Nature Note #107: Easter Weekend
Happy Easter all! I was up in Massachusetts this weekend visiting with my family and then the rest of the time with my girlfriend, Alison, and her family. As of this post, I got five year birds for my year listing project (I'm hoping to break 223 species this year) and got some fantastic photos of our escapade as well. My girlfriend works as the coastal waterbird monitor at Allen's Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in South Dartmouth where she monitors and assists with the protection of endangered shorebirds such as Piping Plovers ( Charadrius melodus ) and Least Terns ( Sternula antillarum ). The terns haven't shown up yet, but the plovers have, and they were busy courting and setting up scrapes when we arrived. We participated in a Saturday morning bird walk with several members of the Paskamansett Bird Club on Little Beach and the nearby marshland. As we left, we walked through a small field with nest boxes erected for the bluebirds and returning Tree Swallows ( Tachycineta bico...