Sometimes everything lines up just right

Yesterday I spent almost the whole day birding. I checked out the southern Rhode Island shorebird hotspots.  I only got one new bird for the day. It was a good one, a whimbrel at Quonny Pond. After I left Quonny I went to Charlestown to spend time birding the flats at Ninigret Pond. I ran into my friend Sue Palmer. After checking out every bird a dozen times and not finding anything new we paddled around the pond. Man, I'm glad we did.  We had some outstanding photo opportunities of some really neat birds.

Sue had already paddled everywhere so she had a good idea where the birds are. We found Ospreys, a Common Loon, Spotted Sandpipers. and Green Herons Our highlight were a  juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron and a couple juvenile Yellow Crowned Night Herons. The Yellow Crowned is fairly rare around here. When one is reported, people usually chase it. 

I learned that birds are far less skittish when you view them from a kayak than from land. The Night Herons and Green Heron were happy to keep hunting as we drifted by them within feet of the shoreline. We couldn't have gotten any where as close on foot. The nose of my kayak was within fifteen feet of the shoreline and the birds were still successfully hunting small fish. 

The pictures I got today of the Green and Night Herons are by far the best I have ever gotten of those three species. The birds let us get close, the weather was perfect, and we had great light. We would drift towards and by the birds with the sun at our backs. As a park ranger told me once, "Today was a Red Letter day!!!"

*Note*

A couple of the pics below are only slightly cropped. One I darkened slightly because of overexposure. For the most part, these are all originals. I got dozens of "keeper" photos of birds I didn't have any thing more than proof photos. Putting a few of them on here insures if my house ever burns down I will have a few immortalized on the internet. 

                                    Common Loon                               

Osprey in the water

The next few are two different juvenile Yellow Crowned Night Herons.

You can tell them apart easily. The one directly below has scruff

on its head, the other one's head is smooth.

Spotted Sandpiper below

Next up, a few shots of the Green Heron

Juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron

At first glance the young night herons look similar but they are east to tell apart.

This one, Black Crowned, has larger spots, a longer thicker bill,

and a much thicker muscular neck

I'm into Something Good- Peter Noone is Bomb

Thursday night after work Laurie and I took a ride to the Barnstable County Fair. Besides eating some overpriced fair food, our main purpose was to see Peter Noone and Hermin's Hermits. We had seen Peter Noone at Topsfield Fair two years ago. He is a true showman and well worth the seventy mile trip to see him again. The concert was free with the price of admission to the fair.

Hermin's Hermits were a famous band from England during the sixties. They are probably the third most popular band from the British Invasion after the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. They had quite a few top ten gits including "Mrs. Brown, you have a lovely daughter" "I'm into Something Good". There biggest hit was "I'm Henry the Eighth"

The stage is set in front of a grassy hill. The stage is at the bottom of the hill. People are allowed to bring lawn chairs and blankets. We brought our chairs in with us and put them in our spot as we walked around. We got the fair about 90 minutes before the show. We found a spot near the stage.

Hermin's Hermits went on at 7:30. They opened with "I'm into Something Good". They not only play their stuff but a variety of oldies. They did "Sea Cruise" "Love Potion #9" and many others. They covered a Beatles song and a Stones song. Peter Noone did a hilarious Mick Jagger impersonation. He also sang "Ring of Fire". Of course they played all of their stuff too. The highlight is "I'm Henry the Eighth". He get the crowd into it and they sing along and shout the letters "H-E-N-R-Y".

Peter Noone is also super funny. He basically has a comedy routine down. Even though it was my second time hearing it and I knew what jokes were coming, I still laughed out loud throughout the show. He easily could have made it as a stand up comic if the whole music thing didn't work out.

Lastly, Peter Noone is either the world's best actor or he is a genuinely nice guy. Throughout the show he came off of stage and sang while walking through the crowd shaking hands, giving hugs, and signing a couple autographs. He gave a little girl a T-Shirt, CD, and an LP. A group of women brought a record, yes a record, for him to sign. Not only did he sign it, he thanked them for bringing it. After the show, Peter signed autographs for anyone that wanted them. The line was long.

Although not free, Hermin's Hermits is playing the Stadium Theater in Woonsocket, RI on January 9. He plays over 100 concerts a year. I think he said they have done 112 so far this year.

Mudflats

Summer is short and my list of things to do is long. Some of the things on the list are one time only day trips such as going to a Polo match. Some of the things I want to do, I try to do often. With only about 10 weeks between the end of June and when albies come in, it is tough to cram everything in. I need to get to new Hampshire three times alone to fit in the six hikes I want to accomplish this year. 

This week I went to two of the places I try to visit a few times a summer. Yesterday I fished all day at New England's premier shore fishing striper hotspot only to come away with a big goose egg. Despite the lack of fish, I still had a good time. The weather was perfect by the ocean and I fished with one of my best friends.

Today, I went to probably my favorite place in New England south of the NH/MA border. Last night as I was walking into a movie I got a text from my friend Jan asking me if I was going birding Friday. Birding in the summer means one thing, shorebirds. Looking for shorebirds is tide dependent. The low tides today were roughly five o'clock. There was no way I was going down to South County Rhode Island in the afternoon to fight with beach traffic and vacationers. So this meant the other option was to go at the ass crack of dawn.

So Jan and I made plans to meet at Napatree at 6 am. This meant I set my alarm for the ungodly time of 4:50. I still didn't get there until 6:15 am. If it wasn't for my plans with Jan, there was no way I really would have gotten up that early despite my best intentions.

We walked out to the lagoon at Napatree. We saw the usual shorebirds, but nothing new. The best shorebird we saw were Red Knots. Knots are one of my favorite overall birds but the light was bad due to cloud cover so I couldn't get any pictures better than I already have. Out on the water we saw a Red Necked Grebe in breeding plumage. On our way back to the car we ran into Carlos Pedro. The three of us decided to go to Charlestown.

The mudflat behind Charlestown Breachway in Ninigret Pond is a special place. Despite being only a few hundred yards from a busy beach and campground it feels so wild. Every summer/fall thousands of shorebirds use the flats as a resting and feeding ground. Everyday is different. You never know when a rarity will show up. When one does, it usually only sticks around for a day. While I was working this week, I missed Whimbrel's and Stilt Sandpipers. I was just hoping to get a new bird.

Jan, Carlos, and myself crossed the channel. Carlos was at the mudflats yesterday and counted 1200 shorebirds. There weren't nearly as many today, but there were enough to keep us occupied for a couple of hours.

I did get one new bird for the day. Jan and I had a Forster's Tern after Carlos left. They aren't rare, but they aren't common either. It was nice to get them. Jan is a far better birder than I am. Terns look so much alike, I'm glad I was with an expert. The Seaside Sparrows which can be difficult to photograph were very cooperative today.

The tide was already rising when we got on crossed the channel to get to the mudflats. By the time we left, the crossing was "interesting" to say the least. When I got home, it was only noon time, but the temperature was up to 92 degrees and the humidity which was absent all morning was starting to come in.

A Willet pretty pissed off I was there

My friend Sue Palmer was on the flats with her grand daughter
She got to see the Forster'sTern for 240th bird of 2019

A couple more pics of the surprisingly cooperative
Seaside Sparrow

Cape Cod Baseball League

The first person I have ever seen hit three
home runs in the same game in person.
Notre Dame first baseman
Niko Kvadas

Cape Cod is lucky to have the premier summer college baseball league in the country. The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) attracts the top prospects in all of college baseball. Almost all of the kids that play in the league will be drafted by Major League baseball teams.

Laurie and I usually go to a couple of games a year. We support the Wareham Gatemen. They are the closest team to us and we do not have to cross either bridge to see them play at Spillane Field. The field has plenty of seating and good sight lines.

Tonight we went to our first game of the year. The Gatemen played the team from Harwich. Harwich won the game pretty easily. The main reason was a kid from Notre Dame named Niko Kavadas. This six foot, 230 pound first basemen did something I have never seen live before at a baseball game. He hit three home runs! Looking at his stats in the first 25 games, it was obvious he was a good player. However, in person, he was dominant. There was nothing cheap about any of his home runs. In fact, the second one he hit was a bomb that cleared the fence in straight away center. It easily went 430 feet if not more. Although I was on the Wareham side, we stood up and clapped for him as he rounded the bases on the third dinger.

If you ever get a chance to go to the Cape, try to take in a Cape Cod league game. Most of the towns have a team. The game will bring you back and make you feel like you are watching old timey baseball (think Field of Dreams). The games are free to go to, the food is cheap and the quality of play is excellent. Remember, these are the best college players in the country. Most will be drafted. The number#1 pick in last year's baseball draft played for the Gatemen. I once watched ex-Red Sox pitcher Daniel Bard throw a 7 inning, 11 strikeout gem. You never know which future Major League All Star you will watch, but one things for sure, one of the kids you watch will be an All-Star someday.

They're Back

I know it would surprise most people, but some birds are already on their way home. The fall migration begins in July with shorebirds. Once they have bred in the Arctic, they head south as possible.

Today I went to Charlestown Breachway and Napatree Point today because there were a couple of rare birds. Yesterday a couple of Black Terns were spotted at Charlestown. This morning as I was driving to Charlestown a Whimbrel was seen at Napatree by Carlos Pedro. I changed plans and went to Napatree. I met my friend Jan there. We walked out to the lagoon but we dipped on the Whimbrel. We did see quite a bit of shorebirds including the entertaining American Oystercatchers.

On my way back to put my kayak in Ninigret Pond, I already knew the Black Terns were not on the mudflats. I still went out anyway, just because it is fun to be out there. A lot of birds were on the flats when I pulled up in my kayak. Pretty quickly I saw a Pectoral Sandpiper. Pecs are a fairly rare bird. They are not as rare as a Whimbrel or Black Tern, but still well worth seeing. The birds on the flats were very willing to pose for pictures today. Some of them got very close to me. Birding was so good, my plans to go fishing never materialized because I spent too much time in the mud.

American  Oystercatcher

Willet

Piping Plover

Common Tern

Least Tern

Least Sandpiper

Lesser Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Short Billed Dowitcher

Awesome Mini-Pelagic

 

In Chatham a guy named Blair Nikula runs short pelagics (about 4 -5 hours)out of the harbor. He is friends with the Captain of the Kittiwake, which is a sportfishing charter boat. Whenever there is an open day, Captain Ken Eldredge calls Blair to see if there is enough interest in putting together a pelagic outing. The boat has enough room for six birders, they need five to go out. Usually, there is only a few days notice.

A couple years back I got in touch with Blair and asked him if I could join the email list. I briefly explained that I work every Sunday and every other Sat, so it may be a while before one of these pop up mini-pelagics would fit into my schedule. Obviously, it is no big deal to him to add another person to the email list.

Sunday night as I was silencing my phone to go into a movie I noticed an email from Blair about a pelagic trip for the 4th of July. I had to make a rash decision to either ask to go or not. With only six open spots, these trips fill up fast. The catch was the boat leaves at 5 am. If I had time to think about it, I'd have probably talked myself out of wanting to go. Luckily for me, Rocketman was about to start so I made the decision to ask if any spots were still open. When I got out of the movie I found out I had indeed reserved a spot. Man, am I glad I did.

I had to be up at 2:55 AM to make it to Chatham Fish Pier on time. We left promptly at 5 Am. While cruising out of the harbor we watched the sun come up. Within a couple miles we started seeing Wilson's Storm Petrel everywhere. Soon after we saw a few Great Shearwaters and a couple Sooty flying but we kept on motoring out.  I was actually getting slightly annoyed that we were still moving with birds around. I was seeing more birds than I saw on the Ocean State Bird Club Trip last month, yet we didn't stop and chum. I figured the sooner we would chum, the more time we would have with close birds

Luckily, Ken and Blair know more than I do. We motored out a few more miles and came across rafts of pelagic birds. We stopped  at a couple where I got some decent shots of Great Shearwaters and Sootys, then we kept motoring out.

When we finally did stop and chum, the birds put on a show for us. We had Great Shearwaters, Sooty, and Wilson's Storm Petrel within inches of the boat. A couple times the Storm Petrels were within reach. The Shearwaters were feeding right under me, too close to focus on! We also came across a few Cory's Shearwaters and a Manx Shearwater. So we got the four common shearwaters and the common Wilson's pretty quickly.

Wilson's Storm Petrel

We also got what are considered rare birds also. We had at least two, maybe three Leach's Storm Petrel. They are bigger than a Wilson's and fly like a Nighthawk. The other great bird was a Long Tailed Jaeger.  This bird circled around the boat for about ten minutes. I didn't get as great of photos of it because we entered a fog bank during that time, so I didn't have the same great light as I did most of the trip. I realized it would be tough to get great pics, so I took a few then watched it through the binoculars.

Long Tailed Jaeger

We also saw Laughing Gulls, Common Terns, and Roseate Terns while out there besides the common Gull species. It was a truly amazing morning and I hate to say it, well worth getting up before 3 AM for.  More pictures below and probably another post

*** I took 742 pictures on the boat. Of those I probably deleted half when I got home because they were out of focus, or the bird dove/flew when I snapped the photo. That still leaves me over 300 acceptable pictures. I had great light on very calm seas. Blair and the Captain knew where to take us. I couldn't have asked for a better 4th of July.

This photo and the four below are Sooty Shearwaters

The little one on the left is a Manx Shearwater

Great Shearwater and also the next six below

Wilson's Storm Petrel, and the next four

Shark bait

Screenshot of a photo of a Leach's Storm Petrel.
Photo by Blair Nikula