DJ's Bunk Day

I told DJ ( my son for anyone that doesn't know) that he could take a day out of school when the weather got nice if he didn't miss any school for the last two quarters of school sick. He went to school everyday for the last few months so it was time to live up to my end of the bargain. The plan was to let him take the day out of school for a day at the Bronx Zoo. We ended up going to the zoo on a Sunday so we needed a plan B. I told him we could do anything he wanted as long as the day was under $50. Didn't matter to me how far of a drive, as long as he planned something he wanted to do.

DJ thinks with his stomach first. Instead of doing a day trip to Boston or Block Island, the first and only thing on his mind was his favorite restaurant. Becky's BBQ in Middletown,RI has the best BBQ around. DJ wasn't been there in a year or so. So instead of planning an all day adventure he was content to take the hour drive for 20 minutes worth of food ( it is amazing). I didn't give him any ideas for plans for the day. I wanted him to come up with something HE WANTED TO DO, without any suggestions of what I wanted to do. On the way down, I mentioned things we could have done, however, he kept a clear mind and continued to concentrate on smoked sparebibs. He was going to have a good day as long as his belly was full of barbaque.

Obviously I was not going to just get the food and turn right around. He tried to make at least a 1/2 day of the trip. Before we ate we went to Sachuest Point NWR and did some birding at the Third Beach marsh restoration. We saw a piping plover on a nest, glossy ibis and an American redstart (a type of warbler that looks like a mini Baltimore oriole). There were a lot of common species and we ended up with close to 30 in a couple hours.

We did get BBQ at Becky's, the downside was they were out of there mashed potatoes. We managed to consol our selves by eating an extra piece of cornbread

Glossy Ibis at Great Swamp

I went to Great Swamp on Monday with my good buddy Laurie. It was a nice day, but a little warm. We had three ideas for Monday things to do. We actually chose the one that involved the most exercise. We did the four mile loop around Great Swamp birding. Since we got to the swamp near the middle of the day many of the woodland birds were quiet. We did get a great crested flycatcher, common yellowthroats. We had fun looking for reptiles and amphibians. We found a garter snake, a wood frog, toad, painted turtles and a snapper that was crossing the path. The majority of the time spent around the pond was geared towards finding bullfrogs in the water. He heard a bunch but only saw 4. It was fun looking for them.

We got some great looks at the osprey and could actually see 5 at one time between nesters and fliers.

The absolute highlight of the day were two glossy ibis feeding in the shallows of the pond. I have never seen them in this area. They have been reported a few times but this was my first time seeing them outside the Outer Banks, NC. As we were looking for frogs, Laurie spotted them on a mud flat about 150 feet away. We watched them for about 15 minutes.I have a picture but it does not do them justice since it was taken facing the sun.

I caught a few stripers tonight fishing from 8:30-11:30 in Providence. I was using zoom flukes and 4" black backed shad bodies.