Birds of Revere Beach

Herring Gull 8-19-11 Revere Beach

It’s been a very busy summer around here and my husband has every other Friday off. Usually we are heading out of town to somewhere, but on august 19th we decided to take a break and stay home. Or, at least stay in the state of Massachusetts. since moving here last year Gus has wanted to take me for a walk on Revere Beach. We went once in the winter, now it was time for a summertime stroll. So, we packed up the car and headed out.

I expected the beach to be crowded on this perfect beach day but to my utter surprise, it was not. We parked near the south end of the beach near Elliot Circle and walked northward along the sidewalk to the Pink Apartments. I was surprised to discover that these apartments have their own designation on eBird as a Birding Hotspot! Though we did see a few other species of birds, mostly we saw gulls. Over 200 of them. Other than pigeons, starlings and house sparrows, these are most of the birds we saw.

 

Great black-backed Gull 8-19-11 Revere Beach

 

Semipalmated Plover 8-19-11 Revere Beach

 

Sanderlings 8-19-11 Revere Beach

 

Bonaparte's Gull 8-19-11 Revere Beach

 

Immature Great Black-backed Gull 8-19-11

 

Ring-billed Gull 8-19-11 Revere Beach

Most gulls take anywhere from 3 to 5 years to reach their adult plumage. In-between it can be quite tricky to decide which species of bird you are seeing. I am still learning my gulls but I think I got all of these right. When trying to identify gulls, one has to look at the size and shape of the bird, the size, shape and color of the beak, the eye color, the leg color, the head color and the mantle, or back of the bird. Then, there is the color of the wingtips and many other subtleties I have yet to learn. Still, I enjoy the challenge when its not frustrating me and you never know what might show up, like the rare Gray-hooded Gull seen recently on the beach at Coney Island, NY!

It is about 1.25 miles from the south end to the Pink Apartments so we figured we walked 2 1/2 miles on this day. All in all Gus and I had a fun walk on the beach with plenty of time left over to come home and relax!

Revere Beach is also known to have nesting pairs of Piping Plovers and while I looked for them, I did not find any. There is a very interesting article about Piping Plovers and conservation written for the Boston Globe Magazine a couple of weeks ago. You can read the article here:

The Curious Case of the Piping Plover