A little bit of birding, a little bit of fishing

 

Stepstone Falls

 I've been out pretty much everyday when my body can handle it. My stamina, or lack of, still requires me to take some rests throughout the day and some days I need to take a day off to recover. I took Monday of from doing anything except a few chores. 

   I try to have a plan for the day the night before, because when I don't I tend to lollygag. However, on my bucketlist is to fish for Walleye at a pond on the RI/CT border. I've never caught one. I do know that they are light sensitive so my best chances of getting them are after dark or cloudy days. So I've been keeping an eye on the weather.

   Tuesday I started out at Stepstone Falls in Arcadia Management Area. The goal was Louisiana Waterthrush. I didn't get it. The water was really high and the area partially flooded. As I was driving away I heard a waterthrush that I recorded but it was a Northern.

 

Cattle Egret

 I drove to Fisherville Audubon Sanctuary next. I had ninety minutes to kill. Again, not much was around but the walk was nice. I left Fisherville to have lunch with a friend that has bulging disks. Something I can relate to. The meal was excellent and I stayed two hours with her and her husband. She told me about a birding trip to New Mexico she went on while he showed me photos of huge stripers.

   Sidenote- If you read my blog from 2010-2018 you'd see that all of my adventures were alone, with my son, Laurie, or fishing with Dave. It was a small list. Since I started birding I have multiple people that are friends (and a new fishing friend). This is actually tough for my son to comprehend because growing up he didn't see me hanging out with anyone else. When he came home to visit and we went birding with a group, he really couldn't wrap his head around it. Both that people seem to enjoy my company and that I enjoy theirs' as well. 

 

Savannah Sparrow

 After lunch I had two more hours to kill before I went striper fishing. So I hit up Great Swamp where the highlight was a Broadwing Hawk calling. While I was there I got a text that a Cattle Egret was at Peckham Farm, five minutes from where I was standing. So I went to Peckham Farm. At first I couldn't find the Cattle Egret, then it flew in landing on a tree. It flew down feeding in the grass. Despite seeing many Cattle Egrets in Florida including some standing on cattle, I believe I got a photo upgrade! I also got a photo upgrade of a Savannah Sparrow.

   I went striper fishing in the Upper Bay catching four from23-26 inches.

   Wednesday was supposed to be the nicest day of the week. So I was surprised to wake up to cloud cover. I looked at the hourly forecast and it said that the clouds would stick around until noon. So I headed back to Arcadia to try for the walleye. On my way down the heavens broke up and the sky was bright blue with puffy white clouds. I decided to bird Roaring Brook instead. I didn't see much. I casted my line in a little pond for a few minutes but nothing took. 

   

From there I decided to try a trout pond in Richmond. When I got there, it was flat calm. I took my kayak off of the roof of my CRV. This was going to be the first kayak trip since I hurt my back and was anxious and worried. Not to mention that RI DEM decided to punish the rest of us because some morons drowned last year so it is now the law to wear a life vest. Although I fully plan to go Civil Disobedience on this law, I chose to wear it today. I was uncomfortable. By the time I launched the wind picked up and was blowing me all over the place. I sucked it up for an hour and a half as my back got sore compounded by the uncomfortable life vest. I didn't catch any fish. I had two hits both on the same cast.

   My luck for the day changed when a stocking truck rolled up as I was dragging my kayak back to the car. They dumped almost a thousand Rainbows in the water. So I put on my waders and started fishing. The fish stacked up against a downed log. I caught sixteen before I left. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

 

Yellow Crown Night Heron

 Having an hour to kill before going striper fishing I went to Allen's Cove Marina and saw the adult Yellow Crowned Night Herons. These are a rare species for Rhode Island but a couple show up every year, usually at this cove. While I was there, two ladies pulled up that were going to watch the Ospreys. They didn't know the herons were there. It was a very nice surprise for them. They were very new birders and extremely enthusiastic. I talked to them for fifteen minutes.

  After I left the heron and ladies, I went striper fishing at what can be a very popular spot. My friend Dave and I were the only two out there. I picked up three and he got four. My biggest was twenty seven inches, his about the same. We both dropped a keeper right before dark.

   This post has two points. One, it is my way to keep a journal of what I did. I admit, there isn't a lot of "how to" to this post. But, this is the time of year to be out. Clearly there is a lot to do. The fishing is great for all species, even when a stocking truck doesn't pull up. The birds are out as are the snakes. It is a great time to be outside. 

Photo Upgrade and a Snake

 

   I birded all day today taking a day off from fishing. I started my day crashing a bird club bird walk lead by two of my friends. From there, one of the leaders, my friend Jen and I went to Sachuest where we dipped on the Green Tailed Towhee (would be a lifer for me). Jen had to leave so I messaged my friend Scott to see if he wanted to go birding this afternoon. He said yes, so I met him at Trustom. On my way down I stopped to see the American Avocet in Matunuck. I've seen Avocets but my best photo was from across the lagoon at Napatree. So getting an upgrade shouldn't have been too difficult.

   I took a ton of photos of the Avocet, but it never stopped moving. Disappointingly, most of my photos are out of focus and blurry. I got a couple decent ones. This one being the best and my upgrade. 

   Later in the day Scott found a Garter Snake which I ended up catching and got a few photos of. 

Delaware Water Gap

   

We had a three day trip planned for Philly (I'm sure I'll write some about Philly later) but by the end of the second day we were burned out. Neither Laurie nor I wanted to deal with waiting for the hop on/hop off tourist bus, parking, logistics, or being in the city. So we decided to drive to the Delaware Water Gap for a day. From Philly it was a two hour drive. We left our campsite outside Philly at 8 am due to the early morning rain shower.

   Delaware River Water Gap logistics are pretty easy. From RI/MA border it is about a four hour ride. GPS had us take I-84 through Connecticut up to the Mass Pike and drop us down I-495. I suspect if you lived in RI you'd take I-95 or I-84 to Hartford and then east on Route 6. 

The Delaware Water Gap (DWG from now on or Gap) is a 70,000 National Recreation Area. It runs north/south along the Delaware River along the northern NJ/PA border. There are two campgrounds one of them is in a state forest in NJ. At both the north and south ends of the NRA are towns that cater to tourists. There is plenty of lodging and food options. Since we stayed in Philly and came home after our day trip, we didn't need lodging. 

   I am told that during the summer all of the trailheads and riverside beaches are full by 9 AM. The area is only 75 miles from New York City. There is admission fee and you pay for a pass for certain parts of the park during the busy season. However, we did not have to pay any fees during our day April 17th visit. Also, people were pretty much nonexistent on our Monday in April. We had almost every trail to ourselves. We went to the short easy trails to waterfalls and a mountain view. I guess these trails are really popular during the summer but happily not while we were there..

  One issue with going before tourist season is the Visitor Centers were closed. Since this was an unexpected adventure, I hadn't done any real research. We had planned on going to a Visitor Center, get a map and plan our day. No Visitor Center/no Map!  I did read later you could get a map if you went to park headquarters. Also of note, I had planned to fish for American Shad, but was told we were a little early for that.

   I was told that the shad weren't around yet by a really nice ranger we ran into at a bathroom. Since he didn't have any maps with him ,we told me about multiple trails with views and waterfalls. Thanks to him we ended up with a gameplan.   

Silver thread Falls

  Okay, now that I got logistics out of the way, I can only tell you about our day. Obviously, with some research, one could plan more than we did. I'll say this, the DWG is a gem. It is worthy of us going back and it is worthy of a couple of days and not just the eight hours we spent. Of course, I'd like to go back during the shad run, but even if I couldn't fish, a trip in the fall could be glorious. 

  Not knowing the visitor center was closed we went straight for the Dingman's Falls VC about two thirds up the park coming from the south. This is where I talked to the ranger. After talking to him we walked out to the falls. The trail to Dingman's  Falls is a boardwalk. As soon as you get on it there is already a really pretty waterfall called Silverthread Falls. Honestly, once we saw this one waterfall, if we saw nothing else, we knew we made the right decision to leave Philly.

Dingman's Falls

   Further up the trail we came to the main attraction Dingman's Falls. It was a very beautiful surprise. Like everything else, we had no idea what to expect. Dingman's is a very tall waterfall and the view of it is great.

   After we left the waterfall I wanted to see the "Gap". There is a place along the river where the mountains come right down to it on both sides. This is what the area is named for. We stopped at a trailhead that goes up a mountain, but the description was that it was very steep. So we tried the mountain across the river. According to one review, the best views are from the first viewpoint. So instead of hiking to the top we only went halfway. The view did not disappoint. We hung out at the viewpoint for fifteen minutes and headed down. All total, we did about three miles on this hike. This is the longest/first hike I have done in a year, but my back felt fine. I spent the entirety of the hike trying to find Timber Rattlesnakes and Copperheads but came up short. 

Delaware Water Gap 

   After our hike it was getting kind of late. We headed to the north end of the park (closer to home) to check out one more waterfall the ranger told us about. Its name was Raymondskill Falls. It was just a short steep walk down to the falls. We were alone and if time wasn't getting away from us, we would have stayed an hour. I took some pictures and a video then enjoyed the waterfall for ten minutes. 

  Lastly, we stopped at beach at the very north end of the park. Even if I couldn't fish the river, I still wanted to touch it. I walked over to the boat ramp wishing to see a shad splash. I touched the water and we left. We filled up the gas tank in the town of Milford and made the four hour drive home. I will go back...

Below are a few more photos and a video o Dingman's Falls that is worth 15 seconds of your life. Most of them were taken with my phone

Four Snake Day!!!

 

  Today I went birding with my good friend Scott. As soon as we hit the trail we almost stepped on a Smooth Green Snake. It was a beautiful little snake. Unfortunately, I thought it would be a good idea to try to catch it instead of getting a photo. I got neither the snake in hand or a photo!

   On our way back to our cars at almost the same spot we ran across a Decay Brown Snake. That snake slithered into the woods quickly and I  had no chance of catching it or a photo. However, seeing two snakes made me think they were really active. Scott left so I went back on the trail.

   I found two more Decay Brown Snakes. One of them I even caught.  I took some photos with my phone and let it be. I can't tell you how excited I was to actually catch one. It was a special day.

   To top it off, I went to my friend Dick's house to drop something off and he invited me to have dinner at his house. The meal and conversation were great! The dish was Shrimp scampi and Clams Sambuca. I can't even explain how delicious it was.

Toadaly awesome!

   

   On our way home from our Cape weekend we stopped at Crane Wildlife Management Area. There is a small pool that was filled with small tadpoles last summer. I thought if tadpoles were there in the summer, there might be frogs in the spring. So we took a walk out. 

  Sure enough, we saw activity, but it wasn't frogs, it was toads. There were two pairs of toads where the male looked to be mounted on a female. On top of that, we saw weird spirally stuff in the water that Google told me were toad eggs! we voyeured on the toads for a couple of minutes then left them to do their thing. Coolest thing we saw on Sunday.   

American Toad eggs

Golden Trout poses

Grip and Grin
But it was my biggest trout of the day

    A couple years ago, I ran into one of America's best fishermen when I went fishing for Kokanee Salmon in Connecticut. We talked a little bit and he was kind enough to take photos for me of my first ever caught Kokanee. While we were fishing whenever he hooked up I noticed he was taking a ton of photos with his phone while he was fighting the fish. I didn't think too much of it.  Later that night I friend requested him and he accepted.

 

 Since becoming Facebook friends, I've asked him a couple of advice questions on species I've never caught. He has graciously answered them all (the number of questions I've sent him is 1/100th the amount I sent my friend Dave in the early days of our friendship). What I have noticed is this guy posts fish almost every day because he is addicted to fishing. His photos are so creative. They are not just the hold up the fish and grin photos we all take. Some of his photos are works of art with perfect colors and light. His photos of fighting fish, fish in the hand, and fish in the water inspired me to take pictures I wouldn't normally take.

   Now, don't get me wrong, I suspect that for every work of art he gets, he takes a dozen trash photos. That is okay, if you get a perfect photo who cares how many you delete? I assumed going in I'd take a ton of out of focus photos, and pics where a fish was there but by the time the camera focused, it was gone. I knew it would be hard.  It is also much harder to get these photos alone. If my son were here and trout fishing with me, I'm sure we could get tons of great photos of fish. He is a decent fishermen and himself a great photographer, but he is twelve time zones away. So it is my game to play. 

 

 Today I had a very good day trout fishing. They were hitting the fly and casting bubble. So I experimented with photos. I used a combination of my small point and shoot and my phone. As expected, I got a bunch of out of focus photos, and plenty that were in focus but were crap. My other issue was I let all of the fish go, so I didn't want to make them model any longer than I had too. After I took some photos of each fish I would revive it if needed before letting it go. they all swam away fine.

   This is not a brag post, these photos are by no means a look at me. I had a great day fishing, but I've been blanked trout fishing SIX times so far this year. And if you think I'm just showing off my photos I promise you, I'd be happy to show you my recycle bin full of bad ones. However, maybe seeing these "okay" photos will give you an idea to try something outside the box. It's fun. I know most of these photos are only average and none are going to make it on my wall, but it is a start. 

A Whale of a Weekend

   

cropped photo of a whale off of Race Point

   This weekend Laurie and I took a trip to the Outer Cape. I had two missions. First I wanted to see whales from the beach. Secondly, I wanted to get video of herring going upstream.  Along with these two goals, we were also just looking for nice places to walk and I wanted to find places to take postcard quality photos

   During this time of year migrating whales make their way north to their summer feeding grounds. Many North Atlantic Right Whales spend time in Cape Cd Bay. Right now as many as seventy are in the bay. Other whales go by Cape beaches to Stellwagen Bank and points north. The best place to see them from shore is Race Point in Provincetown, but if you are lucky, you can also see them from other beaches. As for the herring, I had researched Cape Herring Runs, while most runs start later in the month, a couple of rivers are loaded with them. 

  We left early on Saturday morning and made it to Herring Cove Beach in P-town by 8:30 AM. It was cold but we had a clear view of Cape Cod Bay from the car. We sat for quite a while but eventually a Right Whale came by heading toward Race Point. We watched it spout three times and saw its back on and off for two minutes. It was way out but in the binoculars we had a good look at it. After another hour we decided it wasn't going to get any warmer so we may as well head over to Race Point. 

   The point is about two miles from the parking lot over some fairly soft sand. We went out that way and sat down to rest and scan the water. Laurie found a whale and called me over. It was a feeding whale really far from shore. We actually saw its head come out of the water to feed. I was looking through my binoculars not my camera unfortunately. There was a lot of bait in the water and gulls were all over it. I did finally get one photo of the whale's back but as I said, it was way out (maybe 1.5 miles from shore). I really had to crop it. On our walk back to the car we saw multiple whales near the horizon. Not worth photos, but kept us occupied walking over the sand.

                                                      Video of herring below

 

    Next we went to two herring runs. The first one in Orleans was on Herring Brook Rd. It only had a couple of herring in it. I'm told it is very tide dependent and the fish swim upstream on a raising tide. The tide was low while we were there. 

  The second at a Grist Mill on Stony Brook Rd in Eastham had a lot of herring. The light was bad as the sun reflected all of the trees and bushes in the water. I took some photos and a videos but I knew we'd go back Sunday and hope for better light.

   We ended our day at the Roadway Motel in Orleans. It was a $97/night before taxes. It was spotlessly clean. It had a microwave and a fridge. We watched a Jeopardy rerun (that we had never seen) where Laurie kicked my ass 15-6. My only saving grace was that I got the final jeopardy question right.

  Sunday

   After a great night in a really comfortable bed, Laurie went to buy a donut from a place she heard was great. I did my back exercises and packed our belongings. I had hoped to go to Race Point again because the plan was to go both days if Saturday wasn't spectacular. Though we saw whales on Sat, they were far off, so I was happy to see them, but spectacular would not describe the day. I decided to change the plans when Laurie, who was sore from our endless beach walk said " I'm not in the mood and I have a tude" (attitude). So we changed plans. 

 

   So I took a couple photos of a windmill down the street then went to Coast Guard Beach. We looked over the embankment for a few minutes incase we saw some whales. Then we went up the road to Nauset Lighthouse. 

   On our way back west we stopped at Fort Hill. This is a very good birding spot in May, though we were a month early, we just decided to go for a walk. We walked the Red Maple Swamp Trail. Then went up a hill where there was a rock used by the natives thousands of years ago to sharpen tools. There were grooves where rock axes were sharpened. I thought it was amazing.

   After we left Fort Hill it was close to noontime and went back to Stony Brook Rd herring run. The light was better since the sun was right above us. I took many short videos of the herring. It is a pretty place. The river is very pleasing and daffodils were everywhere. The Grist Mill with the paddlewheel made a nice backdrop.

  It was still early so we then went to Chatham hoping to see seals. We only saw one Grey Seal! This amazed me, I thought there would be hundreds. We looked at the beauty of the sandbars and took  a photo of the lighthouse.

   On our way home we stopped at Crane Management Area and the herring run at the outlet of John's Pond. The herring still hadn't made it into the river (the Quashnet River which is where I caught wild trout last year)

 

Nauset Light

   All in all it was a great two days. Though the whale show wasn't mind blowing, the fun was in the looking. Though we only had a good run of herring in one river, it was enough and we enjoyed watching them. We found beauty at lighthouses, the shoreline, and a red maple swamp. Not a bad weekend!

More photos below

The best bird I saw 
Iceland Gull

Dunlin

Stony Brook Grist Mill

Laurie on the sharpening rock

The fish ladder on Stony Brook

Chatham Light

View from Chatham Light

Herp Photo Upgrade ( Red Bellied Cooters)

 

Today I went to Plymouth in search of trout. While the trout fishing sucked the trip was not a waste of time. I stopped at a pond that I saw Red Bellied Cooters last year. Red Bellied Cooters are native to Mass but are endangered. Strangely, the next closest population is in New Jersey. Last year I got a couple photos but they were on a log that had a branch blocking the head in my photos. Today I got lucky and I could see their faces.

This was my "best" photo from last year.
So definitely an upgrade today.