A Beaver Forest

The other night I went for a walk in the woods .I just needed to get out of my house. I stumbled upon a pond that had beavers at it. I was hoping to see the beavers at dusk but never did. One thing I did notice were a lot of trees that had been gnawed at.

I assumed that when a beaver cuts down a tree, it does what it wants with it before cutting down the next one. I just assumed it would use branches to eat, repair dams and lodges and then move on to the next tree. I was wrong. I saw half a dozen large diameter trees gnawed. It looked like they were chopped with axes then left there. Of course, it wasn't axes, but beaver teeth marks on the trees. It was interesting to see.

Greater White Fronted Goose

 Yesterday I got an email that a rare goose was in a pond in Mansfield, MA. The pond is only about fifteen minutes from my house. It would have been nice to chase a bird so close to home. Usually when a rare bird is seen, it is usually at exotic places such as Race Point (Yellow Billed Loon, two and a half hour drive). The bird is a Greater White Fronted Goose. I have never seen one. However, I never checked my email until last night, so needless to say, I wanted to kick myself. 

I knew all was not lost though. The night was going to bring  very strong north winds. I assume the goose in migrating north (they summer in the Arctic). Considering how strong the  north wind was over night I thought, there might be a chance the goose would still be around today. I didn't know how much of a chance, but hope was not lost. Needless to say, I checked my emails a few times today.

The goose did not leave, but it moved to a different pond. It originally was in Fulton Pond but today it was downstream in Kingman Pond. The problem with this pond is it doesn't have much public access. There is one little path that leads to the pond. Luckily, I could see the goose across the other side of the pond. It is small, so with my scope, I got a pretty good view. There was no way I'd get any good pictures though. The goose across the pond was right next to the Mansfield Police Station. 

I decided it was worth being turned down and went inside to ask if I could photograph the bird. They were extremely nice and said it was no problem. The GWFG was only 20-30 feet from the grass at the police station. I snapped fifty photos in 5-7 minutes. I did not want to wear out my welcome. 

This may have been one of the easiest birds I have ever chased. The drive was fifteen minutes. Geese are big birds, as opposed to looking for a sparrow in bushes. It was right on a pond, no searching at all. I kind of wish they were all that easy.

The orange legs and the white face mask
are key field marks for GWFG

These geese are much smaller than Canada Geese

Trout Fishing in Plymouth

On a very warm, kind of wet day (on and off rain showers) I went trout fishing in Plymouth. I enjoy
chasing trout in both Plymouth and the Cape. There are a lot of trout ponds fairly close together in Plymouth. My favorite trout pond on the Cape has not been stocked yet, so choosing Plymouth was a no-brainer.

Sometimes when I go trout fishing, I'll leave the house before dawn. It is still early in the year, so I knew trout fishing wouldn't be great (water is still very cold and very little insect life) so I left home about 8:30.

Before I went fishing I stopped at Plymouth Long Beach. I had never been there and wanted to take a look. It was a cool spot. There were a lot of sea ducks in the water. I spotted a Long Tailed Duck. My first of the year. I've tried to see it about eight times in RI, I saw it today before my car was even parked. Go figure.

After hanging out at the beach for an hour, the first place I fished was Lout Pond. Before I even talk about my day, let me freely admit, I would have caught more fish if I used Powerbait. I know the stuff works. It works way better in cold water than lures because lethargic fish do not have to chase it. I hate using it. I'd much rather cast and move than sit there waiting for a trout to swallow the hook. Which is the other reason I don't like using it, most fish will be gut hooked and I don't keep many fish.

So I started with a yellow Roostertail. Within five cast I had my first fish, a twelve inch brookie. I caught another one a minute later. I caught four in thirty minutes. Then it started to rain. It didn't bother me, I was wearing my raincoat and standing in thigh deep water in my waders. It did something to the fish though. I didn't get a hit for another forty five minutes. So I left.

I went to Little Pond, just up the street. My plan was to walk the area around the boat ramp. That proved impossible since five guys had rods spread out with Powerbait. All these guys were sitting in their pick up trucks because of the rain. I wasn't too upset about this. I have never done well at Little Pond, so I just moved on.

From there I went to Fearings. I love Fearings. I can't say it is the pond I've done the best at, but I like the scenery and I have had some good days. Not today. I waded about a quarter of the shoreline back and forth with multiple lures. I never even got a bump. There were two guys fishing a very productive point with Powerbait. While I was fishing, they didn't get any hits either. The fish just were not in the mood.

So that's how my day went. I got four brookies which isn't bad. In another two weeks or so when the water warms up a few degrees, the trout fishing will get hot.

One Hundredth Species of Birds for the Year

White Breasted Nuthatch

Today I saw my hundredth species of bird for the year. After work and then after visiting my aunt, I
went to Caratunk Wildlife Refuge. I knew there was a good chance I could see bluebirds. I hoped to see them quickly since I was only wearing shorts and a sweatshirt. Luckily, in the second field I got a good look at a bright bluebird in breeding colors.

I knew I was at 99 birds and thought seeing a bluebird, which is an easy bird would be a good hundredth. They are one of my favorite birds.

To put seeing 100 species of birds into some perspective. Here are some stats. As I have mentioned, I am trying to see as many species of birds as I can in Rhode Island. I joined a group that keeps track of birds. There are twenty three people that joined the list. Not that it is a competition, but I am in fourteenth place.

 There have been 155 species of birds seen in Rhode Island this year. I have seen 93 of those 155 species (my other seven are MA only). To put it into perspective, the leader in Rhode Island (Jan St. Jean) has seen 140 species! I can't stress enough, that although I am no longer a beginner, I am far from an expert. The fact that she has seen forty seven more species than me, with as much time that I have put in is amazing.

Cardinal and Fox Sparrows

Here are some numbers for me.

100 species, the first was a hooded merganser at daybreak Jan 1
species #100 Eastern Bluebird

93 species seen in Rhode Island or both RI and Mass
7 species in MA only, as of now
                       Glaucous Gull
                        Iceland Gull
                        Tree Swallow
                         Bluebird
                         Yellow Billed Loon
                          Pacific Loon
                          Mew Gull

I have seen nine species of lifebirds this year. Lifebirds are birds I have never seen before this year. Technically I had seen a couple of these lifebirds before. I changed my definition of "seeing a bird". To make my list now, I need to see the field marks that identify a species. So in that regard, I took some birds off my list from when I used to go birding a few years ago.

Lifebirds this year

Sandhill Crane

Barrows Goldeneye
Razorbill
Lesser Black Backed Gull
Blue Morph Snow Goose
Glaucous Gull
Iceland Gull
Pacific Loon
Yellow Billed Loon
Mew Gull

The rarest bird I saw was most definitely the Yellow Bellied Loon. It was the first one ever seen in Massachusetts.  The bird that I have spent a ton of time looking for but still haven't seen is the Long Tailed Duck. I've gone to Beavertail, where others have seen it, at least eight times, and still haven't seen it. The easiest bird I have not yet seen is probably the Belted Kingfisher.

 There are birds I'm pretty sure I've seen but I'm not including on the list. When I was at Race Point another birder showed me Black Legged Kittiwakes and what he thought were Common Murres. I only got to see the Kittiwakes for a second in huge waves. The Murre could have been one of two species. I also saw what I'm almost positive was a Chipping Sparrow in North Attleboro last week, I didn't count it for the same reason, I didn't get to see enough field marks.  I've seen three sharp shin hawks buzz by me. I haven't counted them because all three happened so fast, I can not rule out American Kestrel.

On top of the bird numbers I have also seen ten mammals, two fish, and two frogs.

Black Scoters

Last year I saw a personal best 144 species of birds. The Rhode Island leader saw 302 in Rhode Island alone. My goal is to see 144 in Rhode Island. If I do that, along with MA birds, I will break my PB. This would not only be an attainable goal, but honestly, a quite easy goal except for one main factor. I love fishing. Not sure how much time I will want to put into birding when the fish are really biting. The best time to see migrating birds is May. I will be able to see many birds that aren't even in the United States yet. However, I love fishing for carp, stripers, and trout, so we'll see. I'll fish or bird based on what I feel like doing that day, and I'll just have to see what number I end up with. I'm off to a good start.

Playing Hard and Day Dreaming

I think about these speedsters every day

There is no real point to this post. Just one of those days where I need to sort things out in my mind. As a writer, it is easier to put pen to paper (or write on my blog). A couple of weeks ago, we had a family meeting. It was DJ, his mom and myself. Suffice to say that twenty year old kids need guidance even though they think they are adults.

 One thing DJ's mom brought up was how difficult it is to "keep up with me." As we were reminiscing, she pointed out that for years I have always been the type of person that needs to be on the go. In the ten days before DJ was born we did a lot of fun things. In that week and a half, we went on a whale watch, went camping in New Hampshire and went to the Dog Track twice. We also spent a day in Salem, MA going to all the witchcraft tourist traps. This is while working a full time job. I have only been to the dog track those two times. Going was a new experience for me and I had fun. The whale watch was great. The trip to New Hampshire was good and I dragged Crystal on what is considered an easy trail ( not when nine months pregnant, apparently) to look at waterfalls.

 Being so young when I had him (21) I thought once he was born my life as I knew it would be over.  As it turns out from the day he took his first steps a year later, we went right back to doing fun things almost every day off from work that we could. There is no doubt that I wanted my son to learn about all sorts of things from history (we did the Freedom Trail twice between the ages of two and four), culture,  to learning about the natural world through fishing and birding. Throw in vacations, Little League and Pop Warner and we were always doing something.

The point Crystal was trying to make when she talked about the week before my son was born, was it wasn't necessarily fun but kind of stressful because she could never relax. Although she pointed to that week as an example, she said that was how I always was.

Since our family meeting, I have been thinking about this a lot. Crystal may be right. I do feel that any day spent indoors on a nice day is wasted. That is true if I have the day off from work or if I have a few hours of daylight after work. If I sit at home I get antsy. I guess I never thought about this being somewhat stressful for the few people I let into my life. Last year, on every single day that I wasn't working from March until mid-December I spent the day doing something far from home (except a 100 degree day in mid-August).I never took a day off to " just relax" because I'd be bored out of my mind by 9 am. More often than not, during nice weather, I am up two hours earlier than on work days. I do not sleep in! I'll leave to go trout fishing in April at 5am, and I don't even need to set my alarm clock.

Of course, as a kid growing up,being on the go wasn't a problem for my son. It was just lifestyle. He would much rather go hiking in New Hampshire for the weekend than sit at home. Still, for DJ's mom then and maybe my friend Laurie now, I think it might be hard to have a relationship with me.

On Saturday I did that trip to Race Point. I spent all day driving, birding, and walking the beach. I was physically and mentally tired when I got home. I went to bed at 10:30. I had to work Sunday but things went smoothly and I was out of work at 2 pm. Laurie came over and we (I) started thinking of things to do. It was a raw day with the snowstorm approaching. Still as we were burning daylight, I started to get fidgety. I knew that if we didn't do anything while the sun was out, my mood would change and anxiety was setting in.

I truthfully thought "what the hell is wrong with me?". I had a big adventure the day before that exhausted me  and I can't sit still for one frigging day.  That is why I'm writing this post.

My other best friend is a retired school teacher. He is outside every single day. He is either fishing (for carp and stripers) or skiing at least 350 days a year. No doubt, he can relate. To him being outside isn't a lifestyle, it is as much a part of life such as eating and breathing. That is how I feel. I have more hobbies that vary from multiple species of fish to museums, concerts,birding, hiking, etc... Still he gets to "play" every single day. Since he fishes for two species of fish, his planning is around where to fish and what is the strategy for catching them.

I, on the other hand, always feel like I'm missing out because I made a wrong choice. Many times I'll fish for trout while Dave is fishing for stripers. If he tells me they were busting all over and he caught twenty stripers, I'll kick myself if I only caught a couple trout. The same can be said if I go birding and the trout were biting. Having so many thing I enjoy doing  always makes me feel like I could be doing something better. This is especially true in the spring, particularly May when stripers, carp, trout, largemouth bass, shad, and bird migrations peak. This paragraph seems like complaining. Truth is, I enjoy the problem of trying to figure out what is the most productive use of my time. It's just sometimes I wish I didn't have so many things that interest me. Too many choices.

On another note, I day dream a lot. Some of it is useful, such as planning on where I am going fishing

I can't sit in my house for fifteen minutes without
getting bored, but I could sit and look at this view for hours

after work. As I have mentioned before, there are two things I think about almost everyday. At some point I will think about catching and fishing for false albacore. The other is, the Grand Tetons. Of the places I have been fortunate enough to visit, the Tetons are the most special. The view from either side of those ragged peaks is the most majestic thing I have ever seen. If you throw in the wildlife ( moose on every trail, elk, bears, and buffalo everywhere), its the most amazing place I have been. I crave to go back so much it hurts.

Which leads to one of my last annoying points. My goal in life is to travel the country living out of my car (actually I'd want a small SUV). I am positive that I could travel the west for at least five years and never come home. I know I wouldn't get homesick. Of course there would be a very small list of people I'd miss. They are probably the reason I have not sold my house and done it. Still, I think about it all the time. I have an itinerary written out for the first three years. It takes in time of year, snow melt, trout fishing, and bird migrations.  Mostly, I would be backpacking the desert in the winter, Utah canyon country in spring and fall, and mountain ranges during the summer. Yes, I really have it planned. I don't know if it will ever happen, but I would not be sad if my life ended as a homeless vagabond traveling around looking for the next breathtaking scenery.

Sometimes I can control this wanderlust. Other times it is all I think about. Clearly, this is one of those times. Truthfully, I love my life. If I die tomorrow, I will have no regrets. I accept, I will never see everything I want to see. So there is no point regretting never making it to Glacier NP. Because if I make it there, something else will take its place on top of my bucket list (Giant Sequoias). As long as I keep trying to do everything, that's all I ask of myself.  Chasing a Yellow Billed Loon on Saturday or spending a day trout fishing down the Cape are things I love doing. As long as I do those things, I am happy. My problem is, as soon as one adventure is done, I'm ready for the next one (which is why it was stressful for DJ's mom to date me, and not relaxing)

I know I am never going to change. This is who I am. If I could use one word to describe myself it would be "wanderlust". I will never be the person to come home from a vacation a day early.  That said, I envy the people that get the most out of life from human relationships. How much easier it must be to want nothing more than to come home to your wife and eat supper and be with her. I clearly have a couple good friends and a very small number of my family that I am truly close too. But no matter how happy I am to be with them, it comes back to going stir crazy if we are not doing something outdoors or going on an adventure. I know it sounds condescending, but I truly mean it when I say that it seems easier to not want to see every inch of the U.S. and just be content with family.

 Again, I'm not going to change. I may never get married. Who the hell is going to put up with me being outside to well after dark every single day from April 15- Memorial Day?

End Rant

Race Point Part 2- Yellow Billed Loon

A gaggle of birders

I was supposed to go on a pelagic boat trip today to see offshore birds. The trip was postponed from a really cold (below zero) day in February. I took the day out of work as soon as the trip was rescheduled. Needless to say, I was really looking forward to it.

Then bad news struck! The boat that was going to take us out (one of the Francis Fleet) is getting a new motor ahead of schedule. Unfortunately for us, that meant the trip had to be cancelled, and worse, will not be rescheduled again.

So, as usual, I came up with a plan B. Cuttyhuink Ferry does a seal cruise twice during March, and one of the dates was today. So I called up early this morning to see if the seal cruise was going and if there were any spots left. Sadly, the ship was going out, but no spots were left.

So I came up with a plan C. A few of the people that were supposed to go on the pelagic were going to go out birding. It was okay for others to caravan. Obviously, I jumped at the chance to go birding with folks a lot better than me.

So that's what I did for a couple hours. We hit a couple of hotspots looking for birds like eagles, killdeer, and rare gulls. Birding wasn't great and I didn't see anything new for the year. The thing that surprised me was the caravan broke up very early. I was under the impression we would be birding all day long covering a big chunk of the state. As cars were dropping out, it became apparent, that at some point I would be a "tag-a-long" so I had to come up with a plan D.

Since I wasn't too far from home and could still do anything I wanted, I chose to make the long

Sleepy Grey Seal pup, Race Point Beach

journey back to Race Point again. I knew the now famous Yellow Billed Loon was still being seen as recently as yesterday. I knew that a lot of people would be there because it was a Saturday. If the bird was still around, then some one with more skills than me would see it for sure. There was also another rare bird spotted at the Race this week, a Mew Gull. So I could literally pick off two lifebirds with one drive. Worse case scenario was striking out with the birds but seeing whales. So I sucked it up and made the two plus hour drive to Provincetown.

Worse than the drive, is the walk from the parking lot to the rip current. The walk is over soft beach sand and at least two miles. There were a lot of birders in one spot probably three miles from my car. I went up to them hoping they had the loon. They had seen it, but the group (of at least ten birders) were not looking at it. They were however looking at the Mew Gull. So I got that lifebird.

They pointed me in the direction of where the loon had last been seen. A few minutes after that, someone found it and had called his buddies to tell them. So I ran up the beach even further, after a couple minutes a group of six of us were all looking at the Yellow Billed Loon. It was in bad light but not too far from shore. As it moved right, it got out of the sun glare. We could see the pale bill and its overall pale color. We watched for a solid fifteen minutes.

The reason why the Yellow Billed Loon is such a big deal is because it is the first one ever

Black Bellied Plover, Scusset Beach

documented in Massachusetts. If you read my previous post about Race Point, last week I was talking with a guy from Ontario that drove all the way just to see it. Today one of the guys that saw it drove up from Staten Island. Although the loon is common off of Alaska, for most people driving to Race Point is the only chance people have to add it to their life list.

So I saw the Mew Gull and the YB Loon. After that, I was hoping to sit on the beach and watch a whale show. There were whales close enough to shore to see. However, they weren't showing themselves much today. I saw as many as fifteen blow hole spouts today, but maybe twice did I actually see a whale arch its back and break the surface. It was kind of frustrating.

On a more positive note, on the long walk back to the car we came across a baby grey seal. We did not get too close, but got some decent photos. It did not mind our presence at all. As we walked by, it lifted its head up to look at us, then went back to sleep.

I got back to the car and started to make the long drive home. When I got over the Sagamore Bridge, I decided to go bird Scusset Beach and the east end of the canal. It was a good call. I saw a black bellied plover, a bunch of loons and two seals swimming in the current.

Since I figured whats another hour to an already long day, instead of going home, I passed my exit and went to the Cumberland Monastery.

Two seals in the canal

 There right before dark I watched and listened to woodcocks display to impress a mate...Then I went home.

Common Loon, Cape Cod Canal

Giant ship coming through the canal

From Whales to Wood Frogs

I did about 300 miles yesterday, so today, I didn't want to drive too far. Knowing that winter is almost over I looked at my list of winter daytrips to do. I can't do two of them. One thing I hoped to do this winter was snowshoe the trails at Wachusetts Reservoir. Someone told me coyotes will hang out on the ice and if I'm patient, I could see them.  We didn't get enough snow to snowshoe, and the lake never froze. My other thing I wanted to do was take a winter trip to Cuttyhunk with a stop to look at seals. I didn't realize the ferry only goes out twice during the winter. Once was last Saturday. The
other time is this coming Saturday, but ironically I will already be on a boat trip out of Point Judith.

My only other winter plan is to go to Daniel Webster Audubon Sanctuary, but I can easily do that in an afternoon after work, especially since clocks spring forward tonight. So I did what I normally did on days off this winter, I looked for birds. I didn't find many. I only saw one new species for Rhode Island, and that was a brown headed cowbird.

All the little brown dots on the surface were
frogs not sticks. The whole pond looked
like this

By far the highlight of my day was a walk at the Kettle Pond Visitor Center. I went for a walk to a small pond, before even seeing it, I could hear the tell tale sound of wood frogs. Wood frogs breed in vernal pools. After a warm spring rain, they gather in pools. The males croak to impress a female. It is cool to hear and see so many frogs. I brought my camera and got some pictures. The key to getting good pictures is patience. I couldn't get close to any. As I walked the shoreline, I'd spook the ones fifteen feet in front of me. I decided to sit on a rock and wait it out. Within five minutes I had frogs floating past me only four or five feet away. I think two or three of them actually enjoyed posing for photos. Of course that was a joke, but I do think they are naturally curious since I looked like they came in for a closer look to see what I was,

A whale of a day at Race Point

This week a species of loon was spotted off of Race Point that is so rare in Massachusetts, it is the FIRST documented one in the state. The species is a Yellow Billed Loon. People have been driving hundreds of miles to see it. I know your thinking "hundreds of miles" is an exaggeration. Let me tell you, birders are obsessed and they drive environmentally friendly cars that get great gas mileage.

I subscribe to an email list called Massbird. Every day people post any sightings when they go birding. All week there have been reports of the Yellow Billed. In those reports, there has been casual mention that Finback Whales are putting on a show off the beach.

On my Spring Bucket List, I had written down that I wanted to go to the Outer Cape to see whales. I was planning on going in April to Coast Guard Beach. However, I had perfect reasons to go today. I didn't know whales could be seen in March. Today's weather was predicted to be about 55 degrees, which is pretty nice for March. Lastly, I had a shot at seeing the rare loon ( Yellow Billed Loons are common off of Alaska. What is rare here is not necessarily rare some place else. But Alaska is not in my budget for a while). The truth is, I never would be able to recognize the subtle differences of a Yellow Billed Loon to a Common Loon, but I was hoping others would be there if it was around.

I left home at 6 am. I didn't rush since it was still raining and I knew it would clear up about 9. I got to Provincetown about 8:30. I parked at Race Point parking area (which is terribly named. Although my destination was Race Point, the actual point itself is 1.9 miles from the parking lot over fairly soft beach sand). I ate a quick snack and packed my bag. I made my way north up the beach. I started jogging to speed up the never ending walk on the sand. While jogging, I looked up and saw a seal on the beach. I went around it so not to scare it, but it still got nervous and made its way to the water.

Seal on the beach

Next I came across a bunch of gulls. For the most part, I find gulls as boring as you do. However, in this group was a large all white gull. I knew instantly I had never seen it. I took some pictures. A little past the gulls were three birders standing next to each other. I thought that they were looking at the Yellow Billed Loon, but they were not. They  were looking for it, but hadn't found it

. You know how I said people were coming hundreds of miles? I got talking to one of the birders and spent most of the morning with him. He was a guy in his fifties from north of Toronto! He drove to Race Point the night before just to see the bird! He drove all day Thursday, rented a motel that night. This morning, he braved the wind and rain (getting soaked through) all to see a life bird.  This guy was very soft spoken and very pleasant to talk to. He told me he has seen 701 species of birds in North America! That is incredible to me, but what makes it even more incredible is, he has not been to Alaska ( Alaska has many species of birds not seen anywhere else in North America, also being so close to Russia and northern Asia, it gets a lot of Asian rarities when storms blow birds that way)

The big white gull is a Glaucous Gull

While we were looking for the loon, which to save you suspense we never found, we did see a terrific showing of finback whales. I saw whales come up at least twenty times (assuming I saw the same few multiple times). They were feeding just offshore only a couple hundred yards out. Realize that a finback whale is twenty yards long, and it is only a football field and a half off shore. Trust me, it feels close! I could have watched the whales all day. If I would have been alone, I probably would have. I made a mistake of leaving my camera in my bag most of the time I was on the beach. When I finally got the camera out, the whales were a little further out. Although the pictures were decent, if I spent more time actually photographing the whales, they would have been a little better.  However, the more eyes looking for a bird, the better the chance of seeing it. So we walked up and down the beach looking for the loon.

Like I said, we didn't find it, but we found some other great birds.  We all got looks at a Pacific Loon. As you can imagine, it is rare in the Atlantic. It was not only a life bird for me, but also one of the other guys (it was his 485th bird).We also saw more glaucous gulls (the white gull I saw earlier. I had asked one of them to id it from my picture). We also saw Iceland Gulls, a Murre species too far out to tell, and Black Legged Kittiwake (which I'm not including as a lifebird) because I only saw it for a second). Another great bird for me was a Red Necked Grebe which is just starting to go into its breeding colors and I saw the red neck. There were also tons of Red Breasted Mergansers, Common
Eiders, Common Loons, and Red Throated Loons.

The whale photos are not cropped at all. 

 All in all, it was an absolute terrific day birding. I got back to my car about 1:30 pm. I drove towards Chatham where I scouted out parking areas for the summer (not much). I did see tons of seals on the beach. I didn't count, but I'm sure there was at least one hundred. From there I stopped in Plymouth to do some trout fishing but didn't have any luck.

Two side notes- I know I wrote this in much more detail than needed in a blog. I had a terrific day in a place that is very far from home. I wanted to write it as a report to remember.

Iceland Gull feeding

Other side note- I apologize about how shabbily written my last post was about my first carp. I know I sometimes have typos. I usually quickly proof read my post before I publish them. Sometimes, too quickly. When I reread a post, a lot of times I will fix my mistakes. However, I did that post as quickly as I could so Zach could see his picture of his yellow bullhead. My biggest problem was, while fishing I ate a lot of pistachios,  the next day they were recalled for Salmonella. Lets just say I was writing between trips to the bathroom and went to bed the second I hit the button to publish.

First Carp/ First Yellow Bullhead

  I went fishing with my friend Eric the last two days. We were out trying to catch some early season carp. On Tuesday night we got skunked by the cap. We did not even get a hit from one. As we reeled in our poles for the night, we each landed a surprise little yellow bullhead.

On Wednesday we tried again on a much warmer night. Eric brought his son Zach along. He was hoping to catch some of the yellow bullhead. Happily, the yellow bullhead were biting. Zach caught quite a few bullhead. These were the first yellow bullhead of his life. Good job, buddy

I also landed my first carp of the year. I caught it after dark which was a bit of a surprise. Being such a warm day, I would have assumed I'd get one (if I got one) during the warmest part of the afternoon. It was a nice common carp going about fifteen pounds.

Norman Bird Sanctuary and Sachuest

I didn't find out I had the day off from work until 7:50 this morning. Since I thought I was working, I didn't have a plan. As I was trying to think of things to do, I looked at my winter bucket list. One of the things I wanted to do was a Seal Cruise on the Cuttyhunk Ferry. The ferry only runs a couple seal cruises a winter. I went to their website. They had a cruise for today and March 19 (forty five dollars. Leaves New Bedford at 10, returns at 2. Lunch is included)

If I packed quickly I could have made it. I called the phone number to see if they were going out. Cruises are cancelled because of bad weather. Also, you need reservations. So I called to see if there was room for me if the boat was going out. Sadly, for me, no one answered the phone. I couldn't just drive down to New Bedford hoping to get a boat ride.

Spring is coming!

So I came up with Plan B. Another thing on my winter list was to hike the trails at Norman Bird Sanctuary in Middletown, RI. Norman is a 325 acre private property obviously dedicated to the protection of birds. There are various ecosystems and seven miles of trail. Of course I was going to look for wild birds, but my main goal was to get a few miles of hiking in.

When I went to start my car, it made a strange sound like my flywheel was broken. Since I only have about 200 miles left on my warranty, I thought the prudent thing to do was to take it back to the dealer, who goes to work at 10 am. After I got done talking to him, I finally could go for my walk.

The water to the left is Gardiner Pond
The land to the upper right and water is Second Beach
View from Hanging Rock

Because Norman Bird Sanctuary is private property, they do charge a fee of seven dollars. You can get a year membership for $65, and you could walk the trails all year for free. However, I just bought a car and a camera in the same week, so paying to walk already felt like splurging. Birding overall was not that good. My best bird was a fox sparrow. I only saw one species that was new for the year, and that was a hairy woodpecker. Other than those birds, there weren't many highlights today. I did manage to walk about five miles. The temperature was about freezing, but with  a sweatshirt, windbreaker and light gloves I was plenty warm.

Pretty Cool Lean-to

The trails are well maintained and there is a lot of signage, so your not going to get lost. The sanctuary owns the Hanging Rock that is easily seen from Second Beach. I hiked to it. It is not handicapped accessible of course, but it was not a difficult hike. You have to watch your footing on the ridge, because the "puddingstone" is uneven. However, I  would consider the short ridge fun and not difficult. The view is really good from Hanging Rock. I could see Second Beach, Third Beach, Gardiner Pond, and Sachuest.

There were other interesting features along the trails. There is a small historic cemetery. I saw the lean-to that is on the right. I have no idea why it is there. There is also a rock with a poem engraved on it. I saw a small quarry. Also on the property is a shell mound, that I guess is pretty old. I couldn't find it. In the field, there has to be thirty bluebird boxes. Although I didn't see any bluebirds today, I'm guessing those boxes are pretty busy with bluebirds and tree swallows in a couple of months.

Poetry Rock. You can't see it but there
is a poem engraved on it

After I left Norman Bird Sanctuary I went over to Sachuest. I had also planned on doing another hike on Aquidneck Land Trust Property. I never made it. I wanted to get some photos of deer with my new camera. I know that viewing the deer is best in the evening and it was only 2 pm. So I went to the parking lot and figured if there were any near the lot I photograph them. If there weren't I'd go on my hike. Sure enough from the paring lot I could see six deer. I took a bunch of pictures of them. One down side to the deer having absolutely no fear of people is, they never lift there head up while feeding. There must have been a running club training at Sachuest today. I saw at least 30-40 joggers. They would run by and kick up pebbles causing quite a ruckus. The deer barely noticed them. Every time a deer would look up, I'd snap a few pictures then I'd have a long wait and repeat the process. Of course, it is still nice to have deer so willing to be photographed so close to people, but patience is a virtue.

After I photographed those six deer, I figured if they were out, others might be also. I also thought I had an outside chance of seeing the snowy owl again.

This Red Tailed Hawk was eating a small mammal
It was about 75 yards away.

So I headed south down the trail. Within two minutes I came across a herd of 11 deer. They were much further away than the  ones I just photographed so I kept walking. Today was a good day for sea ducks. There were more common eiders than I'd seen all year. There were also Greater Scaup, Harlequins, and Black Scooters. I got some decent pictures of them.  I went to Island Rocks where I had seen the Snowy, but it wasn't within view today. I did see some Purple Sandpipers and the Greater Scaup.  I cut across the middle trail and went back to the original six deer. They were still feeding, but were a  little further away from where I left them.

So I went to take a look at the herd of eleven that was now a herd of twelve. As I had hoped, they were much closer. I only took pictures of the closest two or three. As with the other ones, I had to wait for good shots. When a deer would look up, I'd snap a few photos. I didn't mind the long wait. There are worse thing to do than watch deer feed. So I waited and photographed for forty five minutes. I took a lot of pictures and happily very few came out fuzzy. I left for home about 5:30.

For those of you that can't wait for me to start writing about fishing again, I'm going carp fishing on Tuesday. On my next day off I plan on going to Race Point to look for migrating whales and doing some trout fishing on my way home in either Plymouth or Sandwich.

p.s. The little shorebirds in the photo below are sanderlings

Two Common Eiders

You win some, you loose some.

The water was ridiculously low at
Tiogue. No eagles were to be seen

I had great success the day I saw the Sandhill Crane. Seeing it was a plan B, since my intentions were to go to Sachuest. Following that success, I had a fun hike with my son around Tillinghast Pond. Spring is coming early this year, no doubt about it. I'm not sure it will be a warm spring, or cold and raw like the last two, but ice is off the ponds, and trout are being stocked. So I am trying to hustle to cross things off my winter bucket list.

When spring gets here, the stuff still on the bucket list will stay there. I'll be out trout and carp fishing as much as I can. I'll be birding for new migrants. It is doubtful I will hike to the places I wanted to go during the winter because I have a full list of places I want to fish and bird during the spring.

That is the reason I have been out like a banshee. It doesn't hurt that I no longer have a car with 327k miles. I feel more relaxed going places in a much newer car (that by the way got me 34.6 mpg when I checked).

So on  Tuesday I went to knock off a couple more items after work. First I went back to Lake Tiogue to see the bald eagles. I had no luck. I stayed about a half hour. I could see most of the pond from my vantage point but they never came into view.

Next I decided to go to Stepstone Falls. Stepstone Falls is the only real waterfall in Rhode Island. I have never been to it, and only heard about it this year. It turns out it is only a few miles away from Tillinghast Pond. I figured, seeing the waterfall in the winter was a good idea. It would probably have a lot of water thanks to snow melt. I was happy to cross this off the list without taking time away from birding/fishing.

Browning Mill Pond

 I followed the directions to a T intersection where Frosty Hollow Road and Austin Farm Road meet in Exeter RI. I should have went left, but went right and ended up at Browning Mill Pond. I took some pictures. When I realized I made a mistake I went past the T where I should have taken a left. I went a quarter mile down the road and it was blocked off with a gate.

Austin Farm Road (which is where the trailhead is) can be accessed from another road named Escoheag Hill Road. I went back to Route 165 to this road and followed it to Austin Farm Road (also known as Plain Road). To my unhappy surprise, the dirt road was blocked off from this side also. I can only assume the gate is closed for the winter.  I couldn't even consider parking at the gate and walking in. It was much too late in the day. So I did the only thing I really could, and drove home accomplishing nothing in an afternoon of over a hundred miles of driving.

Tillinghast Pond, West Greenwich, RI

The other day, DJ and I went for a hike is the western part of Rhode Island that I very much enjoyed. The main purpose of the hike was to see a red breasted nuthatch which has been seen there a couple of times. The other purpose was just to get some much needed cardio in. The directions are probably easier to follow if you Google them from your location, than for me to explain them Suffice to say, West Greenwich near the Connecticut border.

The pond can be seen easily from the parking lot. We went to the left of the lot. We took a map, but most of the trail junctions have a kiosk with a map also. The scenery seemed more like northern New Hampshre than western Rhode Island. There were huge white pies. The pond was completely undeveloped except for one dock.

The trail system in the area connects to the Wickaboxet Management area. Not far away is the huge Arcadia Management area. There are more than enough trails for a week of exploring. We only had a couple of hours,so we did a long loop around the pond and a "Boulder Garden".

As we were leaving the woods at dusk we heard an owl hoot. All in all, a nice way to spend a late afternoon.

DJ climbing a pine tree

This dock looked handicapped accessible but it
was a long way from any pavement.

An old homestead

This little bit of ice was probably
the last I'll see until next December. It was almost dark.
Time to get out of the woods

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