I’m giving a talk at the annual meeting of New Hampshire
Audubon this weekend, and so I flew over to spend a week birding in the state
ahead of time. Today (Monday, September 24) I birded with Lauren Kras, one of the top birders in the
state. Although she’s only 25, she holds the record for not just one but the
two top Big Years ever recorded in New Hampshire. In 2009, she not only broke
the all time record for the number of species seen in a single year within the
state but was the first and remains the only birder to break the 300-species
barrier—she saw an amazing 308 birds in New Hampshire that year.
It’s always
great to go out with a truly knowledgeable expert, especially when exploring an
unfamiliar area, but what made the day exceptional was that she’s so fun to be
with. I was interested in photographing as many birds as possible, as well as
seeing them, so when we came upon good opportunities, we took them. Lauren said
if we were focused on racking up all the birds we could get, we would easily
have broken 100—quite possibly as many as 120. But early on during high tide we
came upon a large group of shorebirds that were feeding on flies along the top
of a long rock sea wall.
We walked along, sun at our backs, taking photo after
photo of a great variety of sandpipers in perfect light, framed by blue sky,
all at eye level or above—I’ve never before had a chance to see the undersides
of so many shorebirds. I also don’t think I’ve said the word “wow” so many
times in a fifteen-minute period in my life.
I have a great love for Common Eiders because we saw some females
caring for large masses of ducklings when we took a family vacation to Maine
years ago. Right now few males are in good plumage—I’ll have to make a return
trip some year between February and April to get them in full breeding
splendor. We saw quite a few groups of eiders today, but none at close range. I
got close-ups of some just a couple of weeks ago at the Central Park Zoo in New
York City. But seeing wild ones in the ocean, even at a distance, was far more
satisfying.
There were lots of songbirds today, though the early
migration is dwindling and the late migration hasn’t kicked in yet. I think my
favorites were the several Blackpoll Warblers moving through. I see a few
Blackpolls every fall at home in Minnesota, but these so close to the Atlantic seemed
more special. Blackpolls breed far up in Canada, migrating mostly east to the
coast, where they take off along an over-water route, with no landing or
resting stops all the way down to Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, and South
America. I found it thrilling to see them so close to their jump-off point,
pigging out in preparation for the grueling adventure.
We moseyed along in several of Lauren’s favorite spots. It’s
fun to be with someone so experienced at coastal birding and in tune with the
tides. She knew exactly where our one Lesser Black-backed Gull of the day would
be and where to find our one Ruddy Duck. I’m ending the day in a happy stupor.
In the days to come, I’ll be covering more of the state, and will post lots of
photos of my wonderful adventures birding in New Hampshire.
