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April 2, 1998
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The weather is definitely back to normal. I drove to Plum Island in a light drizzle that was supposed to clear up this afternoon. It didn't. Well, the drizzle stopped for awhile but the sky never really cleared. The piping plovers are not back yet. At least nobody's seen 'em. I supposed they could be hiding. They are, after all, the same color as sand. The guy who had the early shift said he'd had seven visitors and no plovers. The tide was out and we talked about needing some boundary signs to put closer to the low water line. The big sign explaining the beach closure is above the high tide line and there's a vast expanse of beach at low tide. Normally we have extra refuge boundary signs we can stick in the sand and move in and out with the tide. I guess they just didn't have them ready this year. The beach closure only started yesterday. For the first two hours and a half hours I saw only one other human being, and that was at a distance. I scanned the beach for plovers but saw no shorebirds of any kind. The only things moving on the beach were leaves and gobs of foam being blown around by the wind. Scanning the ocean to see if there were any interesting birds or seals, I spotted a little group of 5 horned grebes that pretty much stayed in the same area for my entire shift. As the tide came in, they came in closer so I got a really good look at them. The grebes kept me company. I missed a radio check. I had turned the volume down because the static was really irritating and the calls were never for me. Oops. The guy from the gatehouse walked down to the beach to see why I wasn't responding. I explained and turned the volume up a little. He reminded me to do a radio check a half hour after I arrive at my station from now on. I guess I'm out of practice... The whole winter off and I've gotten rusty. I was watching the grebes again when Christopher from law enforcement arrived with the boundary signs. I was helping him put them together when I saw a figure in a white parka waving to me from up north by the jetty. Roberta! She's out there looking for the bones. Roberta and her friend walked down and joined us. They said they didn't find the whale bones. I said they'd probably been washed back out already. Christopher piped up: "Bones? Human bones? That means an investigation." "No, no, whale bones. The vertebrae are far too big to be human." It turns out that Roberta doesn't have a permit to collect bones. The guy she studies with/collects for does, but she doesn't. Oops. Christopher then told us about finding yet more pieces of the guy who drowned off the jetty on Labor Day weekend. So far, all the human bones that have washed up have been his. Christopher cautions Roberta and her friend to call him when they find bones so the police can determine if they're human or not. Roberta and her friend left. Christopher and I finished the signs and he left. The last hour seemed eternal. I didn't see a soul. All but one of the grebes had moved further off shore. A common loon made a brief appearance. I kept scanning the beach and then looking at my watch. Headquarters radioed me to ask if I'd seen any plovers today. Negative on that. The tide was coming in fast so I went to take the sign out and move it to behind the big sign where it wouldn't get swept into the water. As I was moving the sign I spotted a gull that looked really pale, so I dropped the sign and grabbed the binoculars for a closer look. I think it was a glaucous gull. I'm not 100% certain because it didn't stay around long enough for me to watch it, but I think I'll put it on my list anyway. The sightings board does report that there's been a glaucous gull around here this week and I'm pretty sure that's what I saw. Nice way to end the day. I stowed the signs, packed up my stuff, hiked back to the car, drove to the gatehouse, turned in my report and returned the radio. On the way home, I stopped at The Birdwatcher of Newburyport and bought a copy of The Birds of Japan by Mark Brazil, which I'd been looking for for ages.Another nice way to end the day. | |
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