Combining Two Day trips into the same day (then going for a hike)

It is a quarter of the way through August and there are still a few summer daytrips I want to do before

the albies show up and we move into autumn. The last two weeks I have been working six days. Truthfully, even if I was working a five day week, I still wouldn't have done any daytrips because I would have gone to New Hampshire.

I had today off so I made the most of it. I got up fairly early. My plan was to go birding in Ninigret Pond behind Charlestown  Breachway. There is a huge mudflat in the pond that shorebirds congregate on. Believe it or not, some shorebirds are already flying south for the winter. The birds feed here at low tide when the flat is exposed

 I wanted to be at the Breachway before 8 am. The beach is a Rhode Island State each, it would cost me as a nonresident twenty dollars to park there. I am too cheap to pay that much money to park for three hours to look at birds. Unfortunately, I got up a little late to make it there by 8 am. I started looking for any place I could launch a kayak into the pond. Surprisingly, I found a town run free boat ramp. I've been to the breachway fifty times, yet never knew this ramp existed. Even better, the distance from the ramp to the mudflat is about three minutes of paddling.

I dragged my kayak up on the mud and put my anchor out (in case the tide rose, I didn't want my

kayak drifting away. Right in front of me was a flock of gulls. I'm not very good with gulls other than the common Ringbill and Herring gulls. Best as I could tell I saw laughing gulls and young Bonaparte gulls. I walked around for a couple hours. I saw typical shorebirds, but no rare ones. I saw a bunch of semi-palmated plovers,  least sandpipers, and semi-palmated sandpipers. My best bird was a Ruddy Turnstone.

The tide started to rise and I paddled back to my car. I got back about 11 am. I realized that I could go fluke fishing at the East Wall since I had my kayak, saltwater box, and a rod in the car. I enjoy fishing for fluke since I rarely do it. Last year I fished for them a few times in my kayak.I caught a bunch of scup and fluke on squid. Today I decided I wasn't going to buy bait. I've caught a couple fluke on lures before, but always while targeting other species. I hadn't caught a fluke this year, so I was sort of taking a gamble going out without bait. I ended up catching five fluke and four sea robins. I got all the fish on a bucktail jig. None of the fish were very big. I got back to my car at exactly three o'clock. I didn't catch any fish in the last hour of fishing. I don't know if the fish shut off or moved, but none the less I fruitlessly tried for them in vain.

I was hoping to be home early enough to make a late lunch then go for a hike at Rocky Woods in Medfield. As usual, I fished longer than I should have. I still would have had time to go to Rocky Woods but I got stuck in beach traffic. Also I had to replace a headlight when I got home. By the time I got out of traffic, replaced the headlight and ate a couple sandwiches it was 5:30.I still could have gone to Rocky Woods. I chose not to for a few reasons. It costs five dollars to park (yes paying for parking is a pet peeve of mine) so it would have been a waste of money to pay and only have an hour or two. Second, I have never been there, so I didn't want to rush. The place is big and there is over six miles of trail and a lot to see. So I saved Rocky Woods for another day.

I went back to Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary. It is as large and has nine miles of trail. However, I have been there, so it didn't matter to me how much of it I saw. I wanted some exercise so I was hoping to walk at least four miles, but I wasn't going to rush. It was a perfect night. The air was cool and dry. I didn't see very much wildlife though. I saw the tail end of one deer and a few common birds and that was it. I left just before dark to finish up a long productive day.