King’s Beach, Lynn/Swampscott, Essex, Massachusetts, US

08-Oct-2023 11:00 – 13:15

Protocol: Traveling

1.0 mile(s)

Checklist Comments:    A Brookline Bird Club walk led by Shilo McDonald. Blue skies. Windy. 66 ºF.

13 species (+3 other taxa)

White-winged Scoter  5

Black Scoter  5

Surf/Black Scoter  12

scoter sp.  12

duck sp.  3    There were some sea ducks pretty far out, even for our scopes. 1 reminded me of a Common Goldeneye. A couple others reminded me of scaup. Marking as duck species.

Semipalmated Plover  3

Bonaparte’s Gull  5    Flying by. Photos attached.

Laughing Gull  12    Medium-sized gull with black legs and black bill (non-breeding plumage).

Ring-billed Gull  80    Medium sized gull with yellow legs and a yellow bill. The bill has a black band around it.

Herring Gull  65    What we grew up calling a “seagull.” Large gull. Gray backed. Smaller than Great Black-backed Gull. Larger than Ring-billed Gull.

Lesser Black-backed Gull  1    There may have been a second? I was looking at one through my scope, while Laura was looking at one through her scope. We could have been looking at the same bird or maybe they were different birds? In any case, there was at least 1 adult Lesser Black-backed Gull for sure. Photos attached.

Great Black-backed Gull  18    The world’s largest gull. Dark black backed gull larger than all other gulls at the beach.

Common Tern  6    Flying by. Medium-sized tern with black bill and black wedge on the upper side of the wingtips. Non-breeding plumage. Caspian Tern ruled out, because the bills were all black (no orange and no red).

Double-crested Cormorant  8

American Crow  1

House Sparrow  4    Flew into some hedges in front of a house across the street.

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S151847098