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.
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| 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
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| Another view of the quarry |
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| Quintessential New England Shoreline. |
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| A small piece of the harbor in downtown |
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| 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
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| 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.
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| Heavily cropped through my spotting scope |
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| 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!
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