May 2 - Waves, Longtailed Ducks, and Interesting Wrack Items

Sea and Sky

Coffee of the Day: French Roast
Bird of the Day: long tailed duck
Weird Wrack Item of the Week: paint-spattered hard hat
Invisi-bird Status: Refuge beach: 16 pairs, Sandy Point: 2 pairs, Town beach: 0, Number actually seen by me: 3.

Invisi-bird

The invisi-birds were getting pretty bold today, at times even feeding right in front of me outside the closed area -- still on the refuge, not the town beach, so no worries. Three of them were spread out along the water line, often doing the foot trembling thing to stir up the intertidal muck in search of tiny invertebrates.

Doing the Foot Trembling Thing

We've had some big waves lately and some new interesting trash has washed up. Hmm, could I make a career out of photographing trash in the wrack line? Probably not, but if by taking pictures of it, I can show how big a problem it is, I'll keep doing it.

Construction Hard Hat

As I walked along the wrack line, I noticed some weird wrack items that appeared to be related. A paint spattered hard hat lay a dozen yards north of an empty rusting paint can.  Of course, there's no telling if they came from the same construction site, but they could have.

Paint Can

Big waves bring up more than trash, though. I found many different kinds of seaweed.

Seaweed

Hundreds of long tailed ducks were hanging out just offshore - naked eye identification range. The coolest thing about them was a behavior I had not seen before. They were surfing, riding the curl, and then diving into the wave just before it would break over them. I tried to get a photo of them doing this, but by the time I would get them in focus, they were underwater.

Surf

In other bird news, cormorants are on the move, tree swallow numbers are increasing, and a flock of 50+ sanderlings flew over in their tight, mind-melded way.

April 25 - From Plovers to Poets (Busy Day)

Looking North

Coffee of the Day: Tanzania Peaberry
Bird of the Day: long tailed duck
Weird Wrack Item of the Week: that plastic kiddie car is still here!
Invisi-bird Status: Refuge beach: 16 pairs. Sandy Point: 2 pairs. Number actually seen by me: 3.

Wave Breaking Behind Driftwood

What a gorgeous day! I worked a shorter shift - left at 11AM - because I had committed to photograph the Spoken Word Olympics (Party) aka SWOP in Lowell. It was a very good for plovers and poets and long tailed ducks and big waves.  There were tons of long tailed ducks enjoying the waves.

Still Here

I managed to use my Jedi mind control powers to turn back two dogs who were about to trespass on the refuge. They turned back before I even spoke to their human.

Still Here

Trash-wise, I was somewhat surprised to see that pink plastic kiddie car still here in the same spot. The plastic hatch-cover-like thing was still on the beach too but not in the same spot. The gull wing was still here but not surrounded by wrack. 

Still Here

The view was unbelievable. I could see the White Island Light Station clearly from the beach. I've seen hazy loomings of various Isles of Shoals landmarks before, but this was a clean crisp view of the light station and it was not floating above the horizon the way a looming does.

South

A couple of piping plovers foraged along the water line, but I didn't see any mating behavior.  They were a little further south than the last time I was watching them. I guess the pickings weren't as good nearer the boundary.

Shells

I was kind of reluctant to leave the beauty of the beach for the beauty of the young people doing poetry, but took off nonetheless. Despite leaving early, I still barely made it to Lowell on time. I-495 was having one of those I-495 days: an accident in Amesbury, a car in the median just south of Amesbury, construction in Lawrence, construction in Andover.... and so on.

National Poetry Month

The young people were great. The event was fun. Photographing the young poets in their writing workshops and on stage in competition was a good challenge for me. The main thing I learned is that it's a lot easier to visually convey the act of writing when the kids are using pen and paper than when they're using their phones to write. I mean an intent face staring at screen with thumbs positioned for typing could mean anything.  Must explore that theme more at some point.

April 11 - Nice Weather Again

Looking South

Coffee of the Day: Tanzania Peaberry
Bird of the Day: red throated loon
Weird Wrack Item of the Week: that kiddie car again/still
Invisi-bird Status: Refuge beach: 12 adults. Sandy Point: 5 adults. Number actually seen by me: 1.

It's Still Here

A lone piping plover hung out feeding along the wrack line for hours. It came pretty close to me a few times.

Piping Plover in the Wrack

There were more birds around this week, including a whole lot of long tailed ducks and three red throated loons. Lots of tree swallows too. I almost got fooled by the purple martin decoys on the purple martin colony next to the VCS. Thought only one was a decoy and it had attracted the other two, then realized none of them were moving.

Gull Wing in the Wrack

My favorite question was about the small flies and beach hoppers in the wrack. Someone wanted to know what they were.  Of course I had to talk about how important they are for the birds to eat.

Another question, which I overheard a kid asking a dad, was where could this plastic hatch have come from? I didn't jump in and give my standard half-joking answer "the Goffstown dump" but I did think it. For those who don't remember the Mother's Day flood of 2006, I'm referring to the fact that loads of trash barrels labeled Goffstown ended up on Plum Island. Anyway, I just privately laughed to myself about all the places all this trash comes from and how people all the way up the Merrimack have no idea how much of their trash ends up here. Please don't throw things in the river, okay?

Nobody asked where the gull wing came from.

This Plastic Hatch-like Thing is Still Here Too

The sky cleared dramatically by the middle of the day. I handled all visitors and dogs appropriately and actually saw a piping plover, so I call it a successful shift.

Looking North

Sand Dollar