Date: 8/6/25 7:21 am From: <sohzendeh...> Subject: [Arlington Birds] FW: Snake Island survey Aug 3, 2025
Mates,
The first weekend of the Manomet shorebird blitz is almost over. I don't have data from all sources in Boston, but here is what I know so far.
Yesterday (Aug 2) morning at Belle Isle Marsh, Naeem Yusuff, Mark Hibberd, Dave Williams and John Edmondson tallied up a respectable selection of yellowlegs (6 lesser / 33 greater) a dozen SBDowitchers, a couple of hundred SemiSandpipers and one Stilt Sandpiper. In the afternoon of the same day (Aug 2), Laura Markley saw many fewer birds; today Mark told me the count was considerably lower at morning high tide than yesterday. It seems like the local Peregrine did its usual thing and terrorized the shorebirds into leaving -- the Saturday morning crew mentioned seeing a Peregrine strafe the roosting birds.
Tim Eardly at Winthrop Beach had very few birds yesterday or today.
Loretta Wood and Tim, however, scanned the airport and surrounding flats and estimated several hundred (300 - 500) peep feeding there at mid-tide. Perhaps there is less Peregrine harassment there.
I had made inquiries of my friend Joe Pike about procuring a boat to visit Snake Island in Winthrop harbor. Joe connected us with Captain Jim Healy, retired Coast Guard, who picked up 3 of us (Beth Howard, Jessica McGeary, me) and dropped us off at Snake Island around 7:30 this morning. At high tide, the number of shorebirds there was underwhelming. See list attached to the end of this email (thank you Jessica for keeping the list).
I remember hitting Snake Island a year ago with Sebastian Jones and we were immediately looking at hundreds of migrant SemiSandpipers. But see comments, below, about 1980s shorebird counts at Snake.
In Wollaston-Squantum, Dan O'Brien today counted substantial numbers of SemiSandpipers (378), yellowlegs (17 lesser / 28 greater) and 8 SBDowitchers. He also saw a White-rumped Sandpiper.
Here is some historical perspective on shorebird counts in the Harbor and vicinity.
In 1980, we started a series of Boston Harbor bird censuses which were known as Take a Second Look (TASL). Most of the counts were done in the winter and continued until 2015. But that first summer, 1980, we organized a couple of counts, one on July 20 and the other on August 3. Today was the 45th anniversary of that August count.
On this date, Aug 3 in 1980, my friend Craig Jackson and I arrived at Snake Island for an early morning high tide. In the fog we realized we were hearing a lot of shorebirds. Once the fog lifted, out first tally was of ~300 Ruddy Turnstones. We then continued with what seems like ridiculous numbers now -- 3000 SemiSandpipers, 72 Red Knots, etc. I extracted the full report for that date from TASL News (November 1980) and attached it to this email. The complete report for the two dates in summer 1980 are in the full issue of TASL News: https://032acf2.netsolhost.com/TN.issues/1980.11.pdf You will find that the count of SemiSandpipers on Aug 3 was eclipsed by 5000 on July 20.
We did no other summer surveys in the 1980s, but in 1993 we resumed doing monthly summer and early fall counts. You may browse the issues of TASL News: https://032acf2.netsolhost.com/tasl.news.htm Summer data are in the following issues: August 1994; September 1994; November 1994; June 1995; September 1995; June 1996; September 1996; June 1997; August 1997 Numbers of shorebirds were clearly beginning their long and alarming drop back then.
Here is the list from today's Snake Island survey:
BHI--Snake Island (restricted access), Suffolk, Massachusetts, US Aug 3, 2025 7:27 AM - 8:53 AM Protocol: Traveling 0.457 mile(s) Checklist Comments: 3 observers 25 bird species (+3 other taxa)
Mallard 2 Common Eider 2 Mourning Dove 5 American Oystercatcher 16 3 chicks close to fledging. 2 eggs in nest on east side of island. Semipalmated Plover 9 Short-billed Dowitcher 11 Willet 9 White-rumped Sandpiper 1 Confirmed by multiple observers Least Sandpiper 7 Semipalmated Sandpiper 60 American Herring Gull 2 gull sp. 5 Least Tern 1 Common Tern 4 Double-crested Cormorant 2 Black-crowned Night Heron 1 Snowy Egret 3 Great Egret 1 Great Blue Heron 6 Multiple sightings around and over island Osprey 4 European Starling 11 Gray Catbird 2 American Goldfinch 1 Song Sparrow 2 new world sparrow sp. 3 Red-winged Blackbird 3 Common Grackle 3 blackbird sp. 4
