rainy day

Friday May 5
Bird of the Day: kestrel
Coffee of the Day: Boatyard Brew
Weird Wrack Item of the Week: arrangement of driftwood
Invisi-bird Status: Official: Refuge beach: 47 pairs, 11 nests; Sandy Point: 9 pairs, 3 nests; Town beaches: 5 pairs, no nests. Number actually seen by me: zero

Lot 1 Ocean

Another rainy Friday morning. The forecast was for drenching showers, but each report kept pushing them back to later in the day.  I applied the "is it raining where I am right now?" test. It was not raining at my house at 7AM so I headed out to the beach. Of course, by the time I stopped to fill my coffee cup at PICR and got to the refuge it was starting to rain lightly. I decided to drink my coffee on the platform at Lot 1 and see whether the weather would clear.

Looking North

While walking along the Lot 1 boardwalk toward the beach, a gorgeous America kestrel landed on the railing about 5 feet from me. We looked at each other. When it finally occurred to me that I should document this moment and I tried to fumble in my pocket for my phone (my camera was in my backpack requiring way more fumbling), the kestrel took off northward.

Looking South

From the platform, I scanned the dunes with my binoculars but found very little bird action. There was a large flock of some kind of sea ducks fairly far out from the town beach. I couldn't identify them as anything other than dark duck shaped beings. A guy who had been fishing on the town beach noticed them too. On his way back to the parking lot, he asked if I knew what kind of ducks they were. He said their numbers had been increasing all morning.  We never did figure out what they were or what was attracting them all to that particular spot.  Whatever bait fish the ducks were after was not attracting any larger fish.

Another fisherman asked me about the plovers and was thrilled when I told him we already have several nests.

I Don't Think It Washed Up Like This

The rain stopped so I stuck around for awhile. A few (very few) birders and fishermen came by, but mostly the beach was deserted.  My favorite encounter was a birder there with his grandson. He explained to me that his grandson is crazy about ospreys, so that was the focus of their visit. They stopped at the Lot 1 beach for a look at the ocean before heading for the osprey platform at the Pines. 

In the Dunes

It started to rain again in earnest so I took off, but not without stopping several times along the boardwalk to photograph all the flowering plants in the dunes. Somehow, white flowers look particularly beautiful on overcast days.

Subtle Colors

The subtle yet beautiful colors in the dunes and the calls of willets somehow made it a great day to be outdoors.

White