dunes and mist

Where does the spring go?  May has gotten away from me. Anyway, here's the entry for this past Saturday (figured I'd better do it before tomorrow's shift -- I switched to Friday for June).
Coffee of the Day: Ethiopian Yirgacheffe
Bird of the Day: Common Tern
Invisi-bird Status: Refuge beach: 10 pairs, 7 nests. Sandy Point: 6 pairs, 6 nests. Newbury town beach: 1 pair, 1 nest.
Weird Wrack Item of the Week:  see photo below of odd thing constructed out of wrack

looking south -- very misty

It was really foggy and misty, but on Memorial Day weekend that doesn't keep people off the beach. Apparently this sign does not keep people off the dunes either. I wish I'd been able to take a picture of the woman leaning against this sign taking a photo of her three kids digging in the dune.  Seriously. If I were really unprofessional I might have suggested that she back up a little so she could get the sign in the photo with the kids tearing up the dune. Instead, I politely and professionally asked them to move down onto the beach, explaining that the dunes are really fragile. They took their shovels and moved.

keep out of dunes

A family group playing catch managed to stay out of the closed area and stay out of the dunes and even to avoid stomping on this strange construction. One of the kids asked what it was. Maybe it's art.

weird wrack item of the week

Tons of common terns were diving just offshore, leading me to believe that there was a big concentration of small fish. A couple of least terns got in on the action too. It was wonderful just to hear all the terns.

Among the fishing folk were regulars Nancy and Rick. Nancy mentioned that I'd missed seeing some plovers earlier. From her description, they sounded like semipalmated plovers. Indeed, she sent me a some photos later in the week and they are semipalmated.

Finally, as I was leaving I saw a photographer step off the boardwalk into the dunes to take a picture. He was tromping right on the beach grass.  OK, I hardly ever have to kick people out of the dunes, and now it happens twice. Must be a holiday weekend thing. This guy at least had the class to be embarrassed.