Birding with Carol M. to close out year 2022! 12/31/2022

Carol and I met bright and early with an ambitious birding agenda beginning with a Snowy Owl at Hampton Beach down to a Northern Lapwing in Ipswich. We decided to stop at PRNWR in between to see what we could see! The Snowy that had been seen consistently in the Hampton Beach area was a no show while we were there, but we decided not to stick around waiting for it as we really wanted to see the Lapwing and rain was coming in around 1:00 pm. The Snowy did end up showing itself later in the day according to ebird, but far out in the marsh. Another day! Carol and I then headed down to PRNWR with a quick stop at Salisbury Beach to look for Crossbills and Snow Bunting. No luck, but a Northern Harrier put on a nice show. At PRNWR, there had been a Barred Owl and a Snowy Owl that had been reported in ebird over the last week or so. We had some wonderful glimpses of the Barred along with many other respectful birders. There are supposedly two Barred owls successfully hunting voles as evidenced by all of the owl pellets along the road!

We continued on and stopped at the bird blind to look for Crossbills among the pines and were rewarded with Black-capped chickadees and Red-breasted nuthatches. Carol and I had a blast trying to photograph the latter!

As we were leaving, we ran into Steve B. who said the Northern Lapwing had been spotted in Ipswich so we were off! The drive was about 35 minutes to get south to Ipswich and the clouds were starting to build. When we arrived, there were plenty of other photographers to point the way to the Lapwing which was off in a distant field about one mile away. With tripods over our shoulders and cameras around our necks, Carol and I headed off to see this little bird. The Northern Lapwing is in the plover family along with Killdeer, Piping Plovers, Semipalmated Plovers, and Black-bellied Plovers. The only difference is the Lapwing is supposed to be overwintering in North Africa, China, or another Eurasian country. It is way off course! It was a bit larger than a Killdeer and the only bird that was in this plowed corn field. It bobbed around occasionally pecking at the ground with the cutest hairdo as can be seen in the photo. Rain drops started to fall as we headed back so our timing was spot on and, according to ebird, the Northern Lapwing is still there on 1/1/2023.. Happy New Year!