Exploring the North Shore through photographs

I have been a busy beaver exploring this month. In the four day Thanksgiving weekend, I only worked Thursday morning and Saturday. So... I played. As I posted, on Black Friday I went to Newport with my friend Rachel. Then on Saturday I tried for wintering over stripers with my friend Dave (no luck). I also had today off from work. It was my first Sunday off from work (other than for two weddings) in over a year.

Because it was a Sunday, and therefore, no commuter traffic, I decided to go north of Boston. Quite honestly, this is a daytrip that was long over due. I have wanted to explore the North Shore for some time. I make quite a few trips to Newburyport to go birding, but the are from Salem to Gloucester is a mystery to me. I have only been to the area twice. Once I did the Salem tourist traps. The other time, I had a few hours between traffic surveys I was doing to explore Gloucester. Both times were almost fifteen years ago.

After researching the area, I realized there is too much to do and the area to big to try to enjoy it all in one day. Instead, I concentrated my time on Rockport and Gloucester. I found more than enough places to go in those two towns.

I got an early start because I wanted to drive through Boston without traffic.

My first stop was Halibut Point State Park. This place is always listed in bird reports. When I looked it up I found out it is beautiful, has walking trails, and a historic quarry.

Crap! I wore my swim suit for nothing!

There is a lot going on it the picture below. In the far background is the visitor center. The water and the ledges are the quarry. It has filled with water over the years. The number on the rock in front corresponds to a self guided trail explaining how the granite was quarried out of the ground. I think there are 9 numbered sites 

Another view of the quarry

Quintessential New England Shoreline.  

Birders down on the rocks

I took the picture of the birders from on top of this pile of rocks. It is a mountain of granite pieces This was scrap from the quarry. Some of these pieces are huge. I don't know why they were discarded instead of used. I guess the people that worked a hell of a lot harder than I do had their reasons.

Although there were many species of birds in the water, the main attraction were these harlequin ducks (picture cropped)

Walking back to my car, I came upon this lone statue

The North Shore is very heavily birded. No matter where I went I saw birders. Even when I was just looking for a spot for scenery, I usually ran across someone with binoculars or a huge camera. This guy was photographing harlequins at my next spot. It was off Cathedral Ave in Rockport. The ducks were within feet of the shore. This guy was standing on rocks close enough to get splashed. He would put the camera behind his back as a wave hit, then take a picture between waves. When he came back towards me, his feet were soaked as were his jeans up to his knees.

But the ducks were close, and there were a lot of them

It was fairly comfortable today. The temp topped out at about 45 degrees. I wouldn't have done this though!

A small piece of the harbor in downtown

The coastline is beautiful up there.

I did have two problems when I was exploring. I went to a few small public areas that I looked up. Many of these places had public right of ways, but they did not have parking. If I had a bike I could have rode it from a legal parking area. Many places had parking that required resident only stickers. 

My other problem were actual private roads. Eastern Point Lighthouse is on a private road. I saw it on a map and wanted to obviously photograph it. I decided to go down the private  road anyway. What's the worst they could do, kick me out? About a mile down the road gets very narrow, and there is another sign for "private residence". So through swear words, I turned around. I was pretty angry. After I got home I looked it up, and it would be okay to go to the lighthouse...despite all the private road signs.

After the failed lighthouse journey, I went to downtown Gloucester and went to the touristy area. My main goal was to get a picture of the Gloucester Fishermen's Monument. 

First I walked to this monument dedicated to wives and children whose husband's/father's are at sea

This is just a short walk from the Fishermen's Monument. I had to cross a drawbridge to get to it. When I was walking back, a boat came in and the drawbridge went up

The monument faces south so the mid-day afternoon sun is perfect for postcard quality photos

From where I was taking the pictures, there are all the names of those lost at sea from Gloucester. The roll call is unbelievably long

In one storm in 1879, one hundred fifty nine souls were lost at sea.
You can see where 1879 starts at the bottom of the left hand column
. Names are listed in the next four columns
And continue onto the next panel!

The movie "The Perfect Storm" was mostly about a fishing boat from Gloucester. These are their names

After seeing all those names, your heart goes goes out to all those families that lost loved ones. There were so many names from the 1800's, I'm surprised Gloucester had any young men left at all. After I left the monument and went back to my car, it was nice to see this inn being decorated in its Christmas splendor

I had planned on leaving the area at dark. However, with all the places I couldn't park, I got done with my itinerary by 2 pm. I decided to head for home. On my way home, I considered going to Great Meadows NWR in Concord. I was going back and forth on whether I actually wanted to get off the highway. That decision was made easier as traffic slowed to a crawl one exit away. I figured I could go birding for an hour and the traffic would probably be better. It was a good decision, when I got back onto the highway 70 minutes later, traffic was back up to the speed limit. 

While I was at Great Meadows, I was talking to a guy that told me a lot of eagles have been seen lately. Not five minutes later a beautiful adult flies in and lands on a muddy spot in the marsh. We watched it for a half hour. I had my scope which brought it right into view. Anyone that came by and asked if we saw anything, got to look in my scope. I probably showed ten people the eagle. Most, had never seen an eagle before. The only bad part was, it was so far away, there wasn't any chance of a good quality photo.

Heavily cropped through my spotting scope

No scope, just camera on high magnification

So other than my frustration with parking and private roads ( I bet this is awful in the summer) I had a great day. Just seeing an eagle for half an hour would be worth being out all day. The only other thing I wanted to do in this area was go to a place called Dogtown Common. It is a 3600 acres forest with miles of trails. There is a deserted town and some rocks engraved during the Great depression. With only two hours of daylight left, I never would have made it to the "ghost town" and back to my car before dark. This Dogtown area seems really neat, so instead of rushing, it was best left for another day. Who knows, maybe I'll get another Sunday off from work again this year! 

Opt Outside!!!!

Early morning bike ride

REI closed their doors on Black Friday. They chose to be closed and pay their employees the day off
to go outside. Apparently, so did a lot of other people because over a million people signed up to opt outside.

I thought this is a wonderful idea. With temperatures near sixty degrees on Black Friday I to, opted to be outside. I ate a lot on Thanksgiving. I ate enough to be ashamed. So I got up early on Black Friday. I did not go shopping. Instead I put my bike rack on the car and went to the Blackstone River Bikeway. I did a quick twelve  miles in about an hour.

After I put the bike back on the rack I had about two hours before I had to meet my friend Rachel. I went to a place in Smithfield, RI I just learned about. The place was called Wolf Hill Forest Preserve. It is owned by the Smithfield Land Trust. It is about 300 acres and has about three miles of trail.

I hiked for an hour and fifteen minutes. The trails are very well marked. Some of the trails have been either raked or blown clean of leaves. Because of the leave free trails, the place felt almost park like.  There was one steep trail (green) that went up a couple hundred feet. Other than that one, the trails

were mostly flat through oak and maple woods.

The most interesting thing in the woods is a memorial to a WW II bomber that crashed there in 1943. Sadly, three airmen lost their lives in the crash. I stopped at the memorial and paid my respects. Also interesting, was a vernal pool (dry right now), and a lookout. The Mercer Lookout is a very short walk from  the Carlton's Way Parking area.  All told, I did about two and a half miles of connecting loops. 

I met Rachel at noon time and we headed to Newport. Our goal was to take photos of various landmarks. There were a couple I found online that I had never been to. Of course we planned on seeing the rocky shoreline but with darkness coming around 4:30 pm time was of the essence.

The first landmark we went to was a WWI Memorial in Miantonomi Park. We found the monument

t, but we also found the place to very nice for a short walk through the woods. We took some pictures of the woods and a tent (homeless person I guess, but it was right out in the open).

From there, we went to the waterfront. We took pics of the Rochambeau Statue then went to Fort Adams and Brenton Point real quick.

We also went to a couple of smaller landmarks including Purgatory Chasm. This is a cut through the granite for about forty feet where ocean water comes in and out of. It is similar to the famous Thunder Hole in Acadia, without the noise.

Old Mill Tower

Another landmark we went to is possibly the oldest structure in North America. The structure is called the Old Mill Tower. No one knows who or when it was built, but many believe it was built by the Vikings, but more likely it was built in the 1600's.

The highlight in Newport for me is always going to Sachuest NWR. I had hoped to see some harlequin ducks but it was not to be. However, we were rewarded with nine deer, including a herd of three very close to the parking area. We got some fantastic shots of them. We took some pictures of the rocky shoreline and Rachel took a lot of pictures of the sunset.

All in all, it was a great day to be outside. More pictures below.

Mission Accepted!

Rachel taking a picture of Romchambeau

Purgatory Chasm

Things I am Thankful For

Middle Sugarloaf October 2015

    Every year at Thanksgiving I do a post of things I am thankful for that are outdoors related. Honestly, I love doing this post. It is a way to look back relive fun memories. I get to think about the past ten months and be thankful of things I might have taken for granted. This year I worked a lot of six day weeks leaving me only one full day to play. I did not waste those days at all. I went birding a lot this year and did some hikes. Because of which, I fished quite a bit, but not as much as normal. I made some great memories. So without further ado...

1. I am thankful that on September 18 I was in Narragansett and so where many false albacore that I made an acquaintance with. Besides the two dozen or so albies I hooked, I also caught a huge bluefish and a keeper striper.  I consider this to be the  best day I ever had fishing.

2. The closest thing I had to a real vacation this year was a mini getaway with Laurie to the Outer Cape. We did so many fun things in our couple of days. We did a whale watch, swam, went to P-town, a bike trail, did two bird walks, and caught a sunset. The Provincelands bike trail is by far the best trail I have ever done.  It was a really fun few days, probably the most fun I had all year.

3. I am thankful for New Hampshire.  I only got there four times (including once in March to go snowshoeing). I love the mountains, trout, lakes, rivers, and waterfalls. Every time I go to New Hampshire I explore a different lake, trail or mountain. Even though I say I love "New Hampshire"  as an all-inclusive term, each time I go is a new experience. When I get home I write what I did in my journal, each trip feels like a different chapter in my book of memories

4. I am thankful to call DP one of my best friends.  He will always be my mentor, but our friendship moved past that several years ago to really good friends (that I am still learning from).

5. I am thankful to have found snowshoeing. I like it more than ice fishing because you stay warmer. It makes cold miserable winters go by much quicker.

6. I am thankful for wild animals. I love seeing deer, moose, bear, eagles, etc... 

7. I have realized that although I do a lot of fishing for different species, the one fish that has a special place in my heart are stripers. I am thankful for them and hope they can bounce back.

8. I am certainly thankful to have fished with Eric Meyer on his boat in June. We caught so many big black sea bass. It was amazing. It is tough for me to get out with him more often during the summer because every time he called I had plans for many days off a week in advance (see #3 and #10). None the less, thanks for taking me Eric. 

9.  I am thankful that Parker River National Wildlife Refuge is so close to home. It is one of the premier birding destinations in the entire country. I went there many times this year during different seasons. It is an amazing place.

10. I am thankful for Prudence Island and the mudflats behind Charlestown Breachway. Going to these two places are my favorite non New Hampshire things to do during the summer. At Prudence I snorkel and the mudflats are covered in shorebirds. I really look forward to these daytrips.

11.  I am thankful I still appreciate the little things and great things I've seen many times. I have driven past Canon Cliff over a hundred times at this point and I am still in awe. Little things like small mirror carp from the Blackstone River system, seeing a snake or frog are things that never get old. I probably owe this trait to my mom.

12. I say it every year, but I am thankful to have been born in the greatest country in the world. Although, I think politicians, Fox News and MSNBC try to divide us, we are all so lucky to live in this great nation. 

How to be a Dick during the Holiday Season

Authors note: I wrote this last year after the atheist billboard went up in Missouri. However I think we all need a little reminding on how not to be  a dick.

  This post has absolutely nothing to do with the outdoors.  However, it is stuff I have been thinking about a lot and need to get off my chest.  Feel  free to comment here, or on Facebook, but understand that I feel strongly about these things so you will not change my mind any more than I will change yours.  I have never been "politically correct" so if I offend you...so be it.

How to be a Dick During the Holiday Season

1. If you are offended by the phrase " Merry Christmas," you are a dick.  No one means anything negative by it, so if you truly are offended, get over it.  As my friend Brian says, "I'm going to keep saying 'Merry Christmas' because I've never met anyone who was offended."

2. If you are offended by the phrase "Happy Hanukkah," you are a dick.  It's the same thing. I know people who celebrate Hanukkah and I am always happy to wish them the best as they wish me a Merry Christmas.

3. If you verbally correct somebody that says "Happy Holidays" to you, you are a dick.  I'm not talking about close friends and relatives, but at stores and restaurants.  Here are two arguments against doing this to people.

a. First off, the person that just served you coffee or rang up your order just wished you a pleasantry. They went out of their way to be nice to you.  If you lecture them about why it is Merry Christmas, here is what you are doing... You are ruining their holiday spirit.  You made somebody either angry, upset or embarrassed.  What is the point of that?  Secondly, you will not shame them into saying Merry Christmas.  More likely, they will not say anything at all to the next customer.  The next customer will not be wished any "good tidings."  So...don't be a dick.

b. For me, the "holiday season" starts when I buy my food for Thanksgiving.  That is when I truly start to get in the spirit.  I look forward to my Thanksgiving feast.  I check Black Friday deals. Obviously, Christmas morning is the climax of my holidays.  Still, I consider the end of the holidays to be New Years Day.  However, I try to enjoy the entire time from Thanksgiving until New Year's Day.  I enjoy getting the tree; I enjoy Christmas dinner.  I even enjoy buying presents for people, Since I avoid shopping during peak hours, I actually enjoy the "spirit of giving."  I go to LaSallete to look at lights. I make pies and cookies for friends.  Of course, for me, the season certainly revolves around Christmas, but I try to enjoy the whole season.

I know it is "Pollyanna" to think that everyone will have a good Christmas or other holidays.  People will go hungry and some kids will go without gifts.  People will miss loved ones.  Nonetheless, if I say to you "Happy Holidays," I am not being politically correct; I'm hoping you have a good season..

So...DON'T BE A DICK

4. If you are an atheist and you put up a billboard in Missouri at Christmas time... you are a dick.  Do not get me wrong, I get your position.  I do not believe in ghosts and never will...unless I see one. Same as you NOT believing Jesus was the son of a spirit....I get it.  I, myself, am a believer in science.  But the whole point of the billboard was to start controversy and to rile people up.  What was the point of that? Why try to ruin someone else's holiday?  Let people be happy. 

Atheists: Like I said above, I get it.  However Jesus was a good person.  He preached love and peace. I'm not saying at all that you need to worship him.  It does seem to me that he is the type of person that we should all strive to be like...along the the lines of Martin L. King, and Gandhi.

If you really want to do some good, how about you protest Columbus Day?  Columbus was an absolute asshole and a devout Catholic. Columbus did a lot of torturing and murdering, He cut the hands off the hands of natives.  How we can, in good conscience, celebrate a holiday for this low-life is shocking to me.

5. If you are an anti-semetic, you are a dick.  It blows me away that in the 21 century, Jews are still being mistreated.  Here are some facts...

a. Jesus was a Jew

b. Jesus followers were Jews

c. The people crying at Jesus feet while he was on the cross were Jewish

d. Christians and Jews share the same first half of the Bible

I do not understand why so many people hate Jewish people.  I am not talking about Israel.  I do not care that Israel is our biggest ally in the Middle East (it is) or if you think it would get blown off the map if we didn't protect it as its big brother (it would). 

I am strictly talking about Jewish people being victims of hate.  Christians feel Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus.  Sure, a select few Jewish high priests were responsible.  Then again, Jesus had thousands of Jewish followers.  So unless you are 2000 years old and personally knew the people responsible for the crucifixion, then, Mel Gibson...It's time to let it go.  Let's treat people as individuals and not hold grudges against ancestors from five hundred generations ago.

6. You may not realize it, but if you go Christmas shopping on Thanksgiving or go to a movie on Thanksgiving or Christmas, you are a dick.  My boss and my brother may not want me to say that, but it is how I feel.  I believe everyone that can, SHOULD be with family during the holidays.  I understand that medical and emergency personnel have to work.  Other than that, everyone should get to be with family.  I purposely make sure I have enough gas on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so I do not have to use one of the gas stations that are open.

People working at retail stores are at low paying jobs.  Still, they have no choice...either work during holidays, or risk losing their job.  I contend that being with family should have nothing to do with money.  I feel bad for the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions for having to play football on Thanksgiving. It is an easier pill to swallow when even the third string rookie back-up is making $50,000 per game, but it is still family time they can't get back.

So, I ask you not to make people work if they do not have to.  If you don't go to a movie on Christmas, they will probably still be open next year, but at least you won't be part of the problem. Don't be a dick.

So their you have it...Six ways to either be a dick or not be a dick this holiday season.  My view is sort of Libertarian.  Do whatever makes you happy as long as it does not interfere with the happiness of others.  Basically be nice to people and treat them with respect.

Lastly, I don't believe there is a "War on Christmas."  There may be a small battle fought with sticks and stones.  Every year there will be some idiot with a billboard or someone wanting a light display taken down.  Do not worry, as long as the people really running this country are still around (corporations and advertisers), Christmas will not be going away anytime soon.  There is too much money in commercializing it.

So in the words of my friend Brian... Merry Christmas.

A Good Day Birding PI

Plum Island has not been to good to me the last two times I have gone birding there. I hadn't seen any
new birds for the year nor had I really seen anything rare. As I wrote last week, I planned on going up last week but couldn't bring myself to take the 200 mile round trip. I knew I'd have to go up there one more time to get some winter target species. I always have Fridays off from work, but the weather forecast for this Friday (as of this writing, tomorrow) was for heavy rain in the morning. However late Wednesday afternoon I was told I would have Thursday off (today). The weather was much better. The daytime high was about 55. I knew it would be overcast with a SE wind of about 15 knots. Not too bad, so off I went.

I had a few "target"species for the day.  They were in no particular order

Snowy owl (seen at Salisbury St. Beach yesterday)
Long Tailed Duck
Red Throated Loon
Snow Buntings
Black Scooter
Snow Goose

These were birds I drove there to see. Of course, any and all other cool species were welcome to join the party.

I started off at Salisbury Beach looking for the owl. After a few minutes at the beach, I thought my prospects for the day were sort of bleak. I didn't find the owl. I went to the beach with my spotting scope. There were birds out the mouth of the Merrimack. I could tell a lot of them were Common Eiders and Scooters. The only problem was they were really far out. With the wind, my spotting scope wouldn't stay still. Because of the scope shaking in the wind, on high power, it was tough to identify the birds. I could tell some of the scooters were black, while some of the others were white winged, but the ones that were to far out, I could merely guess.

The highlight of my time at Salisbury was the seals on the rocks inside the river. There are some rocks about 100 yards out that the seals haul out on. I counted at least sixty seals. This is a low ball estimate, because I am sure some were behind large boulders and other seals out of my line of site.

American Black Duck

I left Salisbury for Parker River about 11 am. I knew viewing the ocean was going to be fairly
difficult thanks to the wind. Still, I was hoping to see some of my target species.  I decided to drive to the end of the road at Emerson Rocks and work my way back towards the entrance. At Emerson Rocks, I saw some black scooters that were not too far out. They are a common bird. Even though they are on my  target list, it was only because I did not identify any my last two times at Plum. I was still happy to see them.

I then went back to Parking Lot 5. There I saw some loons. In the winter, loons have a completely different plumage than they do in the summer. Gone is the black head and black body with white dots. In the winter all species of loons are a much more drab grey and white. There are subtle differences. The loon we have summering in the northeast is the Common Loon. The Red Throated Loon lives in the far north by the Arctic. In the winter, it will be off many coastal areas of New England. The surest way to tell the two species apart is, the Red Throated swims with its beak in the air slanted toward the sky. The common loon swims with its beak perpendicular to the water.  I saw a loon with its head tilted, and am happy to report I saw a Red Throated.

Next up, by the Stage Island Pool I saw a bunch of birds on the ground. They would rise up in a flock circle around the area then land back in the same area. They were showing a lot of white. I was pretty sure right away they were snow buntings. I got my scope on them and watched them for ten minutes.

After I left the buntings I went to the Bill Forward Pool. This is always a good area for ducks (and shorebirds in early autumn). The pool did not disappoint. There were five species of ducks. I saw mallards, black ducks, green wing teal, pintails and American widgeon. I also saw a great blue heron and a Northern Harrier (one of four for the day)

I also saw two falcons today. One was certainly a Merlin. I was at Lot 1 hoping to see a long tailed duck when the falcon came buzzing past. It landed on a plastic pipe about 30 yards away. I put my scope on it and watched it for a minute before it took off again.

The second falcon, I assume was a Merlin, but didn't see it very well. I was standing outside my car looking at some ducks in a marsh. The falcon blew right by me heading north. I jumped in my car and tried to follow it. It was using the roadway as its highway. I followed it up to 40 mph and it still was distancing itself from me. Since the speed limit is 25 mph, I decided to give up the chase.

My last good bird was at the maintenance area known as the Wardens. I saw an American Tree Sparrow in the berry bushes. It had a rufus head and two distinct wing bars. I probably missed long tailed duck for the year since I have decided to do other daytrips between now and the New Year. I might do a van trip to the Great Bay on Dec 4, and I want to explore the North Shore  past Boston, so maybe I will see some

 About 2 pm, I headed home determined to miss the rush hour traffic. All in all I had a great day. I didn't bother tallying up the number of species for the day. I was content just to see some really great birds. If you are into birding at all, and I assume if you read this far, you probably are, this is a good time to go to Parker River NWR. There are a  lot of ducks around and many birds on the ocean.

Exploring Coventry, RI (and vicinity)

Last week I came up with a short list of ideas for things to do on my day off in November. The time

Ponaganset  Road

period between striper migration being over and real winter weather begins is usually boring for me. The first thing I had planned on doing was a Mass Audubon trip to Parker River NWR. There was a program today focusing on ducks. However, I could not force myself to take the 200 mile round trip. The more times I take the ride to Newburyport, the longer it seems to get. I'm going to have to make it up there again since many sea ducks can be seen, that I can't see where I live.

Today, instead of going to Plum Island, I explored a part of Rhode Island I knew nothing about. By area, Coventry is the largest town in the littlest state.Inside of its borders are two Audubon wildlife Sanctuaries and the pond where the state record largemouth bass was caught (allegedly). As far ar I can remember, the only place I have ever been to in Coventry is Lake Tiogue.

I started my day off doing some scouting out Ponaganset Road in Foster. This road for whatever reason is one of the best birding locations in Rhode Island. During the spring all kinds of colorful migrants show up. There wasn't a lot to see there today. I just wanted to find the road and look for potential hot spots. I drove up Ponaganset Road and the Ram Trail making a couple of stops. All told, I only wasted about an hour.

After I left the area, I headed down Route 102 to George Parker Woodland. Parker is a very large

It's tough to get lost at Parker. Trails are well marked

property. It is 860 acres of woods. There are over seven miles of trails. There are two loops that almost figure eight. I did the closer loop to the parking lot. I considered doing the entire seven miles, but chose not to do the Foster Loop. The entire sanctuary seems to be forest habitat. I couldn't justify burning an hour of precious daylight to walk through the woods. There were very few birds (I saw a total of six) and only one squirrel. So I decided to limit my hiking to about four miles.

Parker was cool. One section of the blue trail in the Coventry loop had about one hundred rock cairns. No one seems to know when or why they were built. In another spot I found the foundation to a house from the early 1800's. On the trail that I chose not to do, there are two stone quarries and a site of an old farmhouse.

From Parker I kept going south on Route 102 and then took a right onto Route 117. My next stop was Carbuncle Pond. The state record largemouth is supposed to come from this pond However most people in the know, believe it was caught elsewhere. Either way I wanted to see this pond. It is in the Nicolas Wildlife Management Area, which allows hunting. Because of this fact, I chose not to do any

Foundation to a very old historic house

exploring of the trails since it is deer season. I took a few quick pictures of the pond. It is very pretty. Because it is in the WMA, it is devoid of development. There is a boat ramp and a very large handicapped accessible dock. Carbuncle is a trout pond, so I suspect it is quite busy in the spring.

After I left Carbuncle, I drove back to 102 and continued south to the Maxwell Mays Sanctuary. In this 265 acre sanctuary is a the seventeen acre Carr Pond. I walked the trails around the pond and in the woods. I found another foundation (this one not on the map) and plenty of stonewalls. The pond had four species of ducks. There were mallards, ring necked, 3 wood ducks and many buffleheads. I watched the ducks for fifteen minutes. I also came across a toad that was hopping across the trail. I don't ever recall seeing a toad in mid-November before. Other than the ducks and the toad, like Parker, there really wasn't much around in terms of wildlife.

I enjoyed my day exploring. If interested in either of the Audubon sanctuaries, a quick google search

About 100 cairns can be seen on this hillside
They vary in size from  a foot to six feet.
Three are in this picture

will get you maps and directions along with a brief explanation of what to expect. Next week, I'm gonna take the long drive to Plum Island. I really want to see old squaw and red throated loons.

Boat Ramp in front, Handicapped Dock in back
at Carbuncle

I came across this old cemetery  at Maxwell Mays

There was one flag. Based on the year, this soldier
may have died in the Spanish-American War

Ring necked ducks

A very cooperative toad

Fort Wildlife Sanctuary

Today was a beautiful November day here in New England. It was comfortable enough for just a sweatshirt this morning. By afternoon the temperature was in the sixties. I was working outside in just shorts and a T-shirt. It was so nice, I tried to get my work done early so I could enjoy some of the nice weather before the onset of darkness.

I decided to go to a Rhode Island Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary in North Smithfield, RI. Fort is the last name of a couple and not as the name suggests the remnants of an old fort. I had never been to Fort before. I had downloaded a map, and wrote down the directions. I didn't know what I would find other than some nice late fall weather.

The parking lot is just off the Providence Pike (Route 5). It was easy to get to and only about 20 minutes from my house. When I got there I noticed a sign on the kiosk. The refuge is bisected by some power lines. The sign said that trails past the power lines are temporarily closed because National Grid was in the process of replacing all the wires in the state. This meant that I could only walk about half the trail system. Also, two of the ponds are past the power lines, so I was also going to miss some pretty scenery

I set out on the trails. For the most part, the trails go through a woods mixed of white pines and deciduous trees. I could tell that a large area to my right was a dried up swamp. I came across the one pond on my side of the power lines. At one end was a beaver lodge. Many of the trees around the pond were dead. I take this as a sign the beavers raised the water level with their dam and drowned the surrounding trees. I saw a woodpecker in one of the dead trees.

All total, I probably only walked about a mile and a half on the blue loop trail. Given that I was fighting darkness from the moment I got there (parked car at 3:40, sunset was at 4:38) I really couldn't have done much more anyway.

By far the highlight of my day was seeing a barred owl. I was trying to call in some little birds. As I was doing this an owl must have heard me. It flew to a tree about twenty feet away and perched about 20 feet up. It looked at me for some time. I'd say I watched it for a solid fifteen minutes. My presence clearly did not bother it. It would look right at me then look away when it wanted. I sat on some leaves and just enjoyed the encounter. After about fifteen minutes it flew off. It dropped to within three feet of the ground and flew gracefully through the undergrowth, Owls do not make a sound when they fly. Watching such a big bird fly in silence will make you question your hearing. It was really neat.

After the owl flew off, I made the loop around the blue trail getting back to my car a few minutes before dark.The walk and especially the owl made for a nice afternoon after work.

Pond, beaver dam and lodge are at the
far end out of the picture

Neat rock formation

Bald Eagle I saw at Wachusett,
I wanted to share the picture