Ending March on a high note.

 

That little speck of a duck is a Blue Winged Teal.
I couldn't get any closer because it was on private
property with No Trespassing signs everywhere.

 I had Thursday and Friday off this week and had to work the weekend. Honestly I should have gone fishing. I thought about it. I knew there would be very few new birds to get and birding all day probably wouldn't lead to much. On the other hand, I could have gone trout fishing in Plymouth. I could have hit a bunch of lakes if I wanted. The downside of fishing would have been the cold water. I think that since the water is still very cold, my only chance at getting a bunch of fish would have been Powerbait. I really don't think they would have chased lures. I hate Powerbait. It usually kills the fish which I had no desire to keep and it is no fun to me.

However, the deciding factor was my competitive nature. If I could have gotten a bird or two, birding would have been worth it. The long and the short of it was, I got one new bird on Thursday and none on Friday. I heard a few Pine Warblers and saw one, all at Great Swamp. I also saw a baby Great Horned Owl on a nest, this of course, was awesome. My only other highlight was an Iceland Gull at Galillee Fish Docks. I'd seen this bird before, but it landed five feet from me and I had great light for a photo shoot.

On Friday, I realized pretty quickly I wasn't going to get any new birds. I started talking to this guy from Gloucester, MA. Gloucester is easily a two and a half hour drive from Trustom. He had been to Trustom a couple times before but I could tell he wasn't very experienced. Since I had nothing better to do and it was only noon, I acted as his "bird guide". Even though I'd never met the guy before, I made it my mission for the day to help him out. I took him to a couple of spots in South County and got him three lifebirds.

Iceland Gull

    The first lifer was a Blue Winged Teal. I had seen it on my third attempt at finding it on Tuesday. Luckily, it was still in the same pond. The duck, Randy told me, was his 200th bird of his life.  

From the little farm pond we went to a beach looking for Piping Plovers. We didn't see them at first but while we were scanning a pond for ducks three of them flew in towards us. We got terrific looks and watched them for ten minutes. This guy was pretty pumped to see plovers. As luck would have it, while we were looking at the Piping Plovers behind them in the surf was a Red Throated Loon. The normal loons we all see on lake in New Hampshire and Maine are Common Loons. Red Throateds live much further north and winter down here. Randy got some really good looks in his scope of the plovers and the loon. So even though I didn't see much on my days off, I felt at least Friday was productive.

Much to my dismay, there has been an American Bittern seen on and off at Succotash Marsh in East Matunuck for about ten days (it was seen three of those ten days). I have tried for this bird five times. I went both of my days off and three times earlier in the week. American Bittern is a very hard bird to get. They are fairly rare and they blend in very well. They spend most of their time out of sight in cattails and reeds. I had seen one last year, and know I need every possible species to reach my goal. 

My friend Jan StJean saw the bird this morning. It was her eighth attempt looking for it (she does live much closer, but still, she has put in her time looking for it).  When she found it, she reported it on the Rare Bird Page. I had to work so I couldn't rush down to see it. To make matters worse, another friend Sue Palmer saw it later in the morning and a dog walker scared it into the reeds. Still, I had to try.

So right after work I dragged Laurie the hour drive to East Matunuck. As we were driving it rained on and off. As we pulled down the road, a light rain started again. I scanned the edges of the reeds and didn't see the Bittern. I really had very little hope of seeing it. After scanning the edges with my scope, I looked in the tall grass near the water. Sure enough, there it was feeding. Although it was only 25 yards from me, I couldn't see it with my naked eye. It blended in so well. Even looking in the direction my scope was pointing I didn't know how far away it was.

American Bittern

    After a couple of minutes, it popped out into some shorter grass and I could take a couple of proof pictures. Another birder I know, Alex Patterson, pulled up and called him over to look at it in the scope before it took off. Three minutes after Alex got there the bird walked behind some reeds and went out of sight. If I'd have left work five minutes later or Alex got there three minutes later we would have dipped on the bird. It started raining harder so after being out of the car a total of six minutes, we made the hour drive home.

So even though the last four days of March only produced two new birds, it ended on  a high note. The American Bittern is a very good bird and there is no guarantee I'll see another. Even if another shows up, every bird I can get now means I don't have to chase it later. I end March with 144 species for the year so far. This puts me in a tie for third in RI. The leader, Jan StJean has 151. Second is Carlos Pedro at 148. Jan and Carlos are retired and the guy I'm tied with Don Heitzmann works for RI Audubon leading bird walks. That said, even if I keep getting good birds, I will drop in the standings over the next two months. A lot of migrants will pass through and some so quickly, I won't be able to get them on days I'm working. 

As I said, my goal is 250. If I reach that, it doesn't matter what place I finish in. That would be a huge accomplishment for me. I can tell you this, next year, I will not be making six trips to East Matunuck just to see one species of bird. But this year, that's the game.