For the past month Laurie and I have been trying to see the Puffins that live on Eastern Egg Rock. Each time we planned on goin g the weather did not cooperate. Finally. this week it did. So we bought tickets.
To get to Eastern Egg Rock you need to take a boat. There are two boat companies that will take you out. One is in Boothbay Harbor, the other is in New Harbor. We took the trip on Hardy Boats out of New Harbor because it was our only option. The other boat was sold out. The cost for a ticket on Hardy Boats is $51. The trip lasts ninety minutes. Thirty minutes to the island, thirty minutes there, and thirty minutes back to port. The trip goes out at noon.
I wanted to see more than Atlantic Puffins. There were four species I hoped to see on the day. Besides the Puffins, Black Guillemots and Arctic Terns nest on the island along with other species I had seen. Seeing the Puffins and and Guillemots would be easy. I actually had a Guillemot in port before the boat engine even started. The tern would be the hard part. The easiest way to tell an Arctic and Common Tern apart is bill color. Commons have an orange bill with a black tip. Artic Terns have an all red bill. This is much easier said than done. Terns are fast and focusing on the bill while in flight is challenging. There are also way more Commons than Arctics.
While near the island after taking a few photos of Puffins, I spent most of my time trying to see tern bill color. I was alone in this endeavor as everyone else on the boat were there to see Puffins. I did see a few Arctic Terns.
After we got off the boat we drove down to Scarborough Marsh near Old Orchard Beach. Laurie stayed in the car and I hustled out to see Nelson's Sparrow. I hear, I saw, I conquered. Then I jogged back to the car.
We then headed west to New Hampshire. Laurie booked a Best Western in Franconia. It has an indoor pool and we swam for an hour. I slept on the floor near the A/C. We woke up to a decent Continental Breakfast at 7 am.
We went to Pondicherry which is my favorite place in NH. There is so much wildlife. Though not really on Sunday. Merlin heard three separate Rough Grouse but I didn't hear any of them so I can't count them for the year. I did see two snakes.
From Pondicherry, we went to Mirror Lake in North Woodstock. Mirror Lake has trout but they were not my quarry. It also has Red Breasted Sunfish. I remembered to bring my rod, but I forgot my tackle. I was going to use a fly with a casting bubble. Since I left it at home I had to resort to worms. So I bought the only hooks in the store that were way too big, some bobbers and worms. This cost me eleven dollars to catch a sunfish.
Once at Mirror Lake I caught a fish on my first cast but it was a Pumpkinseed. For the next forty minutes I had fish strip my tiny piece of worm on the point of the hook constantly. Finally forty minutes in I caught a beautiful Red Breasted Sunfish.
We then headed south closer to home and we went down Sandwich Notch Road. This was the sight of my radiator exploding three weeks ago. This time, in Laurie's car I went very slow and
missed all but one pot hole. Once at Upper Hall Pond I walked down the side road with my net. I looked for and found Eastern (also known as Red Spotted) Newts. I caught two and took a few photos.
We left New Hampshire soon after but it was a memorable trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment