South Beach Shorebird Safari 8/13

(Copying Glenn d'Entremont's SSBC report as we were within a few feet of them for much of the day and saw basically the same)

11 birders joined me on the South Shore Bird Club trip to South Beach, Chatham.  There is now so much land it is impossible for one group to encompass all.  There are two areas where birds flock which are a couple of miles apart.  We missed the jaegars off the beach seen during and after high tide; we were there before high tide.  The two other groups we talked to who were present the same time missed the Marbled Godwit or the Royal Tern.

Common Eider 3 (2-Morris Island, 1-North Monomoy)
Surf Scoter 1
White-winged Scoter 5
Cory's Shearwater 1 (others had 12)
Greater Shearwater 1
Wilson's Storm-Petrel 150 (others had "4" digit numbers)
Northern Gannet 1 (1 yr) (carefully checked for possible Brown Booby)
Double-crested Cormorant 250
Great Egret 2-Morris Island
Snowy Egret 4 (2-Morris Island)
Osprey 2 (1-Morris Island)
Northern Harrier 1
Peregrine Falcon 1-Morris Island
Black-bellied Plover 750
Semipalmated Plover 550
Piping Plover 21
American Oystercatcher 19
Greater Yellowlegs 125
Willet 19
"Western" Willet 2
Whimbrel 2
Hudsonian Godwit 22
MARBLED GODWIT 1 ad (thanks to Jeff Offerman, Ian Davies, Ryan Shain group)
Ruddy Turnstone 150
Red Knot 650
Sanderling 300
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1350
WESTERN SANDPIPER 1 ad - fading plumage, but still in as adult plumage as I have ever seen-some of the scaps were "red", there were chevrons down the flanks, the light showed red highlights on the crown and cheek.
Least Sandpiper 125
White-rumped Sandpiper 6
Dunlin 4
Short-billed Dowitcher 850
Laughing Gull 50
Ring-billed Gull ***
Herring Gull ***
Great Black-backed Gull ***
ROYAL TERN 1 (Thanks to Mark Burns' BBC group)
Roseate Tern 35
Common Tern 1500
Forster's Tern 8
Least Tern 50
Black Tern 6
Mourning Dove 2-Morris Island
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2-Morris Island
Horned Lark 6
Tree Swallow 350
Bank Swallow 8
Barn Swallow 5
Black-capped Chickadee 2-Morris Island
Carolina Wren 1-Morris Island
Cedar Waxwing 2-Morris Island
Savannah Sparrow 2
Saltmarsh Sparrow 21