About the usual this morning at Popham Beach, as far as diversity and numbers of shorebirds and terns go. But two nearby spots were more interesting.
At Spirit Pond (part of the Morse River, Popham Beach Seawall system) , the water level was reaching its lowest at ca 11 A.M. (as outside, the tide was reaching its High for the day...It's confusing). A large number of Snowy Egrets (38) were gathered around the pond, and on the briefly exposed sandbar there were 1,155 peeps, close to the number we left at Popham 15 minutes earlier. Most were Semi Sands, but also included were 72 SBDowitchers, 2 Ruddy Turnstones, 82 Yellowlegs (both), and only 2 Semi Plovers. I suspect these were new arrivals to the system, and the darkening cloud cover may have played a part in their sudden appearance.
From Green Point on Atkins Bay at 11:18, The darkening sky and an apparent large school of small clupeid fishes, attracted a large, compact bunch of DCCormorants, and ca 50 diving Com Terns, while on the shrinking sand sat another 227 Semi Sands, along with the long-visiting Whimbrel, 16 Bonies (adults), 57 RBGulls. The peeps flew off to loaf seriously on a nearby rock (instead of flying over to Popham for the High Tide as they usually do). They were joined there by 5 Snowy Egrets, also an odd sight.
Because of these two sights, I'd expect the total number of shorebirds at Popham/Seawall to increase substantially in the next few days.
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