Journal of a Sabbatical

May 10, 2001

big shiny waves

Plover Count:
Pairs: 10
Known nests: 5

Today's Bird Sightings:
Plum Island
double crested cormorant (19)
brant (48)
eastern kingbird (3)
herring gull (11)
oldsquaws (18)
white winged scoter (6)
purple martin (1)
northern rough winged swallow (2)
piping plover (1)
purple finch (2)
redwinged blackbird (4)
American robin (4)
Canada goose (2)
common grackle (5)
least sandpiper (70)
semipalmated plover (1)
common tern (2)
great blue heron (1)
American black duck (2)
northern mockingbird (3)

Today's Reading: Fresh Air Fiend by Paul Theroux

Today's Starting Pitcher: Tomo Ohka

Don't watch big shiny waves roll toward shore through binoculars on an empty stomach. Trust me on that. Forget The Perfect Storm, foreshortened giant waves through binoculars is definitely a fine special effect.

The tide was coming in when my shift started, and the feature of the day was definitely the ocean more than the birds. Some days are like that. For the longest time I just sat there today thinking something like "oh look at the big shiny waves". It wasn't that verbal though. It was more like a feeling of fascination with how the unrelenting sun glinted off the inexorable waves under the dry blue dome of sky.

I didn't have many visitors to deal with even though it was a definite beach day. Most people read the sign and walked in the direction of Sandy Point without needing to be told and without asking any questions.

A flock of oldsquaws frolicked in the surf fairly close to shore. In fact as the tide came in, the oldsquaws just floated closer and closer until it was possible to id. them with the naked eye. They're very splashy divers, not as smooth as buffleheads (my faves).

Lots of cormorant action, mostly in small flocks of 3 to 5, skimming low over the water. Oddly few landed on the water and few dove. Maybe whatever the oldsquaws were catching isn't tasty to cormorants.

A pair of northern rough-winged swallows flew back and forth from the loose soil of the cliff (the side of the drumlin or whatever it's called) to the beach directly over my head. A couple of times I could hear the wind in their wings, not just their calls. They were engaged in some kind of nest building activity that involved going in and out of the cliff a lot. They chased each other a lot too.

Three kingbirds got into a big squabble in midair. At first I thought it was two against one, but then the ones that I thought were working together turned on each other. Lots of pecking and harassing of each other, and as is normal for kingbirds, a lot of noise. Another kingbird apart from the fracas sat on a piece of driftwood just buzzing away loudly until some people walked past and he moved to a fence post on the refuge boundary directly behind my head and called that buzzy call for many many minutes right into my ear. He was that close. Kingbirds are bold. Not shy at all.

I saw one of my invisible little charges today too. It flew by over the water. I almost missed it because it wasn't calling, just flying its unmistakable ploverish flight toward the southwest. When I told the refuge biologist about it, she said there are a couple of nests at Sandy Point so that's probably a member of one of those pairs. Her survey today counted 10 piping plover pairs on the refuge and 5 known nests. She said a pair had already nested near the boardwalk of parking lot 7 but it had been washed over in the recent higher than usual high tide. Darn, if I hadn't been in Hungary I might have gotten to see them do the parallel run and the scrapes and stuff. Anyway, it's early enough that they will probably re-nest, hopefully further away from the tide line.

While I was on duty, I heard Unit 4 (that would be Steve) on the radio calling Unit 61 about a curlew sandpiper at the salt pannes. Law enforcement must be kept abreast of rarity sightings because birders can cause major traffic jams. I was tempted to chime in something like "South Plover Warden to Unit 4, please tell that curlew sandpiper to stick around until my shift is over." However, I thought that would be unprofessional and besides that just then I had to deal with a group of visitors who had questions. After my shift, I did stop at the salt pannes but the light was abysmal and I couldn't stick around long because I had scheduled something else (to be covered in a separate entry). Nobody had the curlew sandpiper in their scopes and I couldn't tell a least sandpiper from a stalk of grass in that light given my hungry, tired, thirsty, still sort of jet-lagged state. Should've radioed Steve to make sure that sandpiper hung around.

I'm slowly getting back into the wildflower project. Bluets, violets, mustard, and sorrel are in bloom (is the mustard introduced? must check on that). I took some pictures yesterday afternoon and some this afternoon and will add them to my growing database, which I will at some point organize for my Plum Island web page.

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