Plum Island (please use more refined location), Essex, Massachusetts, US

May 2, 2026 6:41 AM – 7:21 AM

Protocol: Traveling

0.245 mile(s)

Checklist Comments:    My Brookline Bird Club Birding By Bike Trip. 

Weather: 49-55°F, Cloudy, Occasional rain. 

We rode our bikes along the main refuge road between Parking Lot #1 and Hellcat. A splinter group continued to the Pines. We met at 630AM and birded until 1PM, dodging rain drops along the way.

70 species (+1 other taxa)

Snow Goose  1    Flew overhead at Hellcat.

Brant  12

Canada Goose  6

Mute Swan  1

Gadwall  8

Mallard  7

Green-winged Teal  4

Long-tailed Duck  1

Bufflehead  8

Wild Turkey  1

Mourning Dove  9

Clapper Rail  1    Continuing bird.

Killdeer  7

Semipalmated Plover  5

Willet  21    Willets heard and seen from Parking Lot #1 to Hellcat.

Greater Yellowlegs  10

Least Sandpiper  4

American Herring Gull  28

Great Black-backed Gull  3

Common Tern  10

Common Loon  3

Northern Gannet  1

Double-crested Cormorant  7

Glossy Ibis  15

Snowy Egret  2

Great Egret  14

Great Blue Heron  2

Osprey  5

Cooper’s Hawk  5

Accipitrine hawk sp. (former Accipiter sp.)  1

Northern Harrier  2

Belted Kingfisher  1

Downy Woodpecker  2

Hairy Woodpecker  1

Merlin  6

Blue-headed Vireo  1

Blue Jay  2

American Crow  5

Black-capped Chickadee  13

Tree Swallow  26

Purple Martin  5

Barn Swallow  9

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1

Marsh Wren  3

European Starling  4

Gray Catbird  2

Brown Thrasher  7

Northern Mockingbird  5

Veery  2

American Robin  12

House Sparrow  2

Purple Finch  9

American Goldfinch  12

Chipping Sparrow  4

White-throated Sparrow  7

Savannah Sparrow  3

Song Sparrow  6

Swamp Sparrow  3

Eastern Towhee  18

Orchard Oriole  1

Red-winged Blackbird  11

Brown-headed Cowbird  4

Common Grackle  15

Northern Waterthrush  3

Black-and-white Warbler  4

Northern Parula  1

Northern Yellow Warbler  1

Black-throated Blue Warbler  1

Palm Warbler  2

Yellow-rumped Warbler  16

Northern Cardinal  2

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S332095013

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