Red Fox and Red Headed Woodpecker

 

   I went on a birding trip on Cape Cod two weeks ago looking for rare birds. There were seven possible species at various locations. One of those locations was Race Point. We worked our way to P-town stopping at all of the potential rare birds on the way. Because we dipped on some, we spent too much time looking for them. So I got to the Race Point parking lot around 2 pm instead of the 12:30 time I hoped. I rushed out to the rip but by the time I got there it was about time to turn around. I had to meet Laurie who came for the ride but made it clear she wasn't walking over the Race Point sand if she went.

    When I got back to the lot a friendly Red Fox was begging for food. There wasn't any doubt it had been fed. I started taking photos of it. Because it was on the asphalt and the lines of parking spaces were in front of and behind it, most of the photos suck. However, I got a few decent ones. At one point it was too close to me to focus and I had to stand up to make it back off. I'm sure it wouldn't have hurt me, but it was about six feet from me. Though I saw some of the birds I wanted to see, the fox was by far the highlight of the day. Laurie got to see it too. Woodpecker story below photos.

   My friend Nicole babysits for a family on a working farm. She is a hardcore birder and the family she works for loves birds. They even allowed her to do a Christmas Bird Count on the farm in golf carts for "Birdability" which is for people that have a hard time getting around. 

   On the farm there has been a Red Headed Woodpecker for a month. This farm and Nicole live in Connecticut so it is a long ride for me. One to piggyback things to do I decided to go for the Woodpecker and hang out with Nicole. After that, I would bird RI stopping first at Misquamicut to see the Snow Buntings. Also that day I put up two Screech Owl boxes so it was a busy day.

   I met Nicole at the nature center where she works. She showed me around and I got to hold a lot of the animals. By far, the most exciting animal I held was a very tame Hognose Snake! I got to hold some turtles and a toad also. It was very nice of Nicole to let me see everything.

   We went to the farm after leaving the nature center. It was a ten minute ride. We got on the golf cart and went out to the field that had some huge oaks. The Red Headed Woodpecker wasn't there so we went down other trails. Finally on our third and last pass we saw the Red Headed Woodpecker. I didn't get any great photos but it was still awesome to see. Thank you Nicole!

 This week I also got a photo upgrade of the super rare Ross's Goose that has been hanging around the Newport Country Club for a month