blue skies

January 1, 2004

Monday afternoon I found four short-eared owls and a northern shrike at Salisbury Beach without even trying. All I did was drive in the entrance road and there they were. Three of the owls were hunting over the marsh right next to the road with the northern shrike perched on a bush in front of them. The fourth owl was flapping its way along the dunes between the Beach Boys' house and the state reservation parking lot. So I figured with the fabulous weather today and plenty of time to spend, I'd turn up lots of birds both there and at Plum Island today. No such luck. It was a quiet day birdwise.

Today there were few enough herring gulls in the Salisbury State Reservation parklng lot that I could actually sort them out by age. I guess I've actually made progress on that resolution I make every year to learn the immature plumages of all the gulls that winter here. There were more horses than herring gulls. You don't see that every day.

Over on PI at the refuge, there was actually a line at the gatehouse. The parking lot at Hellcat and the one at Sandy Point were full. Everybody and his brother sister mother father and large broods of children wanted to be outdoors today. It's that kind of day. Sparkling. Bright. Brilliant. So sparkling, bright, and brilliant that birds to the west of the road looked like mounds of grass if they were on the water and dark paper cutouts if they were in the air. Not that there were that many birds in the air as it was very windy. I was surprised at how windy it was. It made my nose run.

I zipped into the one free parking space at lot 7 and walked out on the beach by Emerson Rocks. There was some weird kind of duck hunting vehicle out by the rocks. I mean it really didn't look like a boat exactly. I don't think too many ducks were fooled by it because all I saw for the longest time was one grebe that dove every time I got my binoculars on it. I couldn't get a good enough look to identify it despite repeated tries. Birders with serious scopes were looking at the same grebe but not getting any better looks than I was. I think the thing spent more time underwater than a fish.

A long line of common eiders flew by low over the water and fairly far out from shore. The way the sun highlighted them they seemed lit up from inside. A small flock of white winged scoters put in an appearance once the strange duck hunting vehicle left. More and more birders with bigger and bigger scopes checked out the grebe. I guess they were looking for the western grebe that was here a few days ago. A flock of horned larks flew by overhead right into the sun so there was no way I could check for snow buntings or lapland longspurs hanging out with them. I didn't write any of these birds down in my notebook -- no list for today. Listing felt all wrong for a holiday walk on the beach.

Some arty person has assembled driftwood installations along the beach. Well, at least two. One is right near the platform by lot 7. The other one, which I didn't photograph, is further north near lot 6. If I'd had the energy to the beach at each access point I may well have found one at each of them. Hmm, maybe that could be a project for the new year (besides learning those gull plumages). I wonder how long they'll stay put.

Somebody was waiting for my parking space when I walked back to the car. The refuge is never this busy in winter. When I stopped to use the latrine at Hellcat, I'd barely closed the door when a little girl who desperately had to pee started banging on it. There is never a wait for the evil smelling pit toilets at Hellcat. Never. And on the way out of the refuge I counted 12 cars in line at the gatehouse. Did somebody flip the calendar to July by mistake?

Today's Reading
Chasing the Sea by Tom Bissell

Last Year's Reading
2003 Book List