Sandy Point and Napatree via Sue Palmer

Black Skimmers doing what Black Skimmers do best.

Yesterday I went out on friend Sue's boat. We didn't leave until 2 pm because of the possibility of morning thunderstorms. However, we packed in a full day right up until dark.

First we went to Sandy Point which is an island in Little Narragansett Bay. The island is a nesting area for gulls, terns, and oystercatchers. After we left Sandy Point we continued across the bay to Napatree. It was joyous to take the boat ride there and not slog through the sand. Napatree was awesome. We saw Bonaparte Gulls, Red Knots, and many common species of shorebirds. The highlight of the day was watching two Black Skimmers skim their lower bill across the water to catch food.

After the birding we went to a spot where we easily got 15 pounds of quahogs each. If that didn't make for a perfect day, Sue's mother made me stay for supper which was a half dozen raw oysters each and a homemade lobster roll. I could not have asked for a better day.

If you read my last post you saw that I was waiting on a new camera. Friday was my first chance to point it at anything worthwhile. Needless to say I had multiple views of great birds. Some were close and some were far away. The close ones were nice, but the ones that were further away were more important. I wanted to see what 24 MP could do compared to the 18 on my old camera. The cropping power is amazing. The picture of the Bonaparte Gull sitting is a very cropped photo. They have a comfort zone and for whatever reason they keep a safe distance from people. The bird is twice as large in this photo than the original. Yet the photo is sharp, even with the so/so lighting. I couldn't be happier. 

As for birds flying, this camera focuses so much quicker than my old camera. I couldn't have gotten any of the photos I got yesterday with my T5. As you would expect, I got plenty of duds of flying birds where they are not in focus. However, it only takes one good one to make it worth it, and I got far more than that. 

Common Tern

Young Gull begging for food

American Oystercatcher

Young American Oystercatcher

Herring Gull family

Great Black Backed Gull. Obviously
wondering how my face can be so tan and
my feet so white.

This photo and the next six are of the two Black Skimmers flying. It was obviously good practice getting flight shots.

Heavily cropped photo of a Bonaparte Gull

Not a sharp photo of a flying Bonaparte, but the bird is still
beautiful.

My last memories with this camera

Laughing Gulls
The black-headed one is in breeding plumage

For many years my Canon EOS T5 camera has been my trusty companion when I go birding or hiking. I have captured literally thousands of memories with it. I've taken tens of thousands of photos with it from as far away as South Dakota and Florida to the bird feeder in my backyard.  It has never broken or let me down.

   However, it was time to upgrade. Since I bought my camera Canon has made four generations of the T series of cameras. Despite always being there for me, my camera has some obvious limitations. Those limitations are getting more obvious the older my camera gets. 

   

   The camera that I should have by Tuesday is a Canon T7i. I have wanted it for months. This was not an impulse buy. I was going to wait until next year to buy it with my tax money. However, I am going on a boat trip to the Gulf Stream in September and I am going to Forsythe NWR in NJ in August. I figured if I'm going to these hallowed grounds for birders, I may was well get the camera now. The reviews are great and the camera is capable of doing things of much higher priced cameras.

   The first limitation that is driving me crazy is the "cropping power" of my camera. As you can imagine, when you get photos of little birds from a distance, you need to crop many of the photos. My camera is 18 megapixels. It just doesn't have the power to crop without distorting the image making it look fuzzy unless I get perfect light. My new camera is 24 megapixels. Getting sharp photos should be easier.

   Secondly, my camera takes forever to focus. I can't tell you how many birds have flown away while my viewfinder was trying to focus. Not only will the T7i focus faster, but the autofocus is incredible. Mine has a 9 point autofocus system the T7i has a 45 point autofocus. The faster focus should make life a lot easier when trying to get pictures of birds in flight. 

The T7i also comes with a bunch of other new features. It is capable of taking six photos/second. Mine takes 3/second. The camera is WIFI compatible, but I doubt I will ever use that.

My "weekend" this week was Thursday and Friday. If this was the last time my camera gets used before being retired, it went out with a hell of a bang. I saw some really great birds over the last three days.   Here are some photos from this past week

This photo and the two below are of Indigo Buntings at
Carter Preserve, Charlestown, RI

The front photo is a Stilt Sandpiper at Napatree
The back bird is a Greater Yellowlegs for size comparison.

Stilt Sandpiper alone. These are a rare visitor and a really
good find.

Viceroy Butterfly

Female King Eider another rare visitor from the north,
much more so in the summer

Bonaparte Gull, Napatree

Spotted Sandpiper, Napatree

Although I did a quick post about the American
Avocet below, it is such a great bird and worthy of another
photo

Forster's Tern

Lesser Yellowlegs

Willet

Least Tern
Photo upgrade

Thank you for the memories. Thanks for always being so reliable. It has been a hell of a ride with you. 

American Avocet

   I had planned my day to go to work early and get out early and go to the ocean today anyway. So it was a lucky coincidence that another awesome bird showed up. An American Avocet usually shows up every year. Yesterday and today so happened to be when it showed up. I had only seen three previously and didn't get very good photos of any. So I was more than happy to spend an hour photographing it today. The bird was in front of the sun so these photos aren't as nice as I would like but everyone is an upgrade from the only Avocet I had gotten a photo of. what a beautiful bird.

Least Tern Photo upgrade

Also seen today, Western Sandpiper

A Crazy Week for Rarities

This is a crappy photo of a Ruff I saw on Friday last week

   In my last post I wrote about a bird that should be in Siberia right now, a Tereks Sandpiper. Only a few had ever been seen in the Lower 48 and never in Rhode Island. Many birders were on a high all week from seeing a bird that should be in Asia and Europe.

   On Thursday I went on a whale watch. We didn't see any whales which was bad for people looking for whales, but quite delightful for people looking for birds. Because we didn't see any whales, we got a free pass for a future whale watch (after Covid restrictions are lifted). While on the whale watch I was talking with my friend Alex. After we got home, Alex texted me to tell me about a Ruff (that is the full name) that was in Fairhaven, MA.The last one that was seen in Rhode Island was a few years back. I chased it but missed it. Alex and I made plans to go look for it for Friday morning.

The bird was easy to see. It was hanging out in the middle of a saltmarsh with the sun at our back. We had it within seconds of getting out of the cars. However, we watched it for a couple of hours. Ruff is a really cool looking bird. It has feathers that stick out. My pics are nothing more than proof photos. Still I was pretty excited to get a second lifebird in less than a week (I had gotten two all year before last week).

   On Sunday while Laurie and I were driving to a little hike my phone started blowing up that a Red Necked Stint was at Napatree found by Bill Thompson. My first thought was the same as the week before "Why does it have to be a Sunday? Why the F does it have to be Napatree? I decided not to drag Laurie down. She was kind enough to go last week I wasn't asking her to go again. So we went on our little hike. Did I mention this is another bird that had never been seen in Rhode Island!!!

 

Red-Necked Stint

 But... when the bird was still there on Monday I went. A Red Necked Stint is a European shorebird (that is the theme for this post), I had at least heard of it as opposed to the Tereks. I went straight after work and my friend Jan met me. While we were walking out, our phones were blowing up. Apparently another possible stint was being seen at Charlestown Breachway! I kept walking. I wasn't leaving one bird for another possible bird. I saw the Red Necked Stint and got some crumby photos into  the sun.

   While I was trying to enjoy this unbelievably rare species it turned out the other stint in Charlestown was a Little Stint. A Little Stint (say it with me) is a European shorebird. It was found by Tim Metcalf. As you can expect it is unbelievably rare to see in the US. However, there has been one other report of one in Rhode Island ever! I made the decision to stay

Little Stint

 with the Red-Necked Stint, the devil may care. I didn't want it to just be a check mark. I wanted to enjoy it and get good photos. I may never see another one again. If I missed the Little Stint, I could live with that decision. Luckily we refound the bird. I had good light and got good, not great, photos of it. I really enjoyed my time I spent.

   After I got my photos the bird flew to the other side of the channel where I first saw it. I knew I couldn't get any better shots. It was about 6:20 pm. I hauled ass out of there and headed to the Breachway. I knew I'd get there with close to an hour of daylight. There were a bunch of  birders getting this bird since most of them saw the Red-Necked Stint on Sunday.

Another photo of the Little Stint. The main difference
between the two is it has white on the throat.

Sure enough when I crossed the channel to the mudflats there were five birders there including my friend Jess that stayed to keep an eye on the bird for me. I had it in my scope within 20 seconds of looking through it. It was pretty far away and the light was fading so my view wasn't great. Since it was getting dark everyone else left. However, since I just got there I tried to get some photos.  It was with a flock of 50 or so other birds. Every couple minutes they would spook and fly around. Then I would have to sift through them again to find the Little Stint. It was a challenge but I got one good photo. Nothing compared to the ones I've seen today, but still I got a decent life photo of a lifebird.

  As you read this, I can not impress upon you enough how amazing this week was. Having two state first in a week is almost statistically impossible. The most common of these four birds, the Ruff, shows up like every five years. The best fishing equivalent is catching a fifty pound Redfish from shore and then driving down the road and catching a 200 pound tarpon both in Rhode Island. Because neither of them belong here.  In a nine day period I saw four European shorebirds. All lifers, three are state birds for RI and one in MA. Two of those birds had never been seen by a birder in Rhode Island. The Little Stint had been seen once. This week was crazy!

The rarest bird I am ever going to see in Rhode Island

Tereks Sandpiper
Photo courtesy of my friend Sue Palmer who saw it this morning 

   I'm working Sunday like I always do and I get an alert on my phone from my text group. My friend Jan StJean found a Black Skimmer and a  weird looking sandpiper at Napatree. My reaction was the same as it always is when I get a report like this on a Sunday. I tilted my head back and thought "Why does it have to be f-ing Napatree?" I am on call all day Sundays and Napatree is a 4 hour trip. It is 90 minute drive each way and a 30 minute walk. That doesn't even count the actual time birding. Throw in there's beach traffic, lack of parking, and the 2 hour parking limit if you can get a spot. Why does it always have to be fucking Napatree!

  A few minutes later I get another alert that the bird is a Tereks Sandpiper. You may ask what the hell is that, don't worry, so did everybody else. It turns out a Tereks Sandpiper is an Asian shorebird. They summer in Siberia and they winter along the west coast of Africa. Yes, I had to Google it just like every other birder in Rhode Island except for like three people.

   Tereks Sandpiper isn't just a rare bird in Rhode Island they have only been seen in the lower 48 states two other times. One in California, and one in Mass in 1990! It is always dangerous for me to go to far from home on a Sunday. Anything could happen at work. A closer could get sick, a toaster could break, etc... I was really not planning on going, it is a long ride/walk, and birds can fly away. However, to sweeten the deal, one of my favorite birds had been seen there, Black Skimmer, and another bird I needed for the year was seen that morning, Bonaparte Gull. So I figured I could get something out of it.

I got to Napatree at 3:30. Laurie dropped me off and went shopping so I didn't have to worry about parking. I made the 30 minute walk in 20 minutes (as did everyone that could) and was sweaty when I got to a group of two dozen birders. I knew before I got there, thanks to texts, that the bird hadn't been seen in two hours, I was not hopeful.

A photo I took of a Black Skimmer a couple years ago

   So I waited and chatted with people I knew. First one of the skimmers showed up. I got great looks of it skimming the lagoon. Since it is one of my favorite birds and I hadn't seen one this year, I felt like I didn't waste my time. Next a Forster's Tern flew by. Another bird I needed for the year.

   Then a Bonaparte Gull flew in and started swimming near shore. I felt pretty good even without the mega-rarity. Then we got a report from Connecticut birders that it was at Sandy Point (which is across Little Narragansett Bay. Then another report came in that it was flying back. Sure enough, about five minutes later someone called out "there it is". The Tereks Sandpiper was flying with two Spotted Sandipers. Most of the two dozen people got a good look of it flying. I wish it would have landed but the 20-30 second flight around the lagoon was sufficient to "call it"  I got to see its most distinguishing feature, its upturned bill. It was bigger than the Spotteds too. After it flew back out of sight there was a collective sigh, and excitement. There were extensive air high fives (pandemic). There couldn't have been happier birders.

Photo of a Forster's Tern

At this point Laurie had been waiting long enough. The bird flew back towards Sandy Point and it was time to go.This bird is so unbelievably rare in the United States that people from across the country are coming for it. One guy drove all night to see it this morning. He was from Ohio. The good news is it was there again today and many others saw it. I didn't get any pictures yesterday. That's okay, I'm a birder. And I got to see the bird!

THANKS JAN!

June Explorations

Wilson's Pharalope. This is probably the best bird I found on
my own this year. I found it one one of my explorations
of the mudflats early in the month

   June is not my favorite month. After the whirlwind of May, June is a letdown. I try to plan my vacation or getaways in June to give me something to look forward to. That obviously wasn't an option this year. So I settled into my typical June routine that I can't seem to break. The days I work, I find it difficult to motivate myself to go out after I get home. Despite perfect weather the beginning of the month, I just don't feel like doing anything. Luckily, this year I have a fairly large garden. Although I couldn't motivate myself to drive any distance, I did keep busy doing yard work and planting.

   However, my days off are another story. I always have plenty to do. Even with two trips cancelled, I still found plenty of places to go. This year I mixed it up a little and did some exploring. I still went to Napatree and the Charlestown Breachway a couple of times, but I also managed to explore some new territory and some old favorites. I only saw one new species of bird for the year this month. It was a Blue Grosbeak found by Bill Thompson at Carter Preserve. But the funny thing is I really enjoyed all the places I went for the joys of birding and listing. I birded in three different states this month. Quite honestly, it was relaxing and very enjoyable. 
 
    During the first week of the month I went birding in Connecticut with my friends Jan, Sue, and Jess. We birded a place called Barn Island. It is just over the border. You can see Napatree from spots. This was a great adventure. There is a lot of different habitat, so there are many species of birds. Despite having all the migrants already north of us, we saw 46 different species in a couple of hours. We had a great morning. I didn't write about it because I was a jackass and left my memory card at home so I couldn't take any pictures. Still we had a great day.

    A week later a bunch of us explored Buck Hill Management Area. This is the northwestern corner of the state. The main attraction is a monument where the three states of RI, MA, and CT converge. We all stopped and got photos of it. I can only hope no one finds this monument offensive and tries to topple it. He didn't see as many species but I did get a decent photo of an Eastern Wood Peewee.

Some of my birding buddies around the monument at
Buck Hill

 














 As I've written about earlier, I visited an old favorite last week when I went to Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary. I went alone and spent 3 hours exploring and taking pictures. I drove home with a smile because of how much fun I had.

Bobolink at Daniel Webster

I made a stop at Hunts Mill in East Providence to get some shots of the Night Heron that summers there. Luckily for me it was there and but on a great show.

 
   

Also last week I went to the Carter Preserve in Charlestown. There I saw my only new bird for the month, a Blue Grosbeak. My photo sucks but it is a life photo and you gotta start somewhere.

Blue Grosbeak

    Today I went to a couple of my Rhode Island old standbys, the aforementioned Napatree and Breachway. I couldn't sleep so I got up early. I has at Napatree at 6 am (it is a 90 ride and I put the kayak on the car first). There was a thick blanket of fog until 8 am. There weren't a lot of birds, but Napatree has a habit of having rare birds such as Black Skimmers, Royal Terns, Curlews, and Little Egret. Even though I didn't see anything rare today, it is the possibility that always draws me back.

    After I left Nap I went to the Breachway. Again, there wasn't anything new but I had fun. My highlight were photo upgrades of Common Terns. Yes Common Terns are common and I've gotten photos before. However, since I was in my kayak, I posed no threat to them. They let me glide right within a few feet. I was in a strong current moving faster than I would have liked but taking the photos so close was still awesome!

Tomorrow I am going to Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in Dartmouth. I have only been there twice and not in years. After that, Laurie are going to check out sites of some New England legends. It should be a fun day and I hope I have something to write about.

I guess what I am trying to say with this post is for me, June was a win.