Birding at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge

   Last Friday I went birding at Plum Island in Newburyport, MA. I left really early to beat the Boston traffic.  The area just below the New Hampshire border is one of the birding hotspots in the country.

   My first destination was Salisbury Beach. In the few days before I went up there had been a Snowy Owl around. I saw some sea ducks but no luck with the owl. After a fairly disappointing bird search, I went over to the main attraction, Plum Island.

   Plum Island is a barrier beach with all kinds of habitat.. The Merrimack River dumps into the Atlantic at the north end of the island.  The backside of the island is a huge salt marsh where the Parker River forms a textbook delta that you learned about in seventh grade geography. The beach faces the ocean where sea birds are seen. The island itself has everything from pines, scrub brush, sand dunes and fields. It is a perfect place for almost every eastern North American species to stop.

   By the time I got to Parker, my highlight for the day had not a bird but rather two grey seals. At the first parking lot I saw a loon on the ocean and a few ducks and one horned grebe. To be honest birding was slow. The huge salt marsh on the inside of the island was almost completely frozen over. This obviously hurt my chances at seeing many species of ducks and marsh birds.

The last place on the road that a car could go was at the parking area known as Hellcat. At this spot I saw an otter. I was about done at Plum when I was given two tips. The first was of a snow bunting by the maintenance building. I drove up there and ate my lunch for ten minutes but did not see it.

   The other tip turned out to be much more productive. A guy told me about some horned larks and lapland longspurs on the Plum Island Turnpike. I went to the precise location and both species were feeding in the small bare area surrounded by snow. The good thing was the Longspur was a lifebird for me!  On my way out I went to the Chain Bridge in hopes of seeing a bald eagle but did not get a fly by.

   So my day was a bit of a disappointment. I ended with twenty species seen. My highlights were the seals, otter, horned larks and lapland longspurs. I had hoped to also see a bald eagle, snowy owl, red throated loon, and long tailed duck, but got shut out. Oh well, I really enjoyed my day outdoors. Next time when the ice is gone I am sure the birding will be much better.