Unit 63 is never going to let
me live down those disappearing people in the dunes
"between
you and me". He was at the
gatehouse this morning when I picked up the radio and
backpack and quipped: "You might as well just tell me
now, is there anybody out there?" I closed my eyes put my
fingers to my brow and said "Yes, I see them now, two
people, the same ones as last week in the same spot." He
tells me he had a similar situation with another plover
warden and that it had turned out the people had a boat.
I think the middle part of the beach around what used to
be Camp Sea Haven is hard for the plover wardens to
monitor because North can''t see around the curve of the
dunes and South simply can't see that far even from lot
6. We need plover warden skycam.
There's a big white boat out on the
horizon flying a big American flag. It's got a fairly big
radar dome thing on it but I can't make out the word
Raytheon on the radar never mind the name of the ship on
the bow. If there are any birds around it, they're too
far away to see, let alone identify. It stays out there
just far enough away that I can't tell what it is. A
visitor asked me "Did you see that big Navy ship out
there? Is it from Portsmouth or is it a Coast Guard boat
from Newburyport? Hmm, if it was Navy it would be gray
and would definitely be from Portsmouth. If it's a Coast
Guard asset, it would have the red and white Coast Guard
logo on it but I see no red on it at all. Too bad. I
haven't recorded a single Coast Guard asset during my
shift this season. I used to see all manner of them all
the time. I know some of 'em got shipped off to the Gulf
(that would be the Persian Gulf, not the Gulf of Maine
where I'm looking for them) but there are still plenty of
them around just not during my shift
apparently.
The visitors are about equally
distributed between people who want the plovers to hurry
up so the people can use the beach and people who are
genuinely interested in the survival of the species. And
everybody wants to know about greenheads. They're here.
They bite. One guy wants to know what kind of bug
repellent I use and wants to know if I've ever seen
anybody catch a fish here. Sawyer's Gold and no, not at
lot 6 but I've seen people catch stripers at lot
1.
The cool bird of the day is an
immature northern gannet flying very close to shore so I
can see how mottled its plumage is and see just a hint of
the adult yellowish color developing on the head. Runner
up for cool bird is Wilson's petrel again, this time just
two of them following a lobster boat.
I'm looking at a small flock of
sanderlings when I lift up the binoculars and see 5,
count them 5, people on the beach just north of lot 5.
Oh, no, not again! Unit 63 is going to think I'm making
this up. I radio the gatehouse and ask if maybe they're
supposed to be there. I thought being a group like that
maybe they were some kind of scientific expedition or
something. "No, not unless they're in uniform." Hmm, not
unless bathing suits count as uniforms. I don't really
think they belong there but I'm reaching, stretching,
trying to find some reason why I'm not really seeing a
group of 5 people walking down the closed area of beach.
Unit 63 goes to investigate.
I start having trouble with the
radio, unable to hear the gatehouse when I ask if I have
relief coming. There's a dead spot of beach, I guess,
because once I get up on the boardwalk on top of the
dunes the radio works fine. I see Unit 63's vehicle
pulled off the road at Sea Haven, no doubt looking for
those 5 people who may or may not be mirages. None of the
gulls were doing anything interesting today, and judging
by the postings
on Massbird everyone but me
is seeing piping plover chicks today, so I guess this is
a diary of mirages and radios.
