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Gregarious Sandpipers

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Biologists often describe species that live in flocks, often flocks of mixed species, as "gregarious". I always rather liked this as I too have often been described as "gregarious". And that's true, of the many about this pandemic that are unpleasant, I think the thing I miss most the daily interaction between myself and my network of friends and acquaintances. A flock of various species gethered together. Note particularly the individual in the upper left. Some discussion on FB "what's this bird" page. Is it another semipalmated plover or something different. As I have noted elsewhere, this is the longest sustained time I have in Kittery Point, and I am seeing patterns in migration I haven't noticed before. Early in the summer there was a concerning lack of sandpipers on the beach. A check of eBird showed that this was completely normal. The Killdeer have been here since early June, then in the past month, the sandpipers and waders h...
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Bird Notes 072220 (Killdeer, Semi Palmated Plovers, Sanderlings)

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While I have spent a fair amount of time up here over the years, this is the longest continuous stretch ever, certainly as an adult, certainly as a birder. Generally the best time to vacation up here is August-September, green heads are gone, water warms up, and after labor day there's still a few weeks of tourist free summer to enjoy.  What I have noticed is how much variation there is in the Bird population. At first I was a little concerned, with climate change and disappearing bird population happening I admit I feared the worse, but what I was seeing was simply the ebb and flow of migrations over different times than I was used to. First thing I noticed was the lack of Snowy Egrets. I've seen only one or two individuals so far this summer. Here's one on upper Chauncey Creek. What about Sandpipers ? There are always sandpipers ! Except they're not. Checking eBird shows that they turn up just about now. Just like clockwork, I saw the first small flock last last we...
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Our Story so far...(a bit of context)

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Our Story so far... In late April my wife Mary and I packed up the dog (Dora) and the cats (Sinbad and the Duke) and our place in Cambridge MA to take up residence in the family summer place (or dacha) on the south coast of Maine. This is where our story has been taking place and will for a while longer. How much longer ? Hard to say. How did we get here in the first place ? Read on... My Grandmother, Isabelle Strong, was best friends at Miss Hall's school (class of 1908) with a young woman named Rosamond Thaxter, Aunt Rozzie to us kids, who lived on Cutts Island in Kittery Point Maine. Granny Strong would take the Boston and Maine Railroad from Chelmsford MA to Portsmouth NH and then the Atlantic Shore Trolley out to Kittery Point to visit Rozzie. In her book "Aunt Rozzie Remembers", Aunt Rozzie tells a story about her and a friend taking a trolly into Portsmouth to go to a resturaunt where there were curtains that could be drawn and a forbidden cigarette smoked. I h...
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