table

 

Yellow Warbler Particular Insect Eater

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I thought the warblers were attracted to the bushes because of the abundance of berries but no; watch how she snatches a winged insect and only eats the abdomen, tossing aside the wings.  

Yellow Warblers primarily eat a wide variety of insects including caterpillars, beetles, spiders, mosquitos, and moths. During the fall and winter months especially, they also eat fruits and berries.

The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay comes to Canada x 2

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Dear PiPl Friends,

I am delighted to share two good things. The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay has been accepted to the Brampton Canada International Film Festival, which is a relatively new festival based in Ontario, and we are having a film screening in December at the City Cinema, sponsored by the Island Nature Trust, which is located at Prince Edward Island. We love our neighbors to the north and I am deeply honored. Thank you BCIFF and Island Nature Trust. We are so very grateful for the opportunity to share our documentary with Canadians.

Recently I attended a great talk given by the entomologist and conservationist Doug Tallamy, which was sponsored by a fantastic local organization, 400 Trees Gloucester and hosted by the Annisquam Village Church.  Please read more about local efforts to grow native here.

Winged wonders continue to migrate across our shores, with Little Blue Herons the most recently departed. I posted photos of LBHerons and Snowy Egrets, along with a short video of a dragonfly run-in with a Little Blue here.Monarch Butterflies and native wildflower Seaside Goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens)

We had another wave of migrating Super Monarchs, the third this season however, the wind conditions have kept the butterflies moving and that is why we are not seeing many in our gardens during this year’s migration. Continue to keep on the lookout. Goldenrods are winding down their blooming period but asters, especially New England Asters and Smooth Asters, are still flowering.

Please continue to share what creatures you are seeing in your neighborhoods. Thank you 🙂 This morning I saw a tiny little member of the weasel family, a Short-tailed Weasel, also called an Ermine or a Stout. She was only about six inches in length, with chocolate brown fur and a bright white belly. She was so fast and darted between rocks before I could take a photo, but we did have a few seconds of startled eye to eye contact. Just adorable!

Thinking about Jane Goodall – her beautiful, thoughtful spirit and the extraordinary gift she left, inspiring all to protect our planet.

xxKim

Gombe, Tanzania – Jane Goodall and infant chimpanzee reach out to touch each other’s hands. (National Geographic Creative/ Hugo Van Lawick)

Which Bird is the Little Blue Heron?

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Can you tell which photo is of a Little Blue Heron?

If you thought all three images are Little Blue Herons, you are correct!

Friends often tell me about the “egrets” they are seeing at our local ponds. You would think yes, a small white heron is a Snowy Egret but look more closely.  Snowy Egrets and Little Blue Herons are about the same size but a quick way to differentiate the two is that Snowy Egrets  sport unmistakeable bright cadmium yellow feet whereas the legs and feet of a first hatch year Little Blue Heron are an even yellowish-grayish-greenish. Snowy Egrets also have yellow lores at the base of their bills that the Little Blues lack (see gallery at the bottom of the page).

In the gallery at the top of the page, the white bird is a first hatch year Little Blue; the calico patterned bird is a second year Little Blue transitioning from white to blue plumage; and the last photo is the adult Little Blue Heron with its body feathers a beautiful deep slate blue and neck feathers a rich magenta. Although the adult plumages of both birds are entirely different, the two species are closely related members of the genus Egretta.

 

You can also tell the difference by how the herons forage. Little Blues when feeding at our local ponds hunt in a stealthy manner. They stride slowly through the mud and hold very still, then strike swiftly for the fish, frog, dragonfly, or other insect. Little Blue Herons have another method of foraging called “aerial hunting.” The LBH flies out over the water looking for frogs. It will hover briefly overhead before plunging into the water to grab its prey.

Snowy Egrets appear much more excited when hunting. They animatedly run back and forth, and with their bright yellow feet, stir up the sand and mud to flush out prey. This hunting strategy is called “foot stirring.”

Watch as the Little Blue Heron gets an easy meal when the dragonfly perches on its leg!

A gallery of Snowy Egrets to compare the differences.

 

 

Homegrown National Parks Coming to Cape Ann!

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What are Homegrown National Parks?   HNP is an exciting movement that raises awareness and urgently inspires EVERYONE to address the biodiversity crisis. How can we as individuals and organizations do this? By adding native plants and removing invasives where we live, work, learn, pray, and play.

We all know that wildlife populations are crashing the world over. The statistics are staggering, with approximately one-third of our breeding birds lost since 1970, or about 3 billion birds, and 40 percent of our insects (bird food!) in the past 40 years. HNP is showing people how we can address this crisis, backyard by backyard.

Sunday evening, Doug Tallamy, the esteemed entomologist, author, and co-founder of Homegrown National Parks, presented “The Power of Plants.” The event was hosted by 400 Trees and the Annisquam Village Church, and was followed the next morning by an informal idea-sharing discussion at our newly renovated gorgeous library. The presentation was rich with imagery and case studies of what can be accomplished in our own backyards, from teeny urban lots to suburban homes to substantial acreage. The group discussion was especially thoughtful and interesting, providing a wonderful opportunity to meet people in our community with similar interests, missions, and goals, Many, many thanks to Peter Lawrence and Sara Remsen for organizing the Tallamy talk and discussion.

Visit the Homegrown National Parks website. It is overflowing with super helpful information to get you started on your native plants journey. You can also listen to several of his excellent talks right there on the website. I have been teaching people how to grow pollinator gardens and documenting the wildlife supported by native trees, shrubs, wildflowers, and ground covers for over twenty years now. Not a day goes by where I don’t observe and learn some new, vital and fascinating information about the beautiful ecosystems created in a native plant’s habitat. When you plant native they will come!

Join the Movement Now!

1. Plant Native

2. Remove Invasives

3. Get on the Map

Where Shall We Start?

Images courtesy Doug Tallamy “The Power of Plants”

Identify the most productive plants. How to find native plants keystone species –

Native Plant Finder from the National Wildlife Federation: go to the following website and type in your zip code for an extensive list of highly valuable native trees, shrubs, wildflowers, and ground covers specifically beneficial to wildlife in your region. https://nativeplantfinder.nwf.org/

I was listening to Doug’s talk via Zoom in my office, which is also Charlotte’s art room. Charlotte is illustrating a book she is working on, all about the history of Gloucester’s monsters. It’s very imaginative and even includes mini side bars of illustrations of the eggs unique to each monster, along with the monster’s baby pictures (Nessie is well-represented). She was also enjoying glancing over at all the fascinating caterpillar images in Doug’s slideshow, when she overheard the expression ‘keystone species.’ She commented, “just like oysters are a keystone species for the ocean.” We had been to the Seacoast Science Center a week earlier where she had learned about the importance of keystone species in an ecosystem. I just thought how wonderful for her to connect the two and how much like mental sponges are these beautiful curious-minded children of the up and coming generation. I surely never learned at eight years old what a keystone species is, but how easy it was for her to understand the concept. If for no other reason, our beautiful children, and our children’s children, are why we simply can not leave to them a barren, diversity-less world.

 

WINGED WODERFUL WHIMBRELS!

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For over a week an elusive pair of Whimbrels was foraging along our rocky shores. They were fattening up for the next leg of their journey. About half of the eastern population of Whimbrels is thought to stop next at Deveaux Bank in South Carolina. This special place was only discovered in 2019 when Felicia Sanders, a biologist working for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, happened to witness masses arriving after sunset. You can read more about Whimbrels at Deveaux Bank Here.

Like many, many shorebird species the world over, the Whimbrel population is in decline. More than 50 percent of the population has been lost in the past fifty years. Cape Ann’s many beaches, both public and the more undisturbed locales, offer refueling stations for these winged wonders. Our community is so very blessed to experience a window into their travels and is only made possible because we are providing safe places for the birds to rest and to forage.

Whimbrels are a member of the Curlew family of shorebirds. They are elegant  and large with long, decurved bills, perfect for probing deeply into the sand to extract invertebrates. This is only the third time I have seen Whimbrels on Cape Ann, all three during the autumn migration; once at Good Harbor and twice at Brace Cove.  The birds are returning from their breeding grounds in the subarctic and alpine tundra.

When I was visiting our daughter in Los Angeles this past winter we were delighted to see several Whimbrels foraging along the Central Coast.

Winged Wonders Migration – Yellowlegs Coming Ashore

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We see Yellowlegs at our local waterways during both the spring and summer migration. Yellowlegs are fairly easy to identify when foraging, with their purposeful gait and bright yellow legs however, are these Greater or Lesser Yellowlegs? I think Greater because I heard their penetrating call from overhead  but if you know differently, please write 🙂