Journal of a Sabbatical

The Plover Warden Diaries

semipalmated plovers and fall in the air

August 4, 1997




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This is the first day since I started doing the plover warden thing in April that I haven't talked to a single visitor. I saw one person read the sign, look at me, then turn around. Otherwise, nobody even came close to the refuge boundary. There weren't a whole lot of people on the beach anyway. Too cold. I had both sweatshirts on and still felt cold. The wind blew in off the water for the entire shift. I could still feel it blowing on me when I got in my car to drive to Newport for the Coastal Aesthetics Summer School.

What the day lacked in people contact, it made up for in bird sightings. A group of semipalmated plovers systematically foraging at the wrack line moved closer and closer to me through the whole shift. By the time I left, they were right in front of me maybe a 6 feet away. I got a really good look at them. They are darker than piping plovers and apparently less shy.

Official piping plover count:

Adults: 17
Fledglings: 17
Hatchlings: 15

What I saw today:

100 swallows
11 semipalmated plovers
5 ring billed gulls
4 least terns
4 piping plovers
2 black back gulls
1 herring gull
1 cormorant

I tried to read Coast by Joseph Thorndike but the wind kept turning the pages for me before I was ready.

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