Some Resolutions and projects

   As many of us do I am  am making resolutions for the new year. I came up with a few ideas but by far the most important to me is the top one. While most New Year's resolutions come and go, I have to tell you that I am very good about keeping resolutions. I once went a whole year without soda and another without any alcohol just as a resolution. I think part of the reason why I am usually successful is because I hate starting streaks over. It is easier to go another day without a diet coke than it is to reach a streak of 200 days. Also, the OCD in me HATES having things on my list that I can't check off. 

   By far the most important thing I want to do is spend less money on material things. I bought all the rods/reels that I need and can't justify buying anymore. So I truly shouldn't need to buy any this year. I have about twenty five outfits from a three weight fly rod to my twelve foot beefstick for shark fishing. Even if I bought a reel six months from now, it would still mean I spent far less on rods and reels than I did in 2025. 

   As for tackle, I don't need any more of that either. I have a closet full of boxes of spare gear. But for the sake of argument I decide I want to spoil myself or a sale is too good to pass up, my club points and random gift cards should cover the cost of most toys.

   For non fishing related hobbies, as long as what I have doesn't break, I shouldn't need much. My biggest expense last year was a new spotting scope (mine was low quality and twenty years old) and a new tripod (mine fell apart, it was also twenty years old). Hopefully my camera and lens makes it through the year. That would be wonderful.  

   As for the other resolutions, I still need to catch a Pike and see a Red Bellied Snake. I've never tried to catch a Redfin Pickerel and I'd like to go catch another Bowfin. Sleeping outside one day a month will only be hard in January. Hopefully we get a warmish night and I can sleep on the porch in-between these old fashioned New England cold nights

2026 Resolutions

Spend less money on material things

Try to catch Northern Pike, Bowfin, Redfin Pickerel

Try for Red Bellied Snake

Sleep outside once per month

Winter Projects

   I love doing winter projects. When I lived alone I would not start them until November 1 because I knew once I started and had them listed I'd want to do them (and check them off) as fast as possible. Since I've been with Laurie, I decided to wait till the New Year. There is enough holiday stuff to keep me busy during December. January is another matter. 

   Instead of buying flies or asking for them at Christmas, this year I bought the materiel to make my own. I've made some of my own flies before such as albie flies and wooly buggers so I'm not new to it. I had much of the fly tying materiel but needed to get some hooks and odds and ends. I plan on making my four flies I use the most.

   Shark rigs cost between $10-20 each depending on the size of the hook!!! That is of course insane. So I bought all of the pieces to make my own from the big hooks and swivels to the wire. I've made a couple so far and can make them for about $3/each. I did waste about forty dollars on hooks before I found circle hooks with the gap I like. Still even with the investment in hooks, if I make a couple rigs for myself and my two buddies that investment is paid for during our first cast.

   The other projects are pretty standard for me. I always make some carp rigs over the winter and paint some weights to blend into the mud. I make leaders for surf fishing so making a couple for bait fishing with a circle hook for Smooth Dogfish is quick and fun. I always change out rusty hooks and repaint wooden eggs and poppers, at least when I have years where I went to the ocean enough for salt to get on my lures. 

    

Winter Projects

   Make flies

      10 ants

      10 foam ants

      10 Hare's Ears

      10 Pheasant Tails

   Make five homemade shark rigs

   Paint some carp sinkers

   Repaint some of my dirty poppers white

   Make some knotless hair rigs

   Make some rigs with circle hooks for dogfish

   Make leaders for surf fishing

  Change out rusty hooks out of surf bag

Things I am thankful for

 

  It has become a Thanksgiving tradition of mine to do a blog post about things I am thankful for. Sometimes it is just a collection of memories from the previous eleven months. Other times I have written about cheating death and happiness of knowing a family member that has passed. This year I was celebrating my favorite Thanksgiving of all time in New Hampshire and really didn't have time to make a post. 

   Since I hate stopping traditions I figure better late than  never...

I am thankful Laurie's broken ankle healed and we have had one full year with neither of us being injured or in pain

I am thankful for the summer Saturday's I had off from work. In a series of weekends we saw a lifer Soft Shelled Turtle, John Adam's birthplace, and Fort Trumbull in CT

I am thankful I am not doing a big year trying to see as many birds or vertebrates as I can in 2025. It was fun last year but two years in a row would be mentally exhausting

Thankful for old friends that I've fished with for twenty years (Dave), friends that I've birded with the past decade (my text group and others), and new friends at work (Adam)

I am thankful for May. My weekdays off from work I fished or went to NH. My Saturday's off I socialized with birder friends.

I am thankful for Wareham. Onset summer concerts and the picnic area at the Railroad Bridge made for a great summer

Thankful my two month long Mother Nature slump is over. I had brutal bad luck but at some point statistics say things had to change. In the past month I have seen two lifer birds, had a twenty striper day, caught a decent striper another day, and had the rain wash away enough snow in NH to safely  hike The Flume Gorge

I am thankful I am done chasing Pacific Loon and Cave Swallows

Selfishly, I am thankful for my employee discount but also matching 401K

I am thankful I caught a shark but also to experience it with James and Adam

Boathouse Row!

Smallmouth Bass and Sharks!

I am thankful I got the Scopoli's Shearwater so if I choose not to go on anymore pelagics I don't have to!

Thankful for Sue dropping everything when I can get down South County to bird

Thankful for the little Milk Snake that wouldn't stop biting me, the opossum I randomly saw, the Bean Goose, and all the nature I come across.

Thankful that you read this and that writing about my adventures inspires some of you to go on your own

Happy Holidays!

A specific Pacific Loon

 

   As I have mentioned multiple times, Pacific Loon has been one of my biggest nemesis birds of my life. I said to Sue Palmer today, it is a lifer  in not just that it would be the first one I've seen in my life but also, I've spent much of my life chasing this bird ( I may not have used the word bird but rather two words that start with the letters MF).

   Pacific Loons obviously live in the Pacific. One or two occasionally makes it to Rhode Island every year. I have either always been a day late, a minute late, or I've had to work and the loon will stick around all day. This has been going on for the better part of a decade for me. It is by far "the easiest" bird I had never seen in Rhode Island. As I said, one or two will show up a year. 

   I have chased Pacific Loon four times since early November. There was one at East Beach for a week but not the two times I was there (along with Dave M one of those days). Two weeks ago I dipped on one that had been hanging at Watch Hill Light with Sue (that she originally found)

  Today was my first day off since I last tried for the loon that wasn't Thanksgiving. So I made the ninety minute drive again. The bird has never left and I hoped it would be within viewing distance this time. 

   

Even more cropped image but you can see the tell 
tale chin strap of a juvenile
Pacific Loon

   Sue spotted the bird fairly close to shore right away and I thought I had finally seen it. I forgot my memory card in the car so I took photos with Sue's camera. However, as a true nemesis I was looking at the wrong loon. So what I thought was initial success was another couple minutes of frustration. 

   Finally! I got on the right bird. I went to my car and got a memory card and took photos of it for ten minutes. Wow! that was a tough half decade (minimum) chase. 

   After I got my fill of photos Sue and I walked around and saw a Red Throated Loon wash up to shore completely exhausted. After some deliberation and a phone call I caught it and drove it to the Wildlife rehab place on my way home. It was extremely sad and I don't think the little guy will make it but I did what I could.

   So what started out as a huge win certainly ended with a dark cloud watching this poor little Red Throated Loon suffering at the end of the trip. 

The RT Loon before we realized how bad of a shape
it was in

Ecotarium

 

Below is a post that I never published. I don't know why. We had gone in the summer so outdoor stuff may not be the same suring winter hours. 

   I've done pretty much everything within driving distance for a daytrip in Southern New England. When my son was young, when sports and fishing didn't get in the way, I took him to every zoo, historical site, and nature preserve I knew of. By the time he was ten we had done Battleship Cove, Roger Williams Zoo, and the Freedom Trail enough times that we were a little bored. I brought him to museums and aquariums, but one place that always eluded me was the Ecotarium in Worcester.

    The Ecotarium, formerly known as the New England Science Center, is a part museum of science part zoo. There aren't many animals and most of them are local. At the Eco (I can not keep writing Ecotarium over and over, so from now on it's Eco) there are Wood Turtles, Box Turtles, Owls, Eagle, and River Otters. There are a few others. 

 

 There are a lot of hands on activities much of it directed toward kids. The most fun thing I found was a wind tunnel. You get in and close the door and wind hits you up to seventy eight miles per hour. The wind tunnel is in an area about Mt Washington's climate. There are exhibits explaining how difficult it is for vegetation at that altitude. 

  There's a lot of other interesting stuff to learn about. There is a collection of shells you could find in New England. There is a section about Africa with stuffed wild animals. Outside, there are life sized dinosaurs. Also outside is a place where you can learn about bubbles. You can make huge bubbles and bubbles of many shapes. I thought that was fun.

  There is a train that goes around the property but it was closed for maintenance the day we went. For kids, there is a playground along a tiny stream where we saw a bullfrog. On the trail past the playground were a Mountain Lion and in another large cage, Ravens. The Puma's were awake. The Ravens were bouncing around eating and watching us. 

A meteorite that you can touch

   The Eco also has a planetarium and I am a sucker for a planetarium program. We went to the 2 o'clock which was about the size of the universe. There are different programs throughout the day. Unfortunately, since much of the Eco is dedicated to kids, there were a lot of kids in the program, and some of them were obnoxious. Still, the program itself was interesting. There is an additional fee of seven dollars to go into the planetarium program.

The price for an adult was $19. I have to admit it was worth it. I enjoyed the animals the best of course. I have never seen a Wood Turtle. So it was nice to see what I am looking for. We spent fifteen minutes watching the Otters. I did read a lot of the literature on the walls and learned a lot. If you have kids, there is a lot of activities to do. I actually ran into my sister-in-law and my niece and they were having a great time. Ironically, they had never been there before either. 

https://ecotarium.org/

Mineral Display

Entrance to the exhibit about Africa

A short program about Eastern Box Turtles