We are back into the very hot and humid summer weather that keeps reminding us about global warming. Several days in the 90’s and humidity nearing the 70’s are hard on all of us, including the birds. Please be sure that you continue to provide fresh water for the birds, changing the water in bird baths daily, or as necessary, during these hot spells.
Also be sure to change your hummingbird nectar more frequently during these very hot days. You know how that bottle of water that has been sitting in your hot car for a few hours tastes, so just think what those little hummers must be tasting! The sugar-water will ferment very quickly with hotter temperatures, and the hummingbirds will avoid your feeders completely. They will need to expend more energy to search for fresher food sources.
The same is true of your jelly feeders. Keeping the grape jelly fresh will keep those orioles visiting with their families. We still have a few young orioles (and catbirds) coming to our jelly. They finally figured out how to feed themselves at the jelly dish. We have also seen a few family groups of orioles on Plum Island, so orioles are still around, fueling up for an early departure for their wintering grounds in Central and South America.
Keeping all your seed and suet feeders filled will also help the rest of the birds by continuing to offer them a local food source and, thus, they won’t need to forage as far for food during these hot days. So many customers have told me about all the woodpeckers that are visiting their suet, so you will want to keep the no-melt type suet out for them. Catbirds, chickadees and titmice are also visiting our suet as many birds will feed the palatable food to their recently fledged young. Keeping those birds happy will keep you entertained as you watch them from your air-conditioned home.
Though we are in the deep heat of summer, it is hard to believe that the fall migration has already begun. Numbers of shorebirds are starting to arrive as they move through from their breeding grounds in northern Canada, stopping to feed on the mudflats, beaches and pools that our area has to offer. Low tide brings sandpipers and plovers to the exposed Joppa Flats in Newburyport Harbor, while hide tide forces them to forage the edges of fresh ponds or the salt water pools of Plum Island and the Great Marsh.
Small numbers of greater and lesser yellowlegs have arrived along with short-billed dowitchers and a few stilt sandpipers. Larger numbers of small “peeps” dot the mud flats and shallow pools already. These smallest of shorebirds are comprised mostly of least and semipalmated sandpipers with some semipalmated plovers mixed in.
Sanderlings and plovers feed along the tide wrack line on our beaches, as will an occasional ruddy turnstone. Five turnstones landed on Emerson Rocks as we watched from Sandy Point this week. Common and least terns were feeding their young and a few piping plovers were also feeding near the water’s edge. A larger Caspian tern was seen in Newburyport Harbor this week and we keep watching for arctic, Forster’s, and black terns that will be migrating though our area soon.
Less common shorebirds have already appeared in our area. We have seen a couple of flocks of whimbrels migrating by on Plum Island. One group landed on Emerson Rocks and on the beach off Lot 7. Another flock of whimbrels was seen flying past the tower on the Hellcat dike on another day. These large shorebirds with striped heads and long, decurved bills have a loud alarm call that carries far, so these birds are often heard before being seen.
With any migration, a very rare bird can sometimes appear. A rare roseate spoonbill has been seen way up Cutler in down east Maine this week! Not a shorebird per se, but a tall, pink waterbird that is usually seen in Florida. This was just the second record for Maine. The first was back in 2018. A roseate spoonbill was also been seen in Gorham, New Hampshire, in 2021, but none have been recorded in Massachusetts – at least not yet.
Watching the shorebirds migrate through the area is always a thrill. There are different birds in different numbers every time we go to watch. Though we are often competing with the beach crowds, our real competition are those pesky greenhead flies, mosquitoes, no-see-ums! The greenheads seem to be fewer the past few days, and the summer breezes off the water help keep the biting insects at bay. And spending time near the cooler ocean breezes to watch shorebirds is certainly welcome on these hot summer days!
Steve Grinley is the owner of Bird Watcher’s Supply and Gift in the Port Plaza, Newburyport. Email him at Birdwsg@comcast.net. On the web: www.birdwatcherssupplyandgifts.com.