Best Day Ever on the Mudflats

In a day full of highlights, this Buff Breasted Sandpiper
was the prize

I've been going out to the mudflats in Ninigret Pond for most of my adult life. I remember taking my son out there when he was just a wee lad. I wasn't much more than a lad myself. Even in years when I didn't go birding much, I would find myself on the mudflats during late summer and early fall. I love it out there. Even though it is right behind a popular beach, it feels wild. There are always shorebirds out there from July through mid-September.

However, today was the mother of great days. I saw almost every single shorebird, both common and rare, that can be expected in Rhode Island during the fall migration. To put into perspective how great today was, if I hadn't gone birding all summer looking for shorebirds/gulls/ and terns and today was the first day all summer I went birding- I still would have seen every bird I chased since June 1 except for three (Roseate Tern, American Oystercatcher, American Avocet, and the tern and oystercatcher are very common at Napatree anyway)!

There is a small sandpiper that shows up about this time every year called a Western Sandpiper. As you can imagine, they are usually on the Western side of the U.S. Still some migrate down the East Coast in the fall. Last year, I had a great day where I saw five all at once. I thought that was amazing. Today, I can conservatively say there were at least thirty on the flats! I don't know how many individual Western's I got photos of. They were walking right up to me, too close to focus my camera.

Although, I love Western Sandpipers, the prize today was Buff Breasted Sandpiper. It is a larger beautiful shorebird. Labor Day weekend is when they migrate through. Jan and I got on the mudflats early today and she found it as I was launching my kayak.

Western Sandpiper

Besides the Westerns and the Buff Breasted, I found other great shorebirds. We had a Whimbrel and three Marbled Godwits. Both species are normally worth a chase on their own. This has been a great year for both species. Some years they skip right over Rhode Island.

We also had Pectoral Sand Pipers and White Rumped. There was a Caspain Tern hanging out with the gulls. We also had common species of shorebirds including Piping Plover, Semi-palmated Plover ,Least Sandpiper, Semi-palmated Sandpiper, Short Billed Dowitcher and the common species of gulls,terns and both species of yellowlegs. I stopped at Quonny Breachway this morning and also saw Black Tern and Forster's Tern.

I have been to the Breachway at least fifty times over the years. I've been at least ten times this year, and I have never had a day anything like today. It was spectacular. As you can guess, many photos below.

Pectoral Sandpiper

Pectoral Sandpiper

Lesser Yellowlegs

Greater Yellowlegs

Forster's Tern

Marbled Godwit

Marbled Godwit

Buff Breasted Sandpiper

Whimbrel

Two of the three Marbled Godwits

Below, three more Western Sandpipers

Piping Plover Baby

The hundred dollar bird I already had

Great Shearwater was my target bird on the whale watch.
This photo was taken on July 4, 2019 on a boat 
out of Chatham, MA

Today I went on my second Francis Fleet Whale Watch of the year. Including the whale watches and the two dedicated pelagics, it was my forth time off shore this year, the third in Rhode Island. The first trip I took out was on the Ocean State Bird Club pelagic. We had a great trip. We saw three of the four common species of Shearwater (missing Great). We also had Wilson's Storm Petrel, two species of dolphin, Mola Mola, and a shark.

The second timeout was the Forth of July. I went out of Chatham, MA. Again, we had the best trip I've been on to date. We saw all four species of Shearwaters, plus Wilson's Storm Petrel. We had calm water, great light and birds right next to the boat. I got five times more great photos of pelagic species in that one day than all my other trips combined. My third trip out was almost impossibly bad. We took the Francis Fleet whale watch boat to look for birds. We saw some whales but other than four gulls, we didn't see a single other bird. Since the people in the bird club were there to see birds and not whales, it was tough to waste that $50.

If you were to look at the birds I've seen and where I've seen them, you will notice I have Great Shearwater in MA but not Rhode Island. Since I am doing a RI Big Year, I can't count my MA Great Shearwater. So I had to make a decision on whether to accept I wasn't going to get Great Shearwater in RI or go try again.

I weighed the pros and cons. I was already out $50 from the last whale watch that literally produced no birds for anyone. Did I want to risk throwing away another fifty? Even if I saw the Great, I'd never get any photos that could compare to the ones on the Forth of July. I had to make up my mind soon because the last whale watch of the year is August 28.

The deciding factor became, it was worth risking another fifty bucks simply because I like being on boats. If we saw some whales but dipped on the bird, I'd be okay with it. If we didn't see any whales,I'd get a ticket for a free trip to go again next year. I put out a message last week in the "bird group chat" to see if anyone else was interested. A few people said yes, so we left Galilee today with ten birders and quite a few tourists.

The first three hours of the whale watch was terrible. We didn't see any birds or whales, We traveled southwest of Block Island, then we turned east. When we were over 20 miles from port we had to head back in. Happily for us, we were much further east and started seeing some birds.

I ended up with my Great Shearwater. There were two seen roughly 150 yards from the boat. We also saw Cory's Shearwater, and a Manx Shearwater. The only other good bird was a Northern Gannet. Obviously, seeing the Great Shearwater made my trip. Many others hadn't been on a boat yet this year so all three shearwaters were year birds.

The best news for us was we didn't see any whales. This means I got a ticket to go again next year FREE!!! For us birders, it made it a 2-1 deal. However, I started feeling a little guilty that I was rooting to go "whaleless". There were a lot of disappointed passengers onboard. There was a family of five from Pennsylvania. I seriously doubt they will be using their free ticket anytime soon and they were out two hundred bucks!

As, for me, I got my bird in Rhode Island. It took me two whale watches to get a distant look at it. Which means, I spent one hundred dollars to see one far away bird, that I had already seen up close in another state. Yet, they say birders are smart!

Manx Shearwater

A Bucket List Bucket of Sea Turtles

 

 It is no secret that one of my main goals is to see a sea turtle.  I have mentioned it several times on my blog. Seeing one has been written down on my bucket list for years.  I've gone to a known nesting area in the hopes of seeing an adult making a nest or a hatchling coming out of it. I even wrote about it a couple of days ago.

   Well, today I got to cross seeing a sea turtle off of my bucket list. I got to see baby Diamondback Terrapins that were only hours old. The Terrapin females come up on land in June and lay their eggs. If one of the volunteers sees their nest they put a wire cage around it. If they don't, the nest will almost assuredly be predated by coyotes. In 60-75 days the hatchlings emerge. The volunteers monitor the nests every day. When turtles have hatched they collect them and release them in the leaf litter in the woods. From there, the babies are on their own. They will hide in the woods for up to two years and then live an aquatic life. They live in brackish water in protected bays throughout their life.

   Luckily, I arrived just as they were finishing up checking the eggs. An extremely kind woman named Caroline told me a ton of info on them. They had collected 14 turtles from the nests and were about to release them. Caroline was kind enough to let me photograph and hold these precious little babies before releasing them. She let me take as long as I wanted to get good photos and hold them. I didn't want to infringe on either her time or the beginning of these turtles lives, but she did not worry about it. If the Terrapins make it to adulthood, they can live for 40 years, so I guess being photographed for ten minutes isn't a big deal.

   However, for me, it was amazing. I was in awe of their cuteness and just being around them the whole time. It was an honor to be there and witness the beginning of life of such a special animal. I may try to go back and watch them once more if time allows. If I can't make it, I will never forget the feeling of holding a baby Diamondback Terrapin.

Please scroll down to see more photos. I'm sure you will know which one is the epitome of cuteness

Yawning. I have 7-8 pics of it from start of yawn till the end of
yawn. Being born is exhausting!

Caroline releasing the babies in the woods.
Godspeed Little Ones

Summer Boy

It seems to happen every year. After the rush of spring, I feel like there's nothing exciting to do in June. Then we get the Forth of July and fireworks which I love. After the 4th, the month of July flies by. You get the hot, sticky weather and it just isn't much fun. There's no point going to the ocean, it's just too crowded.

   But then towards mid-August you get more nice summer days. There is the occasional cool night. You got idiots already talking about pumpkin lattes and "sweater weather". And worst of all, you can tell the days are getting shorter. And then it hits you, you already miss summer and it isn't even over yet. Sure I have albies to look forward to. I'm going to Block Island in September and New Hamphire for the fall foliage. However, summer feels over as soon as it started. 

   This week I took a break from birding and did some summer things on my days off. I think this was the first weekend since January 1 that I haven't birded at least once when not at work. Almost every single week I got out both days carrying binoculars. I did summer things on my two days off and had a great time.

   Thursday I went to Prudence Island. Prudence is a big island in Narragansett Bay with a small year round population and a decent summer rental population. To reach the island you need a boat or take the ferry out of Bristol. I took the ferry over. There is only one small convenient store on the island. Other than that store you must bring all of your supplies. Since I was only spending the afternoon, my supplies were my bike and what was in my backpack. Round trip ticket for the ferry for myself and my bike was $13 and change.

   I did what I normally do on Prudence. I rode my bike to my favorite bay and snorkeled. It's fun to be surrounded by the little fish. I didn't go fishing. I just played in the water for a couple of hours until I had to ride my bike back to the ferry landing.

My beach

A view in Bristol Harbor on the way back.

 Friday morning I went to do another thing on my summer list. I wanted to see Diamondback Terrapins. Terrapins are a turtle that lives in brackish water. I have always wanted to see one, but never have. Since we had a full moon this week, it seemed like a good chance to see babies hatch. When a female makes a nest, volunteers put a protective barrier around it so that predators (coyotes are the worst) won't dig them up.

   Well, I didn't see any baby terrapins, but I did see two coyotes. I had my camera ready for the second one. Some baby turtles did hatch on Friday morning, but I got there about 15 minutes after they were released. I did talk to a woman that is a volunteer. She was very informative and gave me a ton of information.

Coyote scat. Notice all of the corn in it. The property is
right next to a corn field. These coyote are not going hungry.

No babies emerged for me

Friday night I went to a concert to see the ultimate  boys of summer, The Beach Boys. This was third year in a row I have seen The Beach Boys. We didn't plan on seeing them again, but I got an email for cheap tickets and no added fees. It was too good to pass up. The concert was at Bold Point Park in East Providence. You can read below my feelings on the venue.

   Mike Love and Bruce Johnston (who came on in 1965) are the only two original members to tour as The Beach Boys. I don't know how they still have the energy at 78 years old to perform night after night but they are fantastic. They play all of their hits and a couple of covers. They are just awesome. Seeing them three years in a row has not gotten old. In fact I appreciate them even more. Once Mike Love retires or worse, then The Beach Boys won't be the same. I'm happy I got to see them on Friday night.

Mike Love, center
Bruce Johnston, left on keyboard

Mike Love

They had a big screen. They played a lot of clips from the
past. The late Dennis Wilson on the screen when I took this pic.

John Fogerty is Awesome but Bold Point was a Bad Experience

   If you ever get the chance to see John Fogerty do so!. He is still awesome he can still rock. We saw him play last Friday at Bold Point Park in East Providence. He is still on tour and I believe he is still in the area. He played about two hours. During the concert he played all of his songs from Credence Clearwater Revival. He stopped and told a few stories about playing at Woodstock. It has been fifty years since Woodstock. John is 74 years old. Yet somehow he was still running up and down the stage! He jumped up in the air multiple times. As far as I could tell he never lost his breathe singing, running or playing guitar. He is truly amazing. He has to be a jogger or fitness guru to have that much energy.  If you like/love Creedence songs and the song Centerfield, do yourself a favor, if he comes around again, you will not be disappointed. You will, however, pray that you have that much energy and pain free knees at 74 years old!

   As for Bold Point Park, IT SUCKED! Everywhere we went they tried to nickel and dime you, or flat out rape your wallet.

The only other time I saw a concert at Bold Point was two years ago. It might have been the first show there when the Beach Boys played August 2017. You could see the potential on how great of a venue it could be. We had seats, but there were also general admission tickets. I saw hundreds of people bring their own lawn chairs.

So when we went to Fogerty, we carried our lawn chairs from where we parked (about a 15 minute walk). As we walked closer a parking guy told us "no lawn chairs". Sure enough we couldn't bring them, so we trudged them back to the car and walked back down.

As we were in the security line I saw a "POD". The venue has a clear bag policy. Obviously a lot of women had pocketbooks and didn't know the policy. Luckily, this didn't affect Laurie, but if you wanted to leave a pocketbook in the POD, it would cost you three dollars. Again it didn't affect us, but it was a money making scheme. You couldn't bring your pocket book for security reasons, but you could leave the pocketbook right outside the venue with hundreds of people walking by it anyway?

We go through security and beeline to the port-a-johns. When we get out, we see lawn chairs everywhere. I mean dozens if not hundreds. Upon closer inspection, these chairs are all exactly the same. It turns out they were rentals. I couldn't bring my chair because they wanted to make even more profit. The rental was only $6, but it was the principle and now I was pretty annoyed.

Laurie got a wrist band in case she wanted an adult beverage. I did not get one. Bold Point is a temporary venue. They do not have a concession stand. Instead they had food trucks and giant cooler for alcoholic drinks. I've been to concerts, fairs, and theater, for years. I know prices are ridiculous, you either pay them or you don't. However, eleven dollars for a bear and fourteen dollars for a vodka and lemonade is extortion. Needless to say, Laurie didn't drink.

I love doughboys. I don't get them often, but they are my favorite "fair food". The most expensive doughboy I had ever seen was last month at the Barnstable County Fair. It was seven dollars. This includes other fairs, McCoy Stadium, etc...sven dollars. That's fine. Again, buy it or don't. However, the seven dollar fried dough at Barnastable was blown out of the water by the ELEVEN DOLLAR DOUGHBOY at Bold Point.

   I really don't try to go to a concert, play, or sporting event trying to be a cheapskate. And I know this whole second half of the post is about money. But there is a limit on what is overpriced and what is plain old ridiculous. We ended up getting a five dollar bottle of Sprite.

   As for the seats, the rentals were a complete waste of money for anyone that rented one. Once Fogerty came on, everyone in the crowd stood up. Laurie and I found a little hill at the back of the crowd so we could see above everyone. We were really far back but had a clear sightline to the stage.

    This place could be such a great place to see a show. They could make so much in profits without making you feel like they were trying to collect every penny. They could limit how mauch the food trucks charge. The worst part, I'm going back tomorrow to see the Beach Boys. I do have seats for that show. You can bet your ass my belly will be full when I arrive.

Happy Birthday my Adventurer

Happy Birthday Kid

Today my son turned 24 years old. I can not believe what he has accomplished since he became a man. Dominick has always been an outdoors person. When he was growing up he was always fishing, kayaking, and especially hiking. He enjoyed birding.

In 2010 we went on a big vacation out west. I had some money in the bank and my job had been  "downsized". I took him on what I thought was a once in a lifetime vacation out west. We hit national parks in multiple states. We saw grizzlies, wolves, elk, bison, and all the other large fauna found in the American west. I wanted to make great memories with him. Every night we would write in our journal what we did that day.

Little did I know, that what I thought was a once in a lifetime trip would turn into a lifestyle. After high school he went to community college but hated it. He worked and was always employed in the food industry, but really never liked his jobs despite being quite good at bar tending, cooking, and serving. I think part of the reason he hated the jobs was his wanderlust was calling.

At BCC he met a kid named James. Dominick and James had these big plans to bike ride across the U.S. after the semester was over. It never happened and my kid was pretty upset. Instead of dreaming big and ignoring those dreams like most normal people, he found a way to make his dream happen. He didn't bike ride across the country solo, but he did find a way to travel the country and get paid.

He applied for jobs at the restaurants in national parks. He eventually landed a job as a bus boy at Yellowstone. Of course he wasn't going to get rich but when you live there, you live in dorms that only cost a couple bucks a week. So basically his only bills were car insurance and cell phone. He hiked everywhere he could within driving distance in Yellowstone and Grand Teton NP. He even climbed over 13000 feet to summit one of the Tetons.

Since then he has worked at the Grand Canyon and now Glacier NP. He works four long shifts and has 3 consecutive days off. Considering he can easily hike 20 miles a day, he can cover a lot of the most spectacular scenery in this great land.

Dominick is even getting back into fly fishing again

While working at the Grand Canyon he was a night time server at the fancy restaurant. He had to wear a tux to work. To get the job he had to pass a hand written test about all the rules of fine dining. The best perk of this job was the money. Since the cheapest meal was $25, you can imagine his tips. He saved up enough in six months to travel the world over the winter and when he got home buy a car.

Just one of the hikes he has gone on this summer

My adventurer child left in January and traveled quite literally around the world for almost six months. He went across the Atlantic to Spain then dipped down to Morocco. From there he went to Istanbul then traveled to Kazakhstan. Then he spent a couple of months with friends in Thailand before going down to Ecuador to reunite with his girlfriend. While in Ecuador he visited the Amazon and the Galapagos. He also hiked up 17, 000 foot volcanoes.

I would love my son no matter what. The fact that he swam with sea lions in the Galapagos does not make me love him more. Why  I am writing this and what I am most happy about is that he got to have those experiences. I am happy for him. Looking back on his birthday, I am so impressed that he found a way to live his life in a way that everyday is an adventure. He figured out a way to support himself financially and do all of these amazing things on his own.

So if you do read this son, know that I am truly happy for you. You live a life that most people dream of but almost none of us have the balls to attempt. I love you and I respect you, I hope you had a great birthday.

A few photo below he took on part of his world tour. All in the Galapagos.

The famous Galapagos Sea Iguanas

Blue Footed Booby

Galapagos Sea Lion

The adrenaline rush that you can get from nature.

 

 Last night I went fishing with my buddy Dave. We were fishing an area where we had the choice to fish on both sides of a pedestrian causeway. We were fishing the "inside" because that was where the noticeable bait was. Every few minutes one of us would get a swirl, hit, or catch a small striper. The action wasn't hot and the fish weren't big. But fishing beats sitting in the house and it was only a twenty minute drive.

   Near dark I heard splashing behind me. I looked back and there is a blitz of decent size fish going on the other side of the causeway. Both of us start running as the fish are moving down the shore very quickly. We each cast and it takes less than a second to get a hit. I had three hits before I hooked up. It turned out the fish were blues in the couple of pound range. We each caught another and like that, they were gone. We each made six or seven more casts, but at that point it was basically dark out and the fish are gone anyway.

   As we walked  back to the car we talked about how exciting it was. I told Dave that my adrenaline was actually rushing. I'm sure his was too. Although I am twenty years his junior, he beat me to the fish as we were running as fast as we could carrying a surf bag and rod.

   Here's the thing, in the last month both of us caught striped bass that could have eaten the blues we caught last night. Admittedly, my retired friend has caught far more than me. Over the years, I have caught hundreds of bluefish and Dave has probably caught over ten thousand. Yet, when those bluefish showed up, we chased them with the same enthusiasm as we would if we were twelve years old. It doesn't matter how many fish we caught in the last week, month, or lifetime, we were almost giddy to witness the blitz and and catch a few.  I really don't know why. That's the beauty of nature. You never lose your love of it.

   This morning I went to Charlestown Breachway mudflats. I have been basically living there most mornings I have off from work.  Today four Marbled Godwits showed up. Marbled Godwits are one of those rare birds in New England that will show up once or twice a year. Today just so happened to be that day. I was out there with a few birding friends and Carlos Pedro went to check out a different mudflat and found them. There were four across the channel. To put four being together in perspective, I'm pretty sure I've seen three total my whole life before today.

   As you can imagine in a post about adrenaline rushes, this got me pretty excited. Luckily for me I had my kayak so I could cross the channel. I had seen some idiots with a boat let their dog loose on these flats. The birds would take off and land as quickly as the dog would leave. Because of this, I knew my presence wasn't going to bother them in the least. Sure enough when I got out there (the dog was gone, luckily) the birds continued on feeding while I took photos. Despite never changing their behavior, I only stayed near the Marbled Godwits for about ten minutes. That was plenty long enough to get some good photos.

   If there is one thing I am truly grateful for, however I got it, is my appreciation for nature. I do not believe I could have the same quality of life if I didn't enjoy seeing a rare bird, catching a fish, or admiring beautiful scenery.

Photos of Marbled Godwits and a couple other shorebirds, No photos of blues. I didn't bring my camera last night.

Semi-palmated Plover

 Below are two photos of Stilt Sandpipers. They are another fairly rare shorebird. These are only the second and third I have ever seen. The first one was last week at Succotash Marsh but the light was terrible