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Category Archives: Birds of New England
ECO FILM AWARD! Thank you BFF and Supporters!
Dear PiPl Friends,
I hope you are enjoying these fleeting days of mild weather. Our local and migrating wildlife surely are! As many of you are aware, while developing the Piping Plover film, I have been filming the third documentary in the trilogy (loosely referred to as The Pond Film). Filming is taking place at area freshwater locations; ponds and marshes of every kind at a multiple of Massachusetts sites. Yesterday I was back at Niles Pond and saw a first at the Pond, a migrating Bobolink! He/she surfaced for a brief moment while foraging in the reeds, long enough to capture a few seconds of footage. During the spring and summer, we can see Bobolinks at a number of Greenbelt properties that manage their sites for grassland nesting birds. Bobolinks are one of the longest distance migrating songbirds, traveling about 12,000 miles every year. When migrating, they are usually seen in flocks and hope this lone Bobolink finds his way.
I want to again thank all who attended our premiere at the Boston Film Festival, and to everyone who couldn’t come but have championed the Plovers along the way. If you receive these email updates, you have been a supporter in one way or another and we are so grateful for your help. I am honored to share that we received the Eco Film Award from the Boston Film Festival! We are so appreciative of the tremendous gift provided by Robin Dawson and the BFF team for filmmakers to share their stories with the public. The Boston Film Festival is a stellar organization, in every way, and we are so proud to have been a part of the 40th annual festival. Congratulations to all the films and filmmakers for your beautifully crafted outstanding films!
We had a fantastic houseful and I was beyond delighted that the audience saw both the humor and the vulnerability of our tiny feathered shorebird neighbors. Thank you also to Michelle Akelson and her fantastic team at Rockport Music for sharing the stunning Shalin Liu. And a very special shoutout to Cape Ann’s incredibly dedicated Piping Plover Ambassadors, and an extra, extra shoutout to the Ambassadors who were at the Shalin Liu lending a hand. Thank you Deborah Brown, Jennie Meyer, Jill Ortiz, Paula Niziak, Barbara Boudreau, Kim Bouris, and Sandy Barry.
More good news to share for the film. We have been accepted to two festivals in Ontario, one headquartered in Toronto, and the other Brooklin. I have also applied to several additional festivals in eastern Canada as Plovers breed along the coasts of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, PEIsland, New Brunswick, the Magdalen Islands of Quebec, and on both the US and Canadian sides of the Great Lakes. I was so hoping there would be interest in our documentary from our PiPl Friends in Canada and there very definitely is!
We are currently raising funds to bring The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay to public television. If you know of an individual, organization, business, or foundation that may have a particular interest in Massachusetts, wildlife, birds, conservation, eco/environmental films, and would like to be an underwriter, please let me know. In our funding presentation deck, we provide a great deal of information showing how it works and the extensive benefits to the underwriter.
And please write and let me know of any interesting and unusual wildlife sightings you encounter during this beautiful fall migration.
Happy Sunday!
Warmest wishes,
Kim
Our Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay Boston Film Festival Premiere is Sold Out!
My sincerest thanks to all who are planning to attend the premiere tonight. It’s my greatest hope that you enjoy and are inspired by our documentary. Thank you to Robin Dawson and the outstanding Boston Film Festival team and to Michelle Alekson and the equally outstanding Rockport Music crew. Thank you also to Gail McCarthy and Andrea Holbrook for the awesome press and to Dan Driscoll from CapeAnn MA and Rockport Stuff Facebook pages for helping to get the word out.
With love, gratitude, and the deepest appreciation for your support.
Thank you,
xoKim
The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay Easter Eggs
There are a bunch of eggs in our Plover film. Not only Plover eggs, but Easter eggs. Some are more obvious than others. I hope you have fun finding them!
A characteristic behavior of many male Plovers when they first arrive to a potential breeding site is called “flight display.” The birds circle around and around a location, piping loudly. A male showing flight display behavior will do this for several days, and even longer. Hopefully, he will eventually attract the attention of a female. The above clip is an obvious Easter egg 🙂
Thank you to everyone who is planning to attend. We are so very much looking forward to seeing you!
Check out this BRAND NEW and Utterly Charming, Fun, and Funny Trailer for The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay Premiere!
We are sooo delighted with the trailer for the Boston Film Festival for our film’s premiere. Thank you Ava and the Boston Film Festival!
Trailer edited by Ava Boudreau, created for the Boston Film Festival 2024. To contact Ava through Instagram, please go to: @avaboo_writing.
Music: Happy Days by Simon Fowler from Upbeat
To reserve your ticket, got to https://rockportmusic.org/boston-film-festival/.
We hope to see you there! <3
Thank You Gail McCarthy and the Gloucester Daily Times!
Many, many, thanks to Gail McCarthy and Editor Andrea Holbrook for the very much appreciated write-up about the Boston Film Festival in today’s Gloucester Daily Times. Extra special shout out and thanks for featuring The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay!
See full article HERE: https://www.gloucestertimes.com/news/40th-boston-film-festival-closes-with-premiere-in-rockport/article_9a789c52-6edf-11ef-abc0-47c012851a0d.html
To reserve your tickets for The Piping Plovers of moonlight Bay, please go here.
Reminder to Reserve Tickets at the Shalin Liu for The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay Documentary Premiere!
Dear Friends,
I hope you are enjoying these wonderfully warm last days of summer. I can see the critters sure are! Herons, butterflies, frogs, dragonflies, beavers, bees, hawks, Kingfishers, (even a Merlin!); our ponds, meadows, and shores are teeming with wildlife preparing for winter.
I have been super busy fundraising and organizing deliverables for festivals and apologize for not sharing some of the incredible stories taking place right here in our own backyards. As soon as I get further along in all, I’ll share the images and footage. Some of the most fascinating moments have been watching a beaver. I think I posted on my website a video of a beaver rubbing his belly. A few days later, I observed him/her as he exfoliated (for lack of a better word) his face. First he dove down and retrieved a water lily tuber, which is an especially favorite beaver food at this time of year. After eating half, he then used the tuber to scrub the left side of his face. I thought perhaps this was an anomaly. Five minutes later he dove down, retrieved a second tuber, agan eating half. Then he scrubbed the right side of his face with the tuber. It was charming and funny and amazing to see and to film. Coming soon 🙂
Please be sure to reserve your seats at the Shalin Liu for the premiere of our documentary, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay. Here is the link: https://rockportmusic.org/boston-film-festival/ It’s a truly heartwarming story and I think Massachusetts residents especially will be delighted with the film. Also, we are having a Q and A following the screening. Tickets are free but you do need to reserve in advance. That the tickets are free is a wonderfully generous gift to our community from the Boston Film Festival and Rockport Music. The 23rd is a Monday and 5:15pm is early enough in the evening for kids to see on a school night. Please bring your family and friends. We would love to see you there!
Warmest wishes,
xxKim
From teeny hatchlings to the miracle of fledging on crowded urban beaches, come celebrate the beautiful life story of the Piping Plover with us!
Local WOLRD PREMIERE of The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay!
Hello PiPl Friends!
I have the best news to share with you. Our documentary, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay, has been accepted to the world-renowned Boston Film Festival. Even more exciting, we are having the live screening premiere locally at the Shalin Liu! The event is presented by the Boston Film Festival and Rockport Music.
The tickets are free, which is a wonderfully generous gift to our community from the BFF and Rockport Music. Please save the date, Monday, September 23rd, at 5:15pm, and make your reservations today! Here is the link to reserve seats: https://tickets.rockportmusic.org/9769/9770
The Boston Film Festival is celebrating 40 years with a record six premieres, including three feature films and three documentaries. Please find the stellar line-up of films and screening schedule here: https://bostonfilmfestival.org/schedule-and-tickets/
Each and every friend receiving this email note has contributed in some way or another to helping launch our documentary, whether a friend to the Plovers on the beach, a beloved Ambassador, an advocate, a well-wisher, or contributed financially with a generous donation. We are continuing fundraising in our efforts to launch the film on public television, part two of the fundraiser, so to speak however, launching our documentary at film festivals is a huge milestone and we are so appreciative of everyone’s generosity. My most heartfelt thanks and deepest appreciation for your caring kindness for the Plovers.
I hope to see you at the premiere!
Warmest wishes,
xxKim
To become an underwriter on public television for The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay, please contact the director at kimsmith.designs1@gmail.com or visit our online fundraiser here.
Face Plant!
We Plover ambassadors see a great many amazing-funny-heartwarming moments. When the hatchlings are first learning to navigate the beach there are innumerable stumbles, face plants at the fore. It’s only funny because the chicks pick themselves right back up and carry on. In this scene, Dad protectively pulled the little one back in and tucked him under his wing.
Our forthcoming documentary, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay, features the tender story of a blended family of Plovers. Stay tuned for an exciting upcoming announcement!
Exciting News from Plover Study
Dear PiPl Friends!
I just had to share this study with all of you as many of us who have been looking after Plovers may relate to the following. This past week I attended the annual Northeast Coastal Waterbird Cooperators meeting, an event that brings together all the different conservation groups and individuals that monitor Piping Plovers, Least Terns, Roseate Terns, and American Oystercatchers from across New England and the mid-Atlantic. This outstanding meeting, with many moving parts, is organized by Carolyn Mostello, the Massachusetts Coastal Waterbird Biologist. I eagerly look forward to the meeting every year and it is so uplifting to be with such an incredible group of caring conservation minded organizations and individuals.
The morning hours may sound a little wonky, where all the different states and regions share data on pairs and fledged chicks for the different species, but I love it and find it very interesting to learn how individual beaches are faring and why and why not numbers are up (or down as is sometimes the case). Next on the agenda is Strange and Unusual, which is always engaging (our Good Harbor Beach Plovers have been featured several times!).The after lunch part of the meeting is especially interesting because people share reports and updates on shorebird studies that they are conducting throughout the regions. I was very happy to learn about several studies being conducted to determine how wind farms will impact migrating shorebirds and hope as much at least is being done for whales, dolphins, and other sea creatures.
Truly fascinating is an ongoing study that is taking place at Fire Island, Long Island. The research is about Piping Plover dispersal, with ten plus years of data collected. 600 individual banded Plovers were monitored. All of us Plover ambassadors know that adult Plovers show tremendous fidelity to nesting sites; for example, at Good Harbor Beach our Super Mom and Dad have nested within several feet of their previous year’s nest for the past nine years. Over the years we had learned that the offspring don’t generally return to the nesting site and it was assumed they traveled far and wide. This movement is referred to as “natal dispersal.” Well, this new study may very well prove otherwise. Roughly 85 percent of offspring at Fire Island return to the same area, the median distance is 5.5 km, and the closest returning offspring was only 5.1 meters. What does this mean? I think Good Harbor Beach has become populated with Super Mom and Super Dad’s offspring! We have all often wondered if the little chicks from one year are returning as adults the following year. For the most part, Plovers are not banded in Massachusetts; we have no way of knowing precisely but it sure is exciting to think that we have this wonderful little population of Super Mom and Super Dad’s extended family returning annually to GHB! Something to think about 🙂
Other wonderful news is that our documentary, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay, was awarded Best Family Friendly Film by Cine Paris Film Festival. For local friends, the Newburyport Film Festival is running September 20th through the 22nd and as soon as we have a screening date, I will let you know, and hope you can come!
Happy August,
xxKim
P.S. We have Plover Lover T-shirts at Alexandra’s Bread (all profits go towards the film) and please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to our online fundraiser to bring The PiPls of Moonlight Bay to public television. LINK HERE We are also hoping to connect with possible underwriters – foundations, local businesses, corporations, and individuals. Please let us know of your thoughts and possible leads. Thank you!
Drones and Sensitive Bird Nesting Areas
The following is a question I have been asked with increasing frequency, “should drone operators fly their drones over heron rookeries and other sensitive bird nesting areas?”
One of several unfortunate situations that I have witnessed while observing herons was watching a Great Blue Heron desperately try to escape a drone operator that was harassing it. As the drone operator tried to get close to the bird, the GBHeron flew from one treetop to the next, back and forth across the parking lot at the Lighthouse. Finally, the Heron left the area entirely. Great Blue Herons love to forage there in the marsh and the drone was clearly preventing it from feeding.
In the case of nesting shorebirds and herons, hovering drones are even more traumatic because as much as the parent bird would like to escape the drone, protectively, the bird also does not want to leave its eggs and nestlings. One of the most troubling situations we Plover keepers have to contend with is drone operators flying over nesting shorebirds. It is illegal and considered harassment under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to operate a drone over breeding areas. However, people are either unaware, feign ignorance, or even worse, are aware and simply don’t care. Countless times we have come onto our shifts to find all the birds in the area in complete meltdown mode. At first you may not see the drone and wonder what on earth is making the birds respond in such an extraordinary manner. And then there it is; whether flying high over head or close to the ground, the birds are in utter panic. Because they think the drone is a predator that has come to eat their eggs, hatchlings, or chicks. Oftentimes, the heron or shorebird will try to distract the drone, leaving the nest unattended and in even graver danger from predators.
There is accumulating evidence that the mere presence of drones causes direct harm to birds. The unfamiliarity and noise interrupts courtship, mating, and feeding. Entire tern and heron colonies have abandoned their nests due to drone disturbances.
Least Tern and two chicks
Over millennia, nesting birds evolved with the constant threat of avian predators, including hawks, falcons, crows, gulls, and eagles. They have not adapted to understand that a drone is not a predator, no matter how much the drone operator protests that the birds are unbothered by the drone and have become used to its presence.
It is imperative for the safety of the birds that they have a healthy fear of drones. The last thing we want are nestlings thinking that hovering airborne shapes are nothing to be afraid of.
In our collective experiences monitoring the Plovers, we come across unethical behavior not only on the part of drone operators but also by fellow wildlife enthusiasts. We have seen photographers mashed up against the symbolically roped off areas, despite massively long telephoto lens, parking themselves for hours on end, and also following the birds relentlessly up and down the beach, despite the bird’s clear signals it is trying to get away and/or tend to its chicks. Early on in the pursuit of my dream to document wildlife, I was part of crowds that photographed owls. Observing how sensitive are owls, I no longer film owls in known locations. If I come across an owl or rare bird when out filming, I take a few photos and footage and go on my way. Crowds and hovering persons are also the reason why I no longer post specific locales and keep location information general.
The American Oystercatcher is a relatively new-to-our-region and wonderful species of shorebird that has been trying to nest in the North of Boston area over the past several years. Tragically, word got out this past spring on one of the birding alert websites telling folks exactly where to look for the pair and their nest. The crowds of photographers was untenable for the nesting parents. With all the unwanted attention, the Oystercatchers became very confused and lost their first nest, where one of the chicks had already hatched! The pair re-nested. Again, word got out, the nesting area was again inundated with photographers and the Oystercatchers abandoned their second nest.
American Oystercatchers, New Jersey
To ethically document wildlife requires thought and is also a tremendous responsibility. We can all do our part to protect the beautiful creatures in our midst by being mindful and sensing their boundaries, especially, especially during the time of year when they are breeding.
Thank you for taking the time to read this information. I hope your question is answered, and why.
Just some of the birds negatively impacted by drones during the breeding season –
Great Blue Herons courting
Juvenile Glossy ibis
Missing Our Little Plover Friends
One of my favorite scenes from the past summer’s nesting season is this male Plover building a nest scrape.
The male lays on his breast, kicking sand backward to dig out a series of shallow scrapes. He’ll try to impress his mate by decorating their scrapes, tossing in tiny bits of seashells, pebbles, dried seaweed, whatever is readily available. In this case it was sticks, which was a first time for me seeing ‘stick decor.’ This little fellow and his mate valiantly tried numerous times to become established.
Sadly, while the Plover pair were attempting to nest, there were numerous disturbances from excessive drinking and partying on the beach, which leads to urinating in the their roped off areas. Not one, but two pairs, eventually gave up. Plovers giving up doesn’t happen very often. When they abandon their nests it points to one reason and one reason only. Disturbances. Happily though, our Super Mom and Super Dad were able to get an early start and successfully fledged two chicks.
Next year we have to work harder to find alternatives to massive underage drinking parties at Good Harbor Beach. The town of Dennis on Cape Cod has been experiencing similarly increasingly large and chaotic crowds and have taken action to reduce the underage drinking parties. Their solutions may not be our solutions, but I think we can do better to curtail the underage drinking at Good Harbor Beach. Not only will it help keep the teens safer and protect the Plovers, we won’t be stuck cleaning up the massive amounts of trash left behind that pollutes both our beach and dunes.
Good Harbor Beach after an underage drinking party
Killdeer Chicks – Four more Plover Beach Babies Getting Ready to Spread Their Wings
Adorably long-legged Killdeer Plover fledgling, one of four Killdeer chicks that hatched at a Cape Ann beach this summer
One of the shorebirds often confused with Piping Plovers are Killdeers, which are another type of Plover that nests on beaches. Killdeers not only nest on beaches, they breed at a wide variety of habitats including grasslands and dunes. They have even been known to nest on rooftops, golf courses, and parking lots! If you see a Piping Plover and Killdeer near to each other, it’s easy to see the difference. Killdeers are noticeably larger and their mantle (upper back) feathers are chocolatey shades of brown, not the soft tan of the Piping Plovers.
One way to tell whether Killdeer or Piping Plover when they are not side-by-side is to look at the collar bands. Piping Plovers have one; Killdeers have two– a wide band that encircles the neck and a shorter band across the upper front part of its chest. If you are close enough to see the eyes, the Killdeer’s pupil is black surrounded by a red iris , while both the iris and pupil of the PiPl is black. The Killdeers legs are pinkish gray, the Piping Plovers legs are orange. There are many other differences but this will get you started when comparing the two.
Killdeer adult and three chicks – note the double black bands, pinkish legs, red iris, and solid black bill.
Piping Plover adult (Super Mom) with singe collar band, light gray-tan mantle, black-tipped orange beak, and jet black eyes
Killdeer chick
Piping Plover chick
Listen to the Killdeer parents calling to the fledglings. Killdeers are thought to be named for their distinctive vocalizations. Kill-dee, kill-dee eventually became Killdeer. I think I prefer Killdee 🙂
Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay – the sweetest story around!
Good Morning PiPl Friends!
We have wonderfully joyful news to share about our forthcoming film, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay. I have started submitting to film festivals and we have already been accepted to three, notably for our community, the local upcoming Newburyport Film Festival!
Equally as exciting is that our film is in consideration for public television. Bringing the documentary to public television requires round two of fundraising. We are looking for Piping Plover Angel Sponsors and this is where your help is needed. We are hoping to connect with environmentally and wildlife conscious individuals, organizations, and corporations to sponsor our film. If you have any suggestions of an organization or individual that may be interested in underwriting The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay, please contact me at kimsmithdesigns@hotmail.com. Our non-profit fiscal partner is Filmmakers Collaborative, which is a 501(c)(3). An individual’s or organization’s gift is tax deductible.
Underwriting a program on PBS provides an incredibly unique and trusted opportunity for promoting your organization. We have up to 60 seconds of promotional spots, which means over the three year period that the film airs on PBS, each and every time the film is played, at both the beginning and end of the film, your promotion will air. Based on the national success of Beauty on the Wing, we are confident The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay will also play to millions of households across the country. The carriage results for Beauty on the Wing are well-documented. I am happy to provide all the information needed, including donor levels, budget, and more details about promoting your organization.
We are also planning a fundraising screening event! More about that in an upcoming post. And, if so inclined, here is a link to our on-line fundraiser. All fundraising from this point forward goes towards bringing the life story of the Piping Plover to the wide world of public television.
I would like to give a huge thank you to the Cape Ann Garden Club and to Suki Augusti for the recent very generous contributions to our film. Their contributions are going straight away toward our public television fundraiser. We are so appreciative for all the kind contributions from our community.
With gratitude to the following PiPl friends for their kind contributions – Lauren Mercadante (New Hampshire), Sally Jackson (Gloucester), Cape Ann Garden Club, Brace Cove Foundation (Gloucester), JH Foundation/Fifth Third Bank (Ohio), Jane Alexander (New York), Janis and John Bell (Gloucester), Jennie Meyer (Gloucester), Alice and David Gardner (Beverly), JoeAnn Hart (Gloucester), Kim Tieger (Manchester), Joanne Hurd (Gloucester), Holly Niperus (Phoenix), Bill Girolamo (Melrose), Claudia Bermudez (Gloucester), Paula and Alexa Niziak (Rockport), Todd Pover (Springfield), Cynthia Dunn (Gloucester), Nancy Mattern (Albuquerque), Marion Frost (Ipswich), Cecile Christianson (Peabody), Sally Jackson (Gloucester), Donna Poirier Connerty (Gloucester), Mary Rhinelander (Gloucester), Jane Hazzard (Georgetown), Duncan Holloman (Gloucester), Karen Blandino (Rockport), Duncan Todd (Lexington), Sue Winslow (Gloucester), Amy Hauck-Kalti (Ohio), JoAnn Souza (Newburyport), Karen Thompson (San Francisco), Carolyn Mostello (Rhode Island), Susan Pollack (Gloucester), Peggy O’Malley (Gloucester), Hilda Santos (Gloucester), Maggie Debbie (Gloucester), Sandy Barry (Gloucester), The Massachusetts Daughters of the American Revolution, Mary Keys (Madeira, Ohio), Barbara Boudreau (Gloucester), Suki Augusti, Jonathan and Sally Golding (Gloucester), and my sweet husband Tom 🙂
* * *
Although our film has been “locked” for a number of weeks, and will soon be playing at festivals, I have spent the past several months continuing to document Plovers nesting in our region. This summer was exceptionally magnificent at one very special location. Three pairs nested, with the nests situated in a row, across a very short expanse. The dynamics between the three pairs was fascinating and at times I held my breath hoping no one would be severely injured in the Plover rumbles that took place on an almost daily basis. The truly exceptional news is that Pair One laid three eggs and three chicks fledged, Pair Two laid four eggs and four chicks fledged, and Pair Three laid three eggs and three chicks are well on their way to full fledgedom. It has been a remarkable experience documenting these three families.
The pair whose chicks are nearly fully fledged astounded me the most. In nine years of filming and documenting Plovers, I have never seen a nest so completely and utterly exposed, smack dab in the middle of a busy urban beach. Oftentimes, a nest will be tucked behind a clump of beach grass or Sea Rocket, a piece of driftwood, or a seashell; I have even filmed garbage used as camouflage. While incubating the eggs, the parents often toss in dried beach grass, tiny stones, and bits of broken seashells, but this nest contained none of that. Just three little eggs in the bare sand.
Every time I checked on Pair Three’s nest, there was either Mom or Dad flattened in the sand and hardly noticeable. Incredibly, this is a location that has been severely plagued with predation by Crows. Thankfully, the Crows were not onto this little nest, nor the other two nests.
Hours old hatchlings from the most vulnerable of locations- 
Three Fat Little Kingbirds and Their Damselfly Breakfast
Early one morning this past week I watched as a pair of Eastern Kingbird parents fed nonstop their fat little fledglings. No sooner was a damselfly delivered to one of the the three, the other two clamored for their turn. No rest for the weary!
The Eastern Kingbird’s diet consists of a wide variety of insects including damselflies, butterflies, moths, cicadas, ticks, spiders, and millipedes Eastern Kingbirds often nab their prey mid-air. During the winter months when there are fewer insects, they will often consume fruits and berries.
The Eastern Kingbird family was feeding in the exact same location that I saw a pair of Kingbirds courting and singing to each other during the spring months. I can’t help but think it is the same pair.
Currently on the menu
Wiggly Worms for Breakfast and Other Wonderments
So many wonderful wildlife happenings at this time of year! Caterpillars hatching and growing, songbird and shorebird fledglings learning to forage and to fly, young herons studying the ways of fish and frogs, early migrants beginning their southward journey – I have a huge backlog of wildlife stories/photos/footage to share from pond and sea and will start with this one –
I believe this may be our ‘Rainbow’ House Finch from last autumn. Notice he sports not only red feathers, but also yellow and orange. Read more here about the reasons for the yellow and orange pigments here: https://kimsmithdesigns.com/2023/11/20/yellow-orange-rainbow-house-finch/
SPROUTS!
I hope you can get a sense of scale and vulnerability of these tiniest of beach babies. They are navigating the beach within hours after hatching and even the most aware may inadvertently collide. Please give them lots of space <3
The chicks in the first batch of photos are all less than a week old. The above chick is about three weeks old. My how they grow so quickly (the Sea Rocket, too)!
Super Mom Taking Care of Business!
Good Morning PiPl Friends,
I hope you are managing to stay cool wherever you live. Looking at the glass half full, several plusses to this very heated summer are that the butterflies of summer thrive in the warmth (as long as there are flowers to nectar from), and we are seeing many shorebird chicks have already fledged and departed their ‘home bases.’ The fledglings may either be getting an early start migrating or are staging at locations nearby. The maiden voyage of the fledglings is the most dangerous and we wish them all safe travels.
Earlier in the season, I filmed a fascinating sequence. As I was coming onto the beach, from some distance, I could see Super Mom had something much larger than usual in her beak. I was so far away I couldn’t tell what it was but she was shaking it like mad. I began filming and soon realized it was an eggshell. She was trying with all her mini might to break the shell into smaller bits. She managed to somewhat, then put the eggshell in her mouth and flew off with it, discarding the eggshell some distance away at the flats.
We know shorebirds remove the eggshells from the nest, but I had never seen a Plover try to smash it up. Several weeks later, I knew what to look for and saw a second Plover at another location do the same thing. Eggshells left in the nest signal to crows and gulls a hatchling meal and Plovers are very diligent about removing the shells, often within seconds of a chick hatching.
Our Super Mom is such a great Mom. All Plover families are not equal in parenting skills. Some pairs are just plain new at the job, some never really develop good communication with their chicks, and others appear to let their chicks wander too far away. But not our Super Mom and Super Dad; this is their ninth year nesting at GHB and they are truly exceptional parents.
Happy Summer!
xxKim
Carolina Wren- Our New House Guests!
We are sooooo delighted to have a pair of Carolina Wrens nesting on our porch!
I believe this is the pair’s second brood. While we watched in June as they fed their lively and very hungry fledglings, they were rebuilding a nest left over from the House Finches.
Re-building is not exactly accurate. After our resident House Finch pair fledges their first brood, my husband usually takes down the remains and cleans up the corner in the eaves. He didn’t do that this year after the Finches fledged. The Carolina Wrens built their nest right on top of the Finch nest. It’s very deep and you can’t see the nesting bird or the eggs unless you look at it from above. Tom stood on a ladder with his phone camera held way over head to try to get an egg count. There appear to be three, possibly four eggs.
We have Carolina Wrens all year round in our garden but this is the first year they have built a nest on our porch. So excited for babies!!
The Good Harbor Beach Piping Plovers July Update
Dear Piping Plover Friends,
I hope you had an enjoyable extended Fourth of July weekend! Like many of us, I feel we who live on Cape Ann are so very blessed, not only for our fantastic community sharing in celebrations like St. Peter’s Fiesta and Independence Day, but also for the natural beauty that surrounds us, which in turn attracts a bevy of beautiful wild creatures to our shores and wild spaces.
Super Mom and Dad arrived from their wintering grounds in early spring
Nine years ago a pair of Piping Plovers began calling Good Harbor Beach home. There is so much good that this intrepid little duo has brought to our community. People have come together to help protect the birds and the community has become more educated about nesting shorebirds. Equally as exciting is the growing awareness of the connection between conserving habitats and wildlife. For decades our dunes have been ravished by storms and a lack of basic protections. Because a narrow corridor that runs the length of the beach was roped off for Plovers, it has largely kept people from recreating close to the dune’s edge. Creating this corridor has allowed beach vegetation to take hold. The areas of the beach that have been consistently roped off for the past eight years are clearly the healthiest.
A vital new habitat has developed in the area of the dunes that has been roped off consistently for eight years.
The above area has only this year begun to be roped off. Notice how ravaged is the edge of the dune. That is what the edge of the dunes looked like along the length of the entire beach prior to creating protective corridors. You can see that one of the first plants to begin to take hold is Sea Rocket. The same exact sequence of revegetation happened in the area depicted in the first photo – Sea Rocket, followed by beach grass.
It is one of our greatest hopes that the City will continue to leave the roping in place year round. There is a tiny, and fortunately, diminishing, minority of sour anti-Plover/anti-conservation types however, no matter how one feels about making space for Plovers, it is undeniable that by creating protective corridors, the dunes have never looked as lush and as healthy as they do today. I urge you to go and see for yourself!
Additionally, roping off the areas for the Plovers has had zero economic impact on beach attendance. As a matter of fact, since the Blinkay system was implemented, beach revenue has gone up in the past few years.
We have a wonderfully dedicated crew of Ambassadors hourly monitoring the Plovers and educating beachgoers about the presence of Plovers. I’d like to give a heartfelt thanks to Deborah Brown, Jennie Meyer, Jill Ortiz, Paula and Alexa Niziak, Barbara Boudreau, and our newest Ambassadors, Kim Bouris and Sandy Barry. If you see them around town, please thank them for their hours and hours of dedication to our teeniest neighbors.
Last year, the City hired Mass Audubon to oversee Plover monitoring. The Audubon team is phenomenal -so well-educated, enthusiastic, conscientious, and kind. I can’t say enough good things about Lyra Brennan, Malarie Markowitz, and the entire Audubon crew! The Gloucester DPW has been a tremendous partner as well. The DPW did an outstanding job installing the roped off corridor last spring, not once, but twice, as the first installation was destroyed by a late season storm. We are so fortunate to all be working together for Plover protections, from sunup to sunrise!
Chrisotpher Cefalo, retired USMC, Good Harbor Beach
I was remiss when I originally published this post becauseI failed to mention Christopher Cefalo. In every kind of weather, daily he collects trash from the beach; some days there is more than others and I have seen him walk away with several bagfuls. He cleans up everything, large and small however, he specifically focuses on bits of plastics, the tiny pieces that get caught in the wrack that is especially harmful to wildlife. Chris loves Good Harbor Beach and it is largely because of his dedication that the beach looks well cared for when beachgoers begin arriving after 9am. He also keeps an eye out for the Plovers!
Gloucester’s DW Crew Mike Tarantino and Tyler Curtis
Not all monitoring of Plovers is successful (I’ll write more about that in a future post); we did want to share though the joyful news that our Super Mom and Super Dad have fledged two healthy chubby little chicks. We are so proud of Mom and Dad. No matter what curveballs life throws their way, the pair continue to be phenomenal parents!
From a nest of four eggs, one chick did not survive the very first night. A second chick was lost about a week later. The two remaining chicks thrived and grew to fly. We have lots of wonderful stories to share about their adventures 🙂
The maiden voyage of the Plovers is the most dangerous. We wish our tiny tender fledglings safe travels.
I’ll be posting more about Plovers in the coming weeks. Our Plover documentary is progressing beautifully (updates about that soon,) and I am dropping off new Plover tees and stickers this week at Alexandra’s Bread.
Warmest wishes,
Kim
One-day-old Piping Plover Chicks
Great Blue Heron Flight Through the Treetops
With a wingspan of five and a half to six and a half feet, the Great Blue Heron is an extraordinarily fascinating creature to observe in flight.
Eastern Kingbird
Listen to the distinct song of a pair of beautiful Eastern Kingbirds calling back and forth.
Warblers and Whatnots – A Handy Guide to Identifying Backyard Warbling Songsters
May is the magical month for migration through Massachusetts (along with many other states and regions) and this year seems extra magnificent. The past several weeks have brought an abundance of exquisite creatures passing through, on their way to northern breeding grounds, along with familiar favorites arriving here to breed in our backyards, local woods, ponds, and fields.
I created this short video for all of we who are “warbler challenged,” that is, struggle to identify these tiny choristers warbling and darting through the treetops. Each spring and autumn migrations I turn my camera’s eye to try to capture what charmer is flitting about in hopes of capturing even a fleeting moment, deciding to try to id when I return home and can have a longer look.
The clips that were chosen are meant to show the birds from all angles – belly, butt, front view, side view, wings in flight, and male and female when captured. The warblers/kinglets/vireos are organized by color to better help make side-by-side comparisons, i.e. all the yellow together, etc. I’ve done my best to give the proper name and will eventually add the audio recordings.
A few notes – a recent tip I learned for discerning whether a Palm Warbler or Yellow-rumped Warbler: The PW has yellow feathers under it’s tail, while the YRWarbler has a patch of yellow on top of it’s tail. Another distinguishing characteristic of the Palm Warbler is that it continually wags it’s tail and you can see the tail wag in the PW clips. The first shot of the Magnolia Warbler, the feathers are so strongly orange -hued I wasn’t sure what I was looking. The second shot shows the more characteristic yellow.
To my songbird friends, please write and let me know if I have made an error; this is a work in progress and we can change anything 🙂
The last clip is a mystery bird, possibly a female Blackburnian Warbler??
How to tell the Difference Between a Male and Female Hummingbird
This past week we have had a mini entourage of three male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds vying for the affections of one female. We think the boys have moved on but she has stayed. This is not unusual behavior. If she mated with one, which I think I saw but it was so fast I am not really certain, she will then build a nest and raise the youngsters all on her own.
In one clip, the hummingbird is cleaning it’s bill, in another, the female is going pooh. As you may or may not know, the male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are easy to spot as they have the red gorget (pronounced GOR-jit) throat feathers. When light hits the iridescent feathers, the gorget lights up a brilliant red, otherwise, the gorget looks like a deep brown throat patch. The female’s throat is the same color as her breast feathers. You can see the female at 1:05. All the other clips are of the boys.
Beautiful, Beautiful Orioles and Don’t Forget to Set Out Orange Halves!
Currently in our garden and fields we are seeing Baltimore Orioles, Orchard Orioles, and new to my eyes, an immature male Orchard Oriole that has not yet grown into his adult plumage.
Baltimore Orioles finding nectar and insects in the crabapple trees. Love watching them hang every which way to poke at the blossoms.
Immature Male Orchard Oriole
Orchard Oriole
Baltimore Orioles (and Catbird) in our garden