Barred Owl

Saturday did not start out too well for me. I went to Moose Hill Audubon Refuge in Walpole to look for three species I had never seen before. They are Evening Grossbeak, Red Crossbills, and Pine Siskin. All three species were seen on Friday at various points. All three are in the finch family and are pretty rare visitors from the far north. For reasons unknown to me this year is predicted to be a "big finch year". All three species have come south in numbers rarely seen. 

To put the rarity into perspective, the rarest of these is the Evening Grossbeak. One lady at Moose Hill started to talk to me. She said the last E Gossbeak she saw in Massachusetts was 1992! She did say she has seen some in Maine since.

It doesn't matter however, I stood in front of the feeders with other birders from 8-11 am. The Crossbills made a five second appearance at the top of a tall spruce. I got a glimpse of a silhouette, but nothing that I am going to count as seeing. It was cold and we were all miserable. At eleven I left to go birding . 

 As you can see from the below post, I had a good afternoon in southern RI. The highlight was a Barred Owl. It was in a small tree at the back of a field near the road. As I was driving by the field I saw three guys with huge cameras on tripods. I clearly knew they were looking at some animal. I pulled over and sure enough, it was this owl. It was unfazed by the photographers. It spent its time sleeping and looking in the grass when it heard a rodent move.. 

The light was at my side. There was no way to get a better angle The sun was from the south and I was east of the bird. There wasn't anyway to get my back to the sun. Even if I did, there was a tangle of branches that would have completely blocked out the owl. Still, seeing an owl at any time is awesome. I watched it for 30 minutes before moving on. When I left, I went to Trustom where the conditions were perfect for photographing ducks. 

November Photos

After my last post being so negative, I wish I would have had a reason to put up a new post sooner. I spent last weekend dividing my time between birding and fishing. Fishing was good, I got about ten stripers each day. This week I brought my surf rod with me but there was no point. Yesterday, the ocean was still angry. Ten foot rollers were crashing the beaches. Today the ocean was a lot flatter. However it was still dirty. Some of the beaches looked like the waves were made of gravy. 

I took my camera along all these days. I went for a walk with my bird club last Friday. That is where I saw the sleeping raccoon. 

The ducks at the bottom were seen at Trustom. The light was at my back. The water was glass calm. The birds were in close right near the observation "tower". In fact all of the species were closer than I had ever been to any of them. 

Northern Pintail

Snow Buntings in flight

Snow Buntings on the ground

A weird looking goldfinch. Probably sick

Me trying to appreciate the common
species also

Sleeping raccoon

Gulls diving on bait in a huge blitz

One of many last week.
Zero this week

Red Bellied Woodpecker,
Moose Hill, Sharon

Barred Owl
You will see more pictures of it in a
future post

Greater Scaup

Ruddy Duck

Canvasback

Redheads

Ring Necked Duck

Loser!

I try not to judge, but I can't stand lazy fishermen. I have some pet peeves when I see fishermen doing things wrong. One of my biggest is watching guys cast giant poppers when the fish are on two inch bay anchovies. Usually, I just shake my head and think "idiot" while I'm releasing another fish.

 What is worse is watching "fishermen" only fish when they see something happening. By far, the time you see this the most is the fall. During the fall, you see multiple four wheel drives out on the beaches and also on the highways looking for fish. Many of these trucks will have a rod rack attached to the front grill as if to say "I'm a bad ass fishermen". Yeah, right!

There are many fishermen that won't even make a cast if they don't see fish breaking. I don't know how many times I've seen fishermen on the beach or in the parking lot with their rods not fishing. I'll walk down to the water and catch a fish on the first cast, then another, and another, and so on. The fish will be there ,but they are not showing. Again, I just shake my head and realize how lazy some guys are.

However, here is what I think is the worst. On Thursday I hit multiple spots before I found fish (yes, I tried casting at them). I finally found fish at a beach in Charlestown. There  was so much bait the water was black. Every few minutes the fish would come in and terrorize the peanut bunker for a minute and take off again. Each time this would happen I'd get a fish or two. There weren't a ton of fish but enough to stay and slug it out.

At one point this 4x4 comes down the beach and the guy driving watches me fish. It was during a lull and I hadn't caught anything  in ten minutes. He sees I'm not catching fish and drives back down the beach. Magically, the fish reappear and I start catching again.

This goes on for an hour. Another actual fisherman comes down. He was a nice guy. When he had fish in front of him, he'd call me over and when I had fish in front of me I'd do the same. The fish had spread out and they could be feeding in a 150 yard stretch of beach. We kept running up and down the beach to reach fish.

Along comes the same lazy ass four by four from before. He pulls up in his truck and watches. The fish are breaking and he sees me and the other guy with fish on. So he gets out of his truck and PUTS HIS WADERS ON! That's right, he was so lazy, he hadn't fished at all. He drove the beaches all day without so much as putting on his waders and making a cast. He never saw anyone with fish. After he suited up he walked down to the water and fished.

You might think I'm writing this because in the end he caught the big fish after I put in the work to find the fish. Nope. You might think he killed them while standing next to me. Nope again. As a a matter of fact, it seemed like the fish were turning off as darkness approached. I never saw this guy catch a thing. Still, even though I shouldn't let it get to me, my blood pressure was up. I can't stand when a fisherman is that lazy. When I left, I yelled over to my new friend that I was catching fish with "Good Luck". I almost yelled over to the other guy Your Welcome". I didn't, I took a picture of him walking to the water and wrote this. Therefore, immortalizing pure laziness forever.

If I can't bird in the rain, I'll just fish

I had big plans to go birding this morning then fish this afternoon. The Weather Gods had other plans. I tried birding this morning. I went to Acadia Management area and Peckham Farm. The weather went from a mist to a downpour to light rain and back again.All while a constant 30 mph wind blew. I realized fairly quickly that birding was an exercise in futility. Around 10:30 I left Peckham Farm and I looked for fish.

Well, the Weather Gods may have cared less that I had today off from work, but the Fishing Gods took pity on me. At the first place I went I saw fish breaking in big schools way out. There were random fish breaking in the heavy surf also. There were Northern Gannets and Gulls diving everywhere.

I put my waders on and started catching, I mean fishing. There were so many fish, it was impossible to miss. At first I was using a Jumpin' Minnow but after a bunch of fish, I switched to an egg/ bucktail.  My friends Dave and Dick both came down. They got a ton of fish along with a few guys I didn't know. Dave and his son stayed a couple hours after I left and the hammered the fish near dark .

Even though I spent most of the day fishing I did get to enjoy some birds. The Gannets put on a spectacular show bombing into the water.

Newport Ghost Tour

They say this church is haunted.
You tell me, do you see faces in some of
the panes. Click on pic to enlarge.

On Thursday of last week, Laurie and I went to Newport to take a ghost tour. Considering it the season, taking the Newport Ghost Tour (NGT) seemed like a fun thing to do. The tour cost $18 dollars. It started the Marriott on the waterfront. It is supposed to last ninety minutes, but our guide loves his job and ended up making it two hours.

Our guide, Bryan, took us to different sites around downtown Newport. Total walking distance is probably a mile. Newport Ghost Tours ran all summer (it has been on my bucket list for a while).  The tours run everyday during the summer and the fall. After Halloween, check calendars, the tours run a couple days a week. 

Our guide Bryan, enjoys "investigating" haunted houses. He said he has been on over one hundred investigations. Of all the guides that work for NGT, he is the only one that actually investigates hauntings. The other guides have their own specialties. Two are Newport historian experts, another is a  medium.

After we left the Marriott we went to the water and Bryan told us stories of historical events that happened in those spots followed by why or what is haunting the area.  From there we went to a couple other places. The last place Bryan took us was, of course, a graveyard. I think we stopped at 6-7 places. I enjoyed the ghost stories, but I really loved hearing about all of the history in Newport.

I'm not going to get into the stories or the history. There were tales of murders, pirates, and drownings. I highly recommend taking the tour. Obviously, it would be more fun in October, but it is well worth going anytime. If you make reservations, I would really try to get Bryan. He really was awesome. While we were walking between spots, Laurie and I kept saying how much fun we were having. 

Fall Migration Pictures

   I spent the last two days chasing migrating birds and migrating stripers. I spent most of that time chasing the animals with wings not fins. Thursday I went to Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island. I hit two spots fishing and five spots birding. I started at Brenton Point which was my main focus. It was loaded with birds and I walked the trails three times.  From there I stopped at various other spots. I ended up getting four new birds for Rhode Island for the year (Merlin, Purple Finch, Ruby Crowned Kinglet, Red Breasted Nuthatch). I picked up three stripers along the way but nothing big. Pictures of birds from yesterday below, followed by a quick summary of today and more pictures.

Ruby Crowned Kinglet
I saw more RC Kinglets yesterday than I'd seen in my
life combined. I saw at least 30 but probably more likely
fifty!

Purple Finch female

I was surprised to see butterflies in the cold windy weather

Red Breasted Nuthatch. This little bird has been my nemesis
this year. I have been out looking for them at least eight
times in RI before finally seeing this one

This picture and the one below are juvenile
White Crowned Sparrow

This picture and the two below are of a hunting
Northern Harrier at Sachuest

lll

Today I went to the other side of the Rhode Island coast. I went to South County stopping at various birding hotspots. Like yesterday, I spent the majority of the time at one place. In South County, that one place is Trustom. Trustom was very good to me. I saw at least a dozen Hermit Thrushes, RB Nuthatch, and more Kinglets. The pond was full of ducks.. I also saw my best bird of my weekend there: a Red Necked Grebe off the Otter Point Trail.

White Crowned Sparrow

An adult White Crowned Sparrow with a strategically
placed pricker vine ruining what would have been
a pretty good pic of a beautiful bird

The following three pictures are of three different Hermit Thrushes

Northern Flickers are pretty common, but they are skittish. Everytime I see one I can never get close with a camera. Today, as I was rounding a corner this guy was on the ground. Unlike every other flicker ever, he didn't mind posing for a few pictures. These are the best two.

All in all, I had an excellent two days of birding. I saw five new species for Rhode Island and one of those was new for New England (Red Necked Grebe). Finding five new species after almost a year of birding felt like a windfall. I wish I had more time to fish, but I realized fairly quickly yesterday that there were a lot of birds and not so many fish. 

Today's Highlight- Smooth Green Snake

I went birding at Trustom this morning and fishing this afternoon. I saw a few birds and caught a few fish. By far the highlight of my day was seeing a Smooth Green Snake. I almost stepped on it as I was walking to the woods through the meadow. Ironically, its life was probably saved by me rushing. Since I was walking quickly I was looking down at the ground. If I would have been "birding" I'd have been walking slowly and looking up into the trees. I never would have paid any attention to my feet. After a couple pictures of it on the ground I took a couple with my phone holding it (they came out slightly blurry) then I put it on the other side of the path. There were a lot of people at Trustom today, I'm surprised he didn't get stepped on in the first place.  This kind of snake is a lifer for me, glad I didn't end his.