Birding on the South Shore

I enjoyed another walk on the beach this morning, this time on the South Shore at Nantasket Beach in Hull, MA.   It wasn't very busy.  I think the wind was keeping people away.

Scoters

I noticed were in a nice large flock raft of scoters just off the beach.  I could positively identify Surf Scoters and there were a few White-Winged Scoters mixed in too.

The view of the beach

Crane Beach (yesterday) wins out for beauty over this beach, but it was another warm (52 degrees) January day, so who can complain?  Just across the street from the beach there was a big open area of scrubby grass.  When I drove around this area to turn around and get back to the beach, I noticed a flock of Horned Larks there!  Pretty neat looking little birds.  They remind me of Killdeer.

 Horned Lark

Horned Larks (male in foreground)

Closer look at the lighthouse

I stopped to check the tidal marshes and looked out from a bridge over the Weir River on my way home.   There was a nice variety of waterfowl here.

 American Black Duck

 Canada Geese

 Red-Breasted Merganser (male)

 Red-Breasted Merganser (female)

Bufflehead (female)

I saw a large flock of ducks to the right of Barnes Wharf in Hingham, so I pulled right in to take look.

 flock of Greater Scaup

 Bufflehead (male)

Brant