Parker River NWR, Essex, Massachusetts, US
Aug 28, 2017 4:50 PM – 7:35 PM
Protocol: Traveling
4.0 mile(s)
Comments:     Sunny and 67 degrees. We stayed until dusk. My sister Margaret and I joined the Brookline Bird Club walk at 5:30 PM led by Dave Williams. Stops at main salt pans, North Pool Overlook and Hellcat dike.
40 species (+1 other taxa)

Canada Goose  7
Gadwall  7
Mallard  4
American Black Duck  16
Green-winged Teal  1
Double-crested Cormorant  101
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  180     Mostly at Hellcat staging for the evening. Probably many more than this.
Snowy Egret  200     Staging at Hellcat- still coming in for the evening. Conservative count.  Probably many more than this.
Glossy Ibis  16     North Pool Overlook and small groups flying into Bill Forward Pool at dusk. Distinctive long curved bill.
Osprey  3     Seen from Hellcat looking toward Pines platform.
Black-bellied Plover  19
Semipalmated Plover  36
Least Sandpiper  38
White-rumped Sandpiper  2
Semipalmated Sandpiper  120
peep sp.  200     Seen from lot one flying over the dunes but too far to ID
Short-billed Dowitcher  11
Spotted Sandpiper  1     Hellcat-  on edge of Bill Forward Pool
Greater Yellowlegs  52
Lesser Yellowlegs  16
Ring-billed Gull  1
Herring Gull  2
Great Black-backed Gull  2
Mourning Dove  4
Belted Kingfisher  1     Sitting in tree at North Pool Overlook
Merlin  1
Peregrine Falcon  2     One flew over Bill Forward Pool and chased many of the shorebirds away.
Eastern Kingbird  2
American Crow  1
Tree Swallow  1000000     Amazing spectacle at dusk at Hellcat dike. Tree Swallows as thick as I have ever seen over North Pool. As far wide, deep and high as the eye could see. Photos cannot capture the full effect of the staging swarm.
Marsh Wren  1     Hellcat
American Robin  3
Gray Catbird  5
European Starling  40
Northern Waterthrush  1     Seen by a few of the group from Hellcat dike on the mudflats of North Pool.
Common Yellowthroat  1
Saltmarsh Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  1
Eastern Towhee  3
American Goldfinch  3

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S38927696

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