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April 5, 1997
The snow is melting rapidly. It sounds like we're living inside a babbling brook. Water water everywhere. Yeah, still. You'd think it would be gone by now. I was in shirtsleeves on the beach this morning and there's still snow on the ground. The melting is accelerating though. And I heard it's supposed to rain tomorrow. That should accelerate the melting big time. Meanwhile every place looks like a wetland.
I thought I would have a quiet day today on the early plover warden shift. Since I was at Kevin's til midnight and didn't get home til nearly 1:00AM I was in somewhat of a trance when I drove to Plum Island this morning for the 8:00AM shift. I got up at 6:00. Let me see, that adds up to nearly 5 hours of sleep. I used to be able to keep going on that in the old chronic jet-lag days. I'm sure not used to it now. The landscape along Rt. 133 looked alien. I kept wondering if I was going the right way. Somehow, it felt even earlier than it was.
I stopped off at Coffee Aroma in Newburyport for a quick cup of coffee and a muffin, then on to the refuge. The refuge was already bustling with bird watchers. The Hawkwatch people were already set up in parking lot 1 (they monitor the spring and fall hawk migrations) and dozens upon dozens of birders were at all the usual spots. I was amazed to see two swans near Joppa Flats. I associate swans with Rhode Island (there's a huge breeding population of Atlantic Mute Swans in RI for some reason). There were ducks and geese of every kind all over the place. Redwing blackbirds were singing up a storm. I saw an osprey fly over the Plum Island Turnpike. Saw a killdeer next to the refuge entrance road. Birds, birds, birds.
I picked up the radio and clipboard with report forms etc., and drove the remaining 7 miles to Sandy Point taking in all the birds and birders on the way. I set up next to the refuge boundary and watched the surf. I scanned for piping plovers as they were reported to be at the south end of the beach today, but no luck. Didn't see a single one.
After I'd been at the beach for a little over an hour, the gate house contacted me to let me know that the north plover warden hadn't shown up and law enforcement would like me to move to the north end as there are way more people there. I'll say! From when I got there until 11:30 or 11:45 I contacted 13 people and waved off two jet skis.
Two of the 13 people I talked to were downright hostile.
One woman was abusive when she wasn't telling me that the beach closure was political and had nothing to do with the birds and people don't bother the birds (evidence to the contrary notwithstanding) and then she started in on the deer hunt. Now, I personally don't agree with the deer shoot as the way to control the overpopulation of deer on the refuge. The Fish and Wildlife people believe it's better than letting the deer starve to death after they've eaten every bit of edible vegetation in sight. (I have seen starving deer on the refuge in the winter and it is not a pretty sight). But when I am representing the US Fish and Wildlife Service I don't voice my personal opinion to the public. I don't have to agree with every policy to do my job as a plover warden. Anyway, this woman was giving me shit about how she was so offended by the deer shoot and how could we do that and close the beach to protect the birds (what do you call the argument technique when you argue a totally different point?) Having had quite a bit of experience, I knew to hold my tongue and let her vent and just quietly repeat that the beach is closed. Eventually she went away.
The second hostile woman was downright weird. She was very newage (see Diane Patterson's glossary for a good definition of newage). After she told me that people and plovers had coexisted on the beach for hundreds of years without harm (excuse me, then why are they endangered?), she did sitting meditation. Later she asked how much the parking is on the refuge, whether you have to pay to go to Sandy Point, how much is a duck stamp, where do you buy a duck stamp, how much of the refuge is open, where is Sandy Point, where is the refuge headquarters.... every answer I gave her elicited "That's stupid". In particular she gave me a long speech on how stupid it was that the refuge headquarters is on the other (north) end of the island. Hey, I'm just there to protect the plovers, not justify the space shortage and the checkerboard of ownership of the land (besides the refuge, there's Sandy Point State Park (owned by the state -gee could you guess by the name), an Audubon society refuge (Joppa Flats) and many many private homes... This woman was even complaining about the parking at Salisbury Beach (a state beach on the other side of the river!) I think the oddest thing was her absolute insistence that the refuge beach had never been closed before - that this project was new this year. I told her I worked there last year...
Well, maybe that wasn't the oddest thing about her... her taichi form was the stiffest I have ever seen! It was almost like she didn't get the point of it. She did the Yang style long form on the beach with great posture and technical perfection but her muscles were positively rigid! Weird weird weird. I mean if you're gonna go the whole newage route, you at least oughta know what you're doing!
Plover count: 6