A Salt Life Weekend

Two of these terns are the same. Can you tell which is not
the same? Two are Foresters and one is a Common Tern
Answer at the bottom of the post

There is no better place to be in the world than a New England coastline in September. The air has cooled and the humidity is gone. Shorebird migration is full swing. Most excitingly, there is usually a ton of bait. Behind that bait is a mix of stripers, blues, and albies. September is awesome. 

So why am I promoting September in late August? Because, this year, we are experiencing mid-September fishing a month early. That is right, I have never personally seen this much bait and fish for this time of year, but that is for another paragraph. We begin with yesterday morning...

I woke up yesterday morning at the ungodly hour of 5:15 to meet my bird club at Napatree Point. I had to be there for 7 am. I was a few minutes late so I had to catch up. We went out to the lagoon and on our way out a guy told us of a Red Necked Pharlope. We hustled out and we all saw it. It's a cool little shorebird that swims. When it swims, it will swim in circles frantically. We also saw Bank Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Red Knots and Oystercatchers. I ended up with three year birds and a lifer (Pharlope).

I left there and went to Trustom by myself. It was dead there. I saw more frogs than birds. The most interesting thing I saw was the picture below of a Bull Frog eating a Green Frog. However, between Nap and Trustom, I probably walked four miles, so I felt like I got my exercise in.

The tide had dropped enough while I was walking at Trustom to put my kayak in Ninigret Pond. I paddled out to the mudflats and birded some more. I didn't see any new birds or even any rare birds  in my hour of birding so I looked for quahogs. I found a few in 45 minutes. When I looked up from quahogging, I saw three birders a hundred yards away. They were the people from my bird walk. I walked over to them and made sure I hadn't missed anything. We birded together for another 45 minutes.

One of the many fish today

By this point it was late afternoon and time to go fishing! I rehydrated in the car and headed north. I pulled into a parking lot and brought my gear to the water. When I looked down I saw hundreds of stripers cruising past me ten feet form shore! I made a cast and was on. By the time I let the 25 inch schoolie go, the bass parade was over, but the bait moved in. I had a huge school of bay anchovies right in front of me. However, to my left, birds were working over a huge school of bait (it turned out to be peanut bunker. After a few minutes, the bass joined the party. For the next 2.5 hours I watched blitz after blitz of bass tear into the school of baitfish. I caught a bunch of fish including two keepers all on a walk the dog type of plug (I don't know the actual name, but it works like a Jumpin' Minnow). I also caught a decent bluefish.

The next morning (Saturday, today) I "slept in" but was out of the house at 7:45. I was invited back to Charlestown by the members of my club I saw after quahogging. When I pulled my kayak up, I saw at least ten spotting scopes. Almost all of Rhode Island's best birders were there. So yes, I kept my mouth shut and just learned. I was hoping to see either a Western Sandpiper or a Whimbrel. I hadn't seen either yet this year and both are kind of rare. I have been actively looking for them for two weeks without any luck.

Whimbrel

As today's luck would have it a Whimbrel showed up on the flats. all of us got a great look at it. It was hiding/feeding in some tall grass and all we could see was its head. Then it flew out of the grass right towards us and fed not 30 feet from us. Great pictures were had by all. It hung out for five minutes then flew off. We were lucky to see it, but made reporting it for others a waste of time because it flew far out of sight.

So after I birded this morning of course I went back to see if the fish were still around. To my astonishment they were. I saw stripers blitz for an hour under the mid-day sun. I ended up catching eleven. They were all big schoolies. Unfortunately and painfully I only had an hour. I had to leave and pick up parts for my car. The place closed at 3 pm so I had to leave breaking fish that were literally at my feet at 1:30. I can't tell you how hard that was for me. Today's fish were all caught on an albie fly and a wooden egg. I knew I'd catch stripers on it, but really wanted a bonito if one showed up.



Answer- The Common Tern is all the way to the left. The subtle differences are- the Common Tern is showing a speck of orange on the bill and has more black behind its head. Also, it is a juvenile adults look nothing like this. Welcome to my world!

Thus ending my weekend of living the Salt Life. Next week on my offdays I'm supposed to go to New Hampshire. However, I might have to rethink my plans if September fishing is still going on the last two days of August!!!


Actually, I have one more weekend treat to enjoy!