Journal of a Sabbatical

August 3, 2000

no, but i have a radio

Today's Bird Sightings:
Plum Island
sanderling (45)
semipalmated plover (7)
semipalmated sandpiper (6)
great black back gull (8)
ruddy turnstone (8)
herring gull (51)
ring billed gull (9)
double crested cormorant (17)
common tern (1)
piping plover (2)
tree swallow (3)
least tern (1)
laughing gull (1)
redwinged blackbird (1)
Mammals
white tailed deer (1)
refuge staff (3)

south beach 11:30 - 3:30

Today's Reading: Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit

Today's Starting Pitcher: off day

Today is a lighter gray than usual, a pale pearl gray. It's so humid I feel like I'm swimming in the air. The temperature is supposed to go up into the 90's today with possible thunderstorms late in the afternoon. But, you know what? It's a great day to be at the beach. There's a steady breeze to keep the greenheads away and cool me off. There are not too many visitors, but just enough to keep it from being boring. The sanderlings are putting on a show, feeding like crazy, chasing semipalmated sandpipers and semipalmated plovers away, chasing each other, and racing at top speed along the water line so fast their legs blur.

The incoming tide obliterates the telltale sanderling feeding trails - lines of holes with little mounds of sand where they've poked their bills into the sand and then sort of plowed it repeatedly. The semipalmated plovers parade back and forth in the wrack behind me, having given up contesting the water line with the sanderlings and semipalmated sandpipers. The no trespassing sign withstands the incoming tide for three hours and finally falls over. I debate whether to take off shoes and socks and roll up pant legs to retrieve the sign. What if greenheads suddenly appear and bite my tender feet? I'm so responsible, I decide to go for it. The dead skate that's been washing in and out all day washes up right at my feet as I'm retrieving the sign.

For most of the shift, no gull comes close to the dead skate. Now a ring billed gull gets interested and starts pecking at it, seemingly without actually eating any of it. A first year herring gull lands and drives the ringbill away. The herring gull pecks at it more vigorously. An adult great black back drives the herring gull away, takes one peck at it, decides it's not worth eating and flies away. No gulls touch it for the rest of the shift.

Most of the visitors ask questions about piping plovers (what do they look like, what do they eat, etc.) or about when the beach will be open. But it wouldn't be a summer of plover wardening if somebody didn't ask me if I have a gun. Late in the afternoon, a guy walks up to me and asks:

Guy: "Are you the guard today?"

Me: "Yes."

Guy: "Do you have a gun?"

Me: "No they don't issue us guns, just a radio."

Guy: "What happens if somebody trespasses? Do you shoot them?"

Me: "No, they don't' give us guns, just radios."

Guy pointing to the dead skate: "What's that?"

Me: "A dead skate. Like a, umm, stingray."

Guy: "What are they for?"

Me: "Umm, I think they're edible, but it looks like it's been dead for awhile and even the gulls won't touch it. I wouldn't recommend eating it."

Guy: "So, it tried to get on the closed beach and you shot it?"

I bit my tongue and did not say "With my radio?" but I thought it. After the guy left I laughed until I started coughing. I laugh again in the car on my way back to the gatehouse.

I was going to do more weed pictures but sort of ran out of energy. This fungus is growing on the fence next to lot 7. I don't have a fungus book, and it doesn't look like either of the two types shown in my everything book (the National Audubon Society guide to the nature of New England, which has some of everything: birds, flowers, trees, mushrooms (except the ones I've seen so far this year), butterflies, dragonflies, marine mammals, fish, herptiles ...). I'm too tired to try an Internet search and the library isn't open late at night, so I'll have to figure out the fence fungus's name another time.

So, the weed of the day is Bouncing Bet. Looks kind of like the phlox my mother used to plant in her garden on Warwick Road. Who names these things? Who is Bet and was she flattered or insulted to have weed named after her? Did she really bounce?

I brake for a deer in the road, for catbirds in the road, and pedestrians, but for once the suicidal mourning doves do not hurl themselves at my car. In fact they aren't in the road at either of their usual spots. I don't really bird on the way back because the game I made up for today was to see how many birds I could list just from sitting on the beach. I'd say it's a pretty good list, especially since this is the first laughing gull I've had this year.

Also, in the weed department, I stop to verify that neither Evening Lychnis nor Evening Primrose, which I photographed yesterday, is in bloom. Evidently the night blooming flowers agree that today's gray is much lighter, practically daylight. A few patches of blue sky even sneaked in but they've vanished already and thunderstorms are predicted for tonight.