Official Plover Count
Official Refuge count:
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Adults
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24
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Fledglings
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15
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Hatchlings
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3
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Number I actually saw: 2
sanderlings
This year it seems like each plover warden
shift I've done has had one dominant bird that set the tone
for the whole day. Early in the season it was black bellied
plovers, purple sandpipers, eiders, gannets (gannets!!!!).
Then is was bank swallows. Mid-season it was least terns.
Today it was sanderlings. A whole flock of them doing their
cross between a precision drill team and a box of windup
toys imitating a school of sardines. They ran back and forth
along the water line as the tide came in, sometimes feeding,
sometimes just running.
I was curious to see what they made of a picnic table
that had washed in with the tide. It moved up and down with
the waves but stayed pretty much where it was - didn't make
it up onto the beach. The sanderlings avoided it. The gulls
avoided it. The ubiquitous bank swallows and least terns
made investigatory passes over it a few times and then moved
on. I wonder if it was a s strange a sight to them as it was
to me.
Late in the day, a pair of sanderlings took to hanging
around at the refuge boundary about 8 to 10 feet in front of
me. They came closer a few times and I froze in the hopes
they would come close enough that I could photograph them
with my pitiful 70mm lens. They didn't.
a cigar?
There's always one really odd visitor.
Today's was a man carrying a soccer ball in one hand and a
lighted cigar in the other. He wore a faded and frayed Plum
Island sweatshirt. Two boys accompanied him - evidently sons
out for some quality time with Dad. Cigar man gestured
toward the refuge beach with his cigar and asked how far
down it was closed, how long it would be closed, what are
piping plovers anyway, were they those little guys running
along the water line (the sanderlings), couldn't we just
walk along the beach... all the while waving the cigar and
juggling the soccer ball. He finally shook his head and said
"I've been coming here for 8 years and I've never heard of
such a thing!"
Leaving aside the question how he could've been there for
8 years and never heard of piping plovers, I offered one of
the sons a brochure about the plovers since he actually
seemed interested. The kid thanked me. The other kid ran off
into the dunes when he found out he didn't have to play
soccer on the beach. Cigar man walked off shaking his head
and juggling his soccer ball. The cigar smoke lingered in
the air for half an hour after he left despite the strong
winds.
disappearing trespassers
Despite the fact that I only talked to 7
people all day, it was a pretty exciting shift. Within the
first 20 minutes I got bit by a greenhead and spotted two
women trespassing in the closed beach area. They were too
far away for me to contact - I tried waving my arms but I
don't think they could see me at all. I radioed the
gatehouse, who radioed the south plover warden. Negative
contact. Why don't these radios work at the south end of the
beach? With all this miracle technology that is supposed to
make it so we can be reached all the time everywhere and we
can work on the beach or in the bathtub, why can't the
gatehouse contact the south plover warden to get those
people away from the plover chicks?
After failing to contact the south plover warden or law
enforcement, I watched the trespassers for awhile and then
had to deal with cigar man and various other visitors with
questions. When I looked again, the two women were nowhere
in sight. As they hadn't passed me, I figured they'd gone
into the dunes - or thru a gap in the space time continuum.
So I notified the gatehouse that they had disappeared and
she shouldn't bother trying to get law enforcement.
where's the fire?
A few minutes later, the gatehouse radioed
that she smelled smoke and wanted me to look for fires. I
scanned the beach with my binoculars. No fire. I walked up
into the dunes by the boardwalk and checked the dunes. I
could smell but not see fire. I radioed the gatehouse - I
don't see any fires. By the time I got back down to my
station, the two disappearing women had reappeared and were
walking blithely off the refuge and strolling down the
public beach. Grrrr.
Later the gatehouse notified me the smoke was coming from
off the refuge property.
It got cold in the late afternoon and I ended up wearing
both the sweatshirts I'd packed. Greenheads can bite through
denim and through two layers of sweatshirts, but they are
subdued by strong winds and cold weather. My one greenhead
bite continued to swell and itch like crazy but I didn't get
anymore. The sky got grayer and grayer but the predicted
rain did not happen.
three cheese pasta and piping plover fridge magnets
After my shift I went into Newburyport and
treated myself to three cheese pasta at The Tannery Cafe and
a long browse at Jabberwocky. It was my second browse of the
day as I had visited there briefly before my shift. I
refrained from buying books. I've got to get this unread
book problem under control.
My last stop was The Birdwatcher of Newburyport, where I
bought a hand painted piping plover fridge magnet. I
compared notes about piping plover hostility with one of the
owners. Then somebody came in and started talking about
wrens.
I stopped at Benson's for red raspberry ice cream on the
way home.
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