Journal of a Sabbatical

The Plover Warden Diaries

April 2, 1999

windburn

Plover Count: 5

Today's Bird List

Plum Island
1 American kestrel
5 common eiders
1 herring gull
1 horned grebe
8 white-winged scoters
2 great black-backed gulls
1 seal
Salisbury Beach
5 red breasted mergansers
1 northern shrike

Yesterday's Bird List
Bass Rocks Gloucester
3 great cormorants
2 great black-backed gulls
My House
1 cardinal
2 blue jays
2 robins
the usual million starlings

The sand at Plum Island is plum colored. That's not where the name comes from - it comes from the profusion of plum bushes - but it is a striking feature of the beach. The reddish sand is really tiny garnets. Somewhere I read what the black sand is too, but it's slipping my mind at the moment (magnetite maybe?). Anyway, when I'm not busy explaining the beach closure and the life cycle of the piping plover to visitors, I often photograph interesting patterns in the sand. This photo sort of goes with the intense windiness of today's weather even though it's from a week ago.

Today was my first plover warden shift of the season. The early shift is always very busy right at the beginning with morning joggers and all and then settles into a lull for a couple of hours before another peak just before the midday shift comes on. Today I was very busy for the first hour with joggers, out of town tourists, and a dog. Why people cannot keep their dogs on leashes is beyond me. All the people were friendly and receptive to what I had to say about the beach closure, and I managed to intimidate the dog enough to prevent its going into the closed area and to yell loud enough to attract the attention of the people it belonged to who were way north of the refuge boundary and apparently unaware that the dog had taken off.

The wind blew steadily all morning from the northeast. About three hours into my shift my left ear started to go numb. I pulled the collar of my jacket up toward my hat to keep it a little warmer. My face got a little sunburn and windburn combined.

I didn't see any of the five piping plovers who have arrived so far. A flock of white-winged scoters and a seal kept me company most of the shift. The seal became increasingly expert at body surfing with each wave. It was high tide and as I've mentioned quite windy so the waves were big. The seal would position itself right ahead of curl and just ride until it ran out of wave. It looked like a lot of fun but I didn't think I was exactly dressed for it.