The ups and downs of my trip to New Hampshire

 

Both Mourning Warbler photos are cropped
but I'll take it!

  I went to New Hampshire on Monday night planning to spend Tuesday and Wednesday birding and fishing. The plan did not go as I hoped. 

   Tuesday started off with a bang. I got to Pondicherry by 6 am and I was the only one there. Pondicherry is an amazing place to see wildlife. I've seen moose, bear, porcupine, and Snowshoe Hare for mammals. For birds it is incredible with Ruffed Grouse, Alder Flycatcher, and Black Backed Woodpecker as reliable species. It is also loaded with nesting warblers. While the only mammal I saw was a beaver, I did have some great birds. I saw Least Flycatchers and Alders everywhere. There was a Yellow Bellied Flycatcher singing that I saw. They are really rare and my best find for the day. I also saw a Purple Finch which is my biggest nemesis bird. There were multiple singing Canada Warblers. All in all, Pondicherry was the highlight of my trip.

    On my way back to my car I heard what I thought was a singing Mourning Warbler. Mourning Warblers suck. They are absolutely beautiful. They are a rare species to see and worst of all they do not like to be seen. They stay hidden in thick brush and will frustratingly sing without letting you see them. This one sounded to be up in a tree and was singing continuously. After a twenty minute search, I found it singing about fifteen feet up. It is amazing how a yellow bird can blend in. I had never seen one out in

the open before. The only other one I had ever seen was for about a second as it hoped from one branch to another in heavy brush and I had a one foot window to look through. This guy sang for a minute or two in my view then flew back to the tree behind where I saw it and it continued singing. I got my first ever photos of a Mourning Warbler which was really exciting.

   From Pondicherry I went to Moore Reservoir hoping to catch Smallmouth Bass. The wind was blowing and I got frustrated fighting it. I caught a couple Rock Bass but no smallies. I stayed around two hours.

   Next I went to Echo Lake. Again, I did not have any luck. I had a couple bumps on my lures but no takers. I walked around half the pond trying to find fish but did not. At this point it was around 3 pm. I stopped and got a couple slices of pizza for lunch. 

  From there I went to Mirror Lake in the hopes of catching Red Breasted Sunfish. Again, it was a bust I caught Pumpkinseed Sunfish and Yellow Perch, but no Red Breasted. So I moved on.

   My next goal was Sandwich Notch Road. I was going to look for newts then fish for Common Shiners (and Brook Trout). After fishing, I was going to find a parking spot and sleep in my car for the night. Wednesday, I planned on Smallmouth fishing in the Lakes Region. Depending on wind, I'd fish two lakes if it was calm. If it was windy, I'd fish one for a few hours then beat the afternoon traffic and get home about 3 pm. 

  None of that happened. While driving down Sandwich Notch Rd I had to pull way over to the side of the narrow road so an oncoming car could pass. As I slowed down, I saw what looked like a lot of dust blowing around the front of my car. This isn't unusual on these dry dirt roads. However, there was a lot. I looked at my temperature gauge and it was pinned HOT. The dust was not dust but smoke. I pulled over and lifted my hood and it was smoking like crazy. Everything was wet. Either I blew my radiator or a radiator hose. I was done for the day!

    Not only was driving my overheated car a bad idea, but I didn't have cell service. None what so ever. I couldn't make any calls. So I let my car cool down and after ten minutes, I started it and drove it back towards Waterville Valley. I drove it between sixty and ninety seconds and I pulled over to let it cool again. I did this about five times. Finally while on Rt 49 I got cell service. I called Triple A and told them about my situation and that I needed a tow back to MA. This was about 5 pm. 

    It took Triple A an hour to find a tow truck willing to pick me up and bring me home that late. Then it took another two hours for them to come get me. After that I had a three hour ride home. The tow truck had to make a couple stops. I got home at midnight. They dropped me and my car off at my house.

   Wednesday morning I drove it to the mechanic a quarter mile from my house and dropped it off. It was a radiator. Six hundred dollars later I have my car back with a new radiator. If there is any good news it is that having Triple A saved me almost seven hundred dollars for my tow.

  I got seven new vertebrates for the year on Tuesday ( Least and Yellow Bellied Flycatcher, Purple Finch, Black Backed Woodpecker, Rock Bass, Beaver, and I saw Brook Trout). My biggest dip was the Red Breasted Sunfish and I didn't get a chance to see newts or Common Shiner). My best experience was finally getting a life photo of a Mourning Warbler.  Obviously my Wednesday was ruined. At least I made it home without paying for a tow. I realized my car was overheating before I blew the motor so that is probably the most important thing.

Wrapping up Spring Migration with a bang!

By far, my best photos of Cerulean
Warblers were taken today

 
   Today I went back to Plum Island. This time I went with  Laurie and my friend from Connecticut, Nicole. I knew this was about the end of migration birding for me. While I am not opposed to looking at any late birds, I do plan on fishing and herping more. Additionally, next week I'm going to New Hampshire to see what birds I can see and what fish I can catch.

   Today started out spectacularly. One of the first birds we saw was a Cerulean Warbler. Ceruleans are a very rare warbler and they have a habit of feeding high up in the canopy making them that much more frustrating to see. I've only seen three before. Usually I rely on hearing them as my ID to count them for the year. This one today was only fifteen feet up and fed out in the open for ten minutes. This means I saw it roughly nine minutes and fifty seconds more than my other ones combined. 

   A little while later we heard not one, but two Alder Flycatchers. Again, a really rare bird. We listened to it for a few minutes but we could not find it despite sounding close.

   Back on the road at Hellcat, we saw a couple people in one spot. We realized they were listening to a Mourning Warbler. Yes, very rare, and a serious skulker. They do not like to be seen. It stopped singing just as arrived. I heard it once. It did fly out for a brief second and we got a quick look. Only the second one I have seen.

   

A little dark, but an Alder Flycatcher

A little later on we did end up seeing an Alder Flycatcher. Alders look exactly like Willow Flycatchers. Even experts can't tell them apart. They actually used to be the same species until the species was split. The only sure fire way to tell them apart is by song. We did hear this guy say "free beer" as we were watching it. 

   While we were at Parker River, I overheard a guy say the Cliff Swallows were back. They are an extremely tough swallow to get in New England. They told me they were near the bridge on Route 1. Unfortunately, they were wrong. After spending forty five minutes at that bridge we checked ebird reports and they were near the Chain Bridge. We went there and saw them after a few minute wait. They are far too fast for me to attempt a photo of. 

   All in all, we did not see a lot of species today. We had to work hard to see the birds. There were enough birds to keep us focused, but they were few and we had to look hard. The flip side to that is, the quality of birds was phenomenal. All of the birds listed above are once a year type birds. On top of that, we saw a dozen Blackpoll Warblers and a Blackburnian. I didn't take photos of today's Blackburnian but here is a photo I got of one on Tuesday.

Another Lifer, Another bad Photo

 

  Yesterday I went to Beavertail to see a White Winged Dove. White Winged Doves are very common in  the southwest, Mexico and the south coast of the United States. I tried to find one that was reported when I was in the  Keys in 2021 but didn't see it. Up north they are not common. In Rhode Island this was only the forth or fifth ever reported.

   After changing a flat tire that I woke up to, I picked up my friend Richard on my way to Jamestown. My friend Louise had seen the bird and waited for us while keeping an eye on it. Unfortunately, as we got out of the car it flew away. We walked around for fifteen minutes scanning the treetops looking for it. After an unsuccessful search we went to the spot it was last seen.

   It had come down to an open area with grass seed multiple times in the morning. So we lined up with other birders in the hopes it would get hungry again. We waited about forty five minutes and it flew in. Just as it landed the rain picked up. It had been misting all morning but it went from mist to a steady rain. We all watched the bird for a minute but the rain drove us all to our cars. While I may have watched the bird for a couple of minutes in the rain, my camera does not like getting wet so I respected its wishes. 

The White Winged Dove is a lifer but I also got it in Rhode Island so it is a "state bird" also since RI is the only state I keep a separate list in.  It is my fourth RI state bird this year and my seventh life bird.

Braid vs Mono

I use mono on my trout 
rods.

 I get asked a lot what is better braid or mono fishing line. While I have my preferences I try to explain to people that both have their advantages and disadvantages. In the end, which fishing line to choose is really your decision. To make that decision easier, here are some facts.

   Monofilament

   It surprises me when I talk to people that they don't even know the difference between mono and braid. If you fished as a kid, the line you used was monofilament. It is what we called line or string. It is/was usually clear. Braid on the other hand looks like really thin rope that looks like it is made of cloth or wool (it is not but it does look like a fabric material)

   Mono is much cheaper than braid. It can cost as much as one third the price. Mono stretches. If you've ever gotten hung up on a rock and tried to break your line, you know how much stretch is in the line as you walk it backwards after it gets tight.

Braid

   The biggest disadvantage of braid is the cost. As I said, mono can be as much as three times cheaper. The other disadvantage is what are called wind knots. Wind knots can form when you reel in your line while it is slack. This usually happens when the wind is in your face. You'll go to make a cast and the line that you just reeled in will blow out of your reel in a birds nest. Not fun. These knots usually take many minutes to untie if at all. Usually you cut the line and restring. There is no question that wind knots happen far more to beginners than to people with experience with braid.

   Another disadvantage of braid is it is not not abrasion resistant. If you nick it on a rock while bringing in a fish, it looses almost all of its strength. Chances are you will loose the fish. This is another reason to use much heavier pound strength than mono. Countless times I've brought fish in on mono as the fish was rubbing against rocks, when I felt my line I could feel it all chewed up. I'd cut the line and retie but I got the fish in. With braid, if your line gets beat up, it is going to break.

   The advantages of braid are many. First, it is much thinner than mono. While I could only use twenty pound mono on my saltwater reel, I use thirty pound braid. Because braid is thinner, it casts much farther than mono. Braid doesn't stretch, so this means you will get a solid hookset. It also can mean you are pulling the lure away from a fishes mouth.

   Another advantage of braid is it does not deteriorate like mono does. Mono is only good for a year, sometimes less if you beat it up. A combination of the sun and line memory will ruin your mono. I would never go out in the spring without changing out last year's mono line. With braid, if I cut off the last ten yards or so,  the rest of the line is as good as new and I may get two years out of it.

   Braid is much more sensitive than mono. You can feel a piece of seaweed bump into your line. This is due to that lack of stretch. The vibration just carries right up to your fingertips. 

   As I said, braid looks like a rope or thick thread. Because of this, you do not want to attach your lure directly to it. You want to add a leader. The leader usually mono or fluorocarbon is attached to the end of your braid and usually a swivel which you use to change lures. This means that a fisherman has to carry leaders with to attach to the end of their line. While this sounds like a pain, it is something I no longer think twice about. With mono, you can just tie a lure directly to the line as you always have.

   My choices-

   So after reading all of that, the next logical question is what do I use? The answer is both. I use thirty pound mono for saltwater fishing. I use a leader about two and a half feet long made out of 30 pound mono leader material. At the Cape Cod Canal I will use forty pound mono. Some guys at the Canal use 50 or 65. I am a little confused by the guys that fish bait on the bottom with sixty five pound braid.  When they get caught on the bottom, and they will, I can't imagine how hard it must be to break their line. So for me, thirty is plenty. But I do use braid one hundred percent of the time in the ocean. So for me, saltwater fishing, braid one hundred percent of the time

   Carp fishing I use twenty pound mono. Always have, If you talk to carp guys, fifty percent use mono, fifty percent use braid. Their isn't a concensus. For me, 20# mono one hundred percent of the time

   Trout fishing I use six pound mono. I don't see any reason to use braid trout fishing. I tie directly to my line unless I'm using a casting bubble then I use a six pound fluoro leader six feet long. Mono one hundred percent of the time

  If you are just drowning worms or shiners from shore six to eight pound mono will work fine. Save your money.

Bass Fishing with lures

I could have written a whole post about what to use bass fishing. I'll try to keep it short. With a baitcasting rod, most guys are using braid. The reason is they can use heavier line. Baitcast reels are made for twelve to maybe fifteen pound mono, but they can easily cast thirty pound braid. Some guys use really heavy line up to sixty five pounds to fish frogs and jigs in heavy cover. This might be overkill for three pound fish, but a lot of guys use it. I have two baitcasters. One has twelve pound mono, the other with thirty pound braid. I really haven't fished enough with braid to have formed an opinion. When I go pike fishing, assuming I ever catch one, I'll be using the thirty pound braid and leaving the other rod at home.

   As for spinning reels, I think it comes down to preference. I use two spinning rods for bass. One has eight pound mono. The other has ten pound braid. The braid rod is specifically for Smallmouth. I bought it so I can fish the deep, clear New Hampshire lakes. I attatched a six foot leader of fluorocarbon to ten pound braid. I've used it a couple of times around here and really like the feel of the braid. That said, I've always used mono on my bass rods and they all work just fine. My experience is needed with the braid to see it  I will/would switch all together.

For me, mono about 75% of the time. Braid on one baitcaster and one new rod that I haven't formed an opinion yet.

Brands

These are my personal choices. No one is giving me a penny or a free roll of line for my opinions. 

  For line on my spinning reels for freshwater I use Berkley Trilene XL (extra limp). This stuff casts a mile. It is soft and flexible. It holds up well to the abuse I put it through.

   For Carp fishing I use Berkley Big Game twenty pound. Big Game is a tough abrasion resistant line.

   For all saltwater I use Suffix 832. I mostly use it in the thirty pound weight except at the Canal. I am easily outnumbered by guys that like  Power Pro. However, I always had bad luck with Power Pro  getting wind knots almost every time I fished. Since I switched to Suffix 832, it has been so long since I've gotten a wind knot that I no longer think about them. 

Any questions, please leave in the comments and I will get back to you

Some photos from migration

 

  I've been doing far more birding than fishing. My friend Richard has this week off from work so we went on a three day birding marathon. We birded Saturday for 13 hours and then Sunday-Tuesday about eleven hours each day.  I've been too busy and too tired to post here. That is something I'm a little ashamed of, If you want people to follow your blog, you need to give them a reason to check it out. I'll do better at time management.

   In the meantime, here are some photos of wildlife, mostly birds, I've seen over the last two weeks. As with my blog, I have not had time to crop or touch them up. They are in there raw state. A couple of the photos are blurry but I included them because the birds are rare. The Scissor Tailed Flycatcher has spots on the lens. These were taken with my old backup camera.

Summer Tanager, an overshoot that breeds in the south

Pheasant on Block Island

The reason I went to BI was to see this Mottled Duck
They are native to Florida. This is the first ever
recorded in RI. Found by Sam Miller

Painted Lady

Indigo Bunting

Scissor Tailed Flycatcher. Native to TX and OK
Seen in Carver, MA

American Toad

Solitary Sandpiper

Young Baltimore Oriole

Swainson's Thrush that I found at Swan Point

Yellow Throated Warbler. Another southern 
overshoot. Seen in Newport

This Scarlet Tanager put on a show for me, Richard
and my young friend Devin in Newport. We watched
it sing and feed for ten minutes. More photos below

Black Racer, the first Richard has seen in the wild

A Copper Butterfly. I have not looked it up to
identify the species et

Clapper Rail, an elusive secretive wading bird.
Very lucky to have seen it. Usually we count them 
as "heard only"

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

White Crowned Sparrow in my friend Dave C's
yard. I could never get a photo w/o grass or
a stick in the photo. Beautiful bird though

Spotted Lanternfly. A VERY invasive insect that 
does a lot of damage. This one my have been killed
soon after the photo was taken.