Norman Bird Sanctuary and Sachuest

I didn't find out I had the day off from work until 7:50 this morning. Since I thought I was working, I didn't have a plan. As I was trying to think of things to do, I looked at my winter bucket list. One of the things I wanted to do was a Seal Cruise on the Cuttyhunk Ferry. The ferry only runs a couple seal cruises a winter. I went to their website. They had a cruise for today and March 19 (forty five dollars. Leaves New Bedford at 10, returns at 2. Lunch is included)

If I packed quickly I could have made it. I called the phone number to see if they were going out. Cruises are cancelled because of bad weather. Also, you need reservations. So I called to see if there was room for me if the boat was going out. Sadly, for me, no one answered the phone. I couldn't just drive down to New Bedford hoping to get a boat ride.

Spring is coming!

So I came up with Plan B. Another thing on my winter list was to hike the trails at Norman Bird Sanctuary in Middletown, RI. Norman is a 325 acre private property obviously dedicated to the protection of birds. There are various ecosystems and seven miles of trail. Of course I was going to look for wild birds, but my main goal was to get a few miles of hiking in.

When I went to start my car, it made a strange sound like my flywheel was broken. Since I only have about 200 miles left on my warranty, I thought the prudent thing to do was to take it back to the dealer, who goes to work at 10 am. After I got done talking to him, I finally could go for my walk.

The water to the left is Gardiner Pond
The land to the upper right and water is Second Beach
View from Hanging Rock

Because Norman Bird Sanctuary is private property, they do charge a fee of seven dollars. You can get a year membership for $65, and you could walk the trails all year for free. However, I just bought a car and a camera in the same week, so paying to walk already felt like splurging. Birding overall was not that good. My best bird was a fox sparrow. I only saw one species that was new for the year, and that was a hairy woodpecker. Other than those birds, there weren't many highlights today. I did manage to walk about five miles. The temperature was about freezing, but with  a sweatshirt, windbreaker and light gloves I was plenty warm.

Pretty Cool Lean-to

The trails are well maintained and there is a lot of signage, so your not going to get lost. The sanctuary owns the Hanging Rock that is easily seen from Second Beach. I hiked to it. It is not handicapped accessible of course, but it was not a difficult hike. You have to watch your footing on the ridge, because the "puddingstone" is uneven. However, I  would consider the short ridge fun and not difficult. The view is really good from Hanging Rock. I could see Second Beach, Third Beach, Gardiner Pond, and Sachuest.

There were other interesting features along the trails. There is a small historic cemetery. I saw the lean-to that is on the right. I have no idea why it is there. There is also a rock with a poem engraved on it. I saw a small quarry. Also on the property is a shell mound, that I guess is pretty old. I couldn't find it. In the field, there has to be thirty bluebird boxes. Although I didn't see any bluebirds today, I'm guessing those boxes are pretty busy with bluebirds and tree swallows in a couple of months.

Poetry Rock. You can't see it but there
is a poem engraved on it

After I left Norman Bird Sanctuary I went over to Sachuest. I had also planned on doing another hike on Aquidneck Land Trust Property. I never made it. I wanted to get some photos of deer with my new camera. I know that viewing the deer is best in the evening and it was only 2 pm. So I went to the parking lot and figured if there were any near the lot I photograph them. If there weren't I'd go on my hike. Sure enough from the paring lot I could see six deer. I took a bunch of pictures of them. One down side to the deer having absolutely no fear of people is, they never lift there head up while feeding. There must have been a running club training at Sachuest today. I saw at least 30-40 joggers. They would run by and kick up pebbles causing quite a ruckus. The deer barely noticed them. Every time a deer would look up, I'd snap a few pictures then I'd have a long wait and repeat the process. Of course, it is still nice to have deer so willing to be photographed so close to people, but patience is a virtue.

After I photographed those six deer, I figured if they were out, others might be also. I also thought I had an outside chance of seeing the snowy owl again.

This Red Tailed Hawk was eating a small mammal
It was about 75 yards away.

So I headed south down the trail. Within two minutes I came across a herd of 11 deer. They were much further away than the  ones I just photographed so I kept walking. Today was a good day for sea ducks. There were more common eiders than I'd seen all year. There were also Greater Scaup, Harlequins, and Black Scooters. I got some decent pictures of them.  I went to Island Rocks where I had seen the Snowy, but it wasn't within view today. I did see some Purple Sandpipers and the Greater Scaup.  I cut across the middle trail and went back to the original six deer. They were still feeding, but were a  little further away from where I left them.

So I went to take a look at the herd of eleven that was now a herd of twelve. As I had hoped, they were much closer. I only took pictures of the closest two or three. As with the other ones, I had to wait for good shots. When a deer would look up, I'd snap a few photos. I didn't mind the long wait. There are worse thing to do than watch deer feed. So I waited and photographed for forty five minutes. I took a lot of pictures and happily very few came out fuzzy. I left for home about 5:30.

For those of you that can't wait for me to start writing about fishing again, I'm going carp fishing on Tuesday. On my next day off I plan on going to Race Point to look for migrating whales and doing some trout fishing on my way home in either Plymouth or Sandwich.

p.s. The little shorebirds in the photo below are sanderlings

Two Common Eiders