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January 31, 1999 |
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horned grebes and horned larks |
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January 29 Salisbury Beach January 31 Salisbury Beach
Copyright © 1998, Janet I. Egan |
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After breakfast at Boston Road Cafe, which has just opened where Bagel Shop used to be (I always thought Bagel Shop's problem was its generic name) we went first to Plum Island despite my intense desire to spend every waking moment scouring every inch of the town of Salisbury for the lark sparrow. The ice in the salt marsh makes a stunning winter landscape, all gleaming blue-white and subtle burnished gold. I could happily spend the entire day looking at ice in all its permutations and perturbations. Forget the lark sparrow, just give me bright shiny ice. From the boardwalk at parking lot 7 we watched huge breakers rolling in. The foam was intensely white and the sea was intensely blue, not at all like the usual pale green of shallow water. Everything seemed brighter and more contrasty than normal: the sky, the rocks, the gulls, the waves, the horned grebes just off Emerson Rocks. In the winter, horned grebes are very black and white (and don't have the "horns") so it's kind of hard to tell them from buffleheads or loons (who are also more black and white in winter) when they're bouncing around on the surf far away from you with very bright sun glinting off the white parts. I watched them through binoculars for awhile and then went back to the car for the scope just to make sure they really were horned grebes. By the time I got back with the scope, they had actually come in much closer to shore so they were identifiable with binoculars. Even Nancy recognized them with binoculars, which is a first for her. I've pointed out horned grebes to her before but this is the first time she made the identification based on her own observation. (Not something she could have done before the cataract surgery.) So she was pretty happy. A flock of sanderlings, about 20 of them or more, did their group mind thing wheeling through the air just above the tops of the waves. They added to the whole feeling of tremendous energy whirling all around us in the brightness. (Have I mentioned how bright it was? :-)) A steady stream of birders visited the boardwalk while we were there. Three guys told us they'd just seen three bald eagles (hmm, one for each of them). People keep telling me they've seen bald eagles there but I have yet to see one. The closest I came was while I was driving to the cat shelter on Wednesday and saw what I presume to be a bald eagle soaring over I-495 near the Pow-Wow River. There was no way I could pull into the breakdown lane and get out the binoculars to check it out without getting myself rear-ended or worse - and I'm not that crazy. We ran into Andy (Lizard Boy), one of the former Starbucks baristas, at Sandy Point. We traded info and I asked if he'd seen the bald eagles the three guys mentioned. The only raptors Andy had seen were two northern harriers. I spotted one of the northern harriers perched on top of a tree really close to the road. This is probably the closest view I've ever gotten of its talons - a fine looking raptor. There was still plenty of light left thanks to our early start, so we headed over to Salisbury Beach for the ritual search for the lark sparrow. No luck on the lark sparrow. On the river end of the state park, we listened to the ice boom and crack and watched big panes of it stack themselves on the shore. The ice sounds and the gulls' cries mixed into a weird wintry soundtrack I wished I could tape. Where's that digital multimedia recording device when you need one? The gulls were taking off and landing from ice floes that were moving rapidly down river. I got more of the at huge energy everything wheeling around feeling. A Bonaparte's gull flew inches over my head. I didn't need and couldn't' have used binoculars to identify it. When we tired of the river ice, we took a long walk on the beach (ocean side). A fair number of people were out walking despite the cold. Bright sun will do that to people. It was interesting walking across layers of sand and snow. Sometimes I'd think I was stepping on sand, only to look back at my snowy footprint. The wind had obviously been hard at work moving sand around since the snow stopped on Friday afternoon. I actually came up here on Friday looking for the lark sparrow (of course) before the snow had stopped. It wasn't snowing at my house, and you'd think I'd know by now that doesn't mean it's not snowing at the beach, but it was really only a few lingering flurries not a raging blizzard. I have to admit that I didn't walk on the beach on Friday - just looked for birds. Friday's treat was a flock of 7 American tree sparrows feeding along the edge of the road in the campground. They were easily identifiable with the naked eye, and they didn't spook when I got close. Today's treat was three horned larks with their distinctive yellow and black markings flitting around on the beach. They obligingly perched on the sea wall while I looked them up in the book. These were my first horned larks ever so I was delighted. Horned grebes and horned larks - the birds of the day are horned - how symmetric. |
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The
sky is blue and no precipitation of any kind is coming out
of it, therefore I have to be outdoors. Nancy conked out
early last night while I was reading aloud to her from the
History of Newburyport . She's as fascinated by
Timothy Dexter and Jonathan Plummer as I am. Although very
tired, she only fell asleep when I got to the parts about
shipwrecks on Plum Island - not any of the Lord Dexter
parts. Anyway, asleep early means up early. So we were
raring to go this morning.