For the final week of my summer vacation I decided to make a bold move and pay a visit to one of the wonderful coastal areas that we have in the state of Massachusetts. Earlier in the summer I went to First Encounter Beach, in Eastham, and to round out the coastal tour I headed to the northernmost area that I could think of. The place was the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in the town of Newburyport. It’s a place that I’ve always wanted to go, so I finally went.

The big problem that I encountered was the weather. I arrived at the refuge at about 1 p.m. on Aug. 19 and immediately encountered rain. I tried to buy some time by enjoying a delicious lobster for lunch, but the rain didn’t let up. Next I went to the visitor center to gather some intelligence and that is when the rain started to come down in buckets. Birding wasn’t going to be an option.

The following day had similarly miserable weather and, for a variety of reasons, no birding happened that day either. So, as is often the case with outdoor pursuits, it all boiled down to the final day. I was a little surprised when I poked my head outside and saw blue skies and sunshine. The front that had caused all of the rain had moved through the area quicker than expected and I was finally gifted with a glorious day. I had a quick breakfast, checked out of my hotel, and then headed to the refuge with tremendous excitement.

I saw a lot of wonderful things while I was there, but the most interesting thing that I saw was a remarkable display of communal feeding among three very different species of birds. The species driving the feeding frenzy was the Double-crested Cormorant (Nannopterumauritum). This is a bird that can occasionally be seen on the Connecticut River around Turners Falls, but most of the birds will stick to coastal areas where they can dive down into deep water and find the fish that they depend on for food.

The cormorants were working as a team and driving schools of small fish in front of them. One bird would occasionally lift its head out of the water and swallow a fish, but most of them kept moving forward with their heads under water. What was particularly fascinating was that this activity, in shallow water, attracted the attention of two other very different species of birds.

The first was the snowy egret (Egrettathula), which is an extremely small and elegant member of the family that contains the herons and egrets. A relatively small wading bird, the snowy egret normally hunts for food by slowly moving through shallow water (less than one foot deep) and uses its long, spear-like beak to swiftly strike out and seize small animals. The prey items (fish, amphibians and small crustaceans) are generally not impaled by the beak, but rather grasped.

The second species taking advantage of the cormorant activity was the lesser yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes). This is a relatively large member of the shorebird family and the typical hunting strategy of this particular species is much more active. A yellowlegs will wade into shallow water and begin probing the bottom in search of anything that it can scare up. Where the egrets are very slow and methodical, the yellowlegs will be constantly active. Small crustaceans, worms, invertebrates and small fish are menu items, but, like the egrets, the yellowlegs were not going to turn down a chance to follow the cormorants.

It wasn’t easy to get photos that showed how this all unfolded, but I eventually captured an image that showed all three species in the same frame. The double-crested cormorant is the largest bird on the right-hand side of the photo, the snowy egrets are the white birds and you can see that one of them has its beak open after stabbing at a small fish, and the lesser yellowlegs are the two birds in the background. At one point there were about eight cormorants, about 10 egrets and a handful of yellowlegs to round out the group. All of the birds were a whirlwind of activity as they tried to gobble up as many of the small fish as possible.

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Later on, in a different part of the refuge, I saw the same thing happen again. This time, however, there were gulls, terns, and other egrets involved, but no yellowlegs because the water was too deep.

The event, therefore, seems to be pretty common, but the involvement of the yellowlegs appeared to be something rather unusual. I ended up speaking with another birder who had also seen the yellowlegs feeding with the cormorants and he, too, seemed to think it something rather special.

So, with a sense of accomplishment I finished off the summer of 2024 with a wonderful birding adventure. There is still plenty of time to get out and enjoy all of the diversity that our beautiful state has to offer, so perhaps you might think of planning your own nature safari. Will it be to the ocean coast of eastern Massachusetts, or might you try something a little closer to home at one of the state parks here in western Mass? Whatever your choice, I hope you have clear skies and good luck with the birds!

Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 27 years. He has worked for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Massachusetts State Parks and he currently teaches high school biology and physics. For more in formation visit his website at www.speakingofnature.com, or go to Speaking of Nature on Facebook.