Plum Island Birds, Beach and Nature - Part 2

The expedition of Vermonters to Plum Island MA continues to be exciting more than a week after we all got back home! Here are more beautiful and evocative photos, taken by Sheri Larsen and Peter Swaine.

First, some of Peter's portraits of Plum Island birds and beauty.

Warblers are notoriously hard to find, hard to see, and hard to photograph. They're often very high in the trees and they NEVER stop moving. Peter got some gorgeous warbler pictures.

Blackburnian Warbler, the only North American warbler with a flame orange throat

Magnolia Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

American Redstart female

Northern Parula

Shorebirds were another exciting group of species, like these Black-bellied Plovers.

Dowitchers are chubby shorebirds with a unique feeding style, moving their bills up and down rapidly like sewing machine needles. We saw a large group, unfortunately far away.

American Woodcock

American Pipit

Now some of Sheri's photos.

Snowy Egret showing off its "golden slippers"

Bobolinks - male above, female below

Gray Catbird

The next two photos are exciting! Piping Plovers are on the endangered species list, and Sheri got proof that these little birds are busily increasing their numbers.

This Eastern Mockingbird appeared to have an injured wing. It could fly, but it didn't look happy with the overall situation!

Black-bellied Plover

The next two birds are either the same species (both Common Nighthawks) or the second one is a Whip-poor-will. The birds are both members of the goatsucker family, a group that hunts moths and other bugs at night and roosts during the day. People used to think they used their wide mouths to suck milk from domestic animals. 

These birds usually go undiscovered because of their camouflaged plumage.  It's rare to find one goatsucker, much less two! 

Finally, Sheri's "Beach Scene", a favorite of both Bernie and Maeve. The peaceful beauty of this photo makes us both eager to return to Plum Island!