Journal of a Sabbatical

May 31, 2001

sandblasted

Today's Bird Sightings:
Plum Island
woodcock (1)
black-bellied plover (6)
double crested cormorant (9)
great black-backed gull (2)
herring gull (7)
American crow (2)
sanderling (30)
least tern (1)
mallard (3)
ring-billed gull (1)
common tern (3)
yellow warbler (3)
gray catbird (2)
redwinged blackbird (7)
brown thrasher (2)
Canada goose (4)
northern mockingbird (1)

Today's Reading: Unbeaten Tracks in Japan by Isabella Bird

Today's Starting Pitcher: Hideo Nomo

Nocturnal and secretive; seldom seen until flushed. So says the National Geographic Field Guide to North American Birds. It's almost noon and this woodcock is sitting in the road neither nocturnal nor secretive. I almost don't stop to look at it because from the corner of my eye I just comprehend "brown" and "in the road" and assume it's one of the suicidal mourning dove pair. Just as I pass it, I realize that ain't no mourning dove! Woodcock in the road! Whoa, best bird of the day before I've even gotten to Sandy Point to do my shift.

The wind is still blowing like crazy. Rick at the gatehouse and Ernie the guy I relieved both say I'll be sandblasted at Sandy Point. Boy are they ever right! The dry sand from the dunes is swirling over the beach and accumulating in mini-dunes around the rocks. My mouth is full of sand already. I learn quickly that it is foolish to try to keep my hat on, so I stuff it in my pack and put the little plover warden badge on my jacket. The report forms almost blow away so I stuff the clipboard in the pack. I'm afraid my chair will blow away if I stand up so I hang the pack over the back of it and bury the legs in the sand.

I have two visitors right away, an elderly couple who want to know if I've seen a piping plover today. Nope, not yet. I point out the small group of black-bellied plovers hanging around at the water's edge. They're satisfied with that, then check out the swallows nesting in the cliff, and head back to their car 'cause they're cold. Yup, this wind will penetrate just about any form of clothing. The sand too. I can feel it going right through my jeans.

After the elderly couple leaves, I have the beach to myself for awhile and go check out the swallows. Of course they move too fast for me to identify them and with sand swirling around and all the vegetation on the point moving, it's pretty hard to focus in on the swallows.

I look to see if the little patch of yellow flag is in bloom yet. It's just starting to open and like everything else was moving too fast to photograph. What was it my botanist friends said about the specimens not moving? I guess that's after they're safely pressed and stored in the herbarium.

A writer who wants to interview me about plover wardening (would the verb for that be warding?) arrives and we talk. I love to talk about piping plovers, my favorite bird (well maybe second favorite to the bufflehead - but buffleheads are only here in the winter and piping plovers are only here in the summer so I guess I can have two favorites). So do I talk a blue streak about the piping plover? Well I started out with tales of the parallel run display, aerial mating display, and feeding behavior but soon ended up on mindfulness, enlightenment, the kids, cats, elders, and Dubya's weird press conference at Sequoia National Park. Must be the wind.

Debbie and Laura come by on their ATVs doing the nest survey. It's beyond me how they can see piping plovers in a sand storm especially since the blowing sand is piping plover colored (or the plovers are sand colored). They are bundled up against the wind in winter clothing. Snow pants are ideal for keeping the sand out. Knitted hats and scarves stay put better than baseball caps. They've seen a bunch of pairs, 3 singles, and 6 nests and are off to check out the ones on Sandy Point.

A group of home schoolers on a field trip are doing some tide pooling and one of the kids wanders into the closed area. The mothers and kids are very responsive when I speak with them and want to know what a piping plover looks like. I show them the picture on my badge. They like that. They also want to know if the starfish they've just picked up is dead (no) and why the sand is purple (garnets). This is the first time this year I've gotten the purple sand question, always a popular one with kids. Come to think of it I haven't talked to that many kids this year although there have been a couple of school groups.

For the rest of the shift, I'm alone with the wind and the black-bellied plovers. Now that we have a cellphone for the south beach I can't even eavesdrop on radio chatter, not that radio worked that often. My left ear is so full of sand I doubt I could hear anything on the phone or the radio. When I go into Newburyport for a late lunch at The Tannery Cafe (that wild rice and orzo salad I've been trying to get them to give me the recipe for) I am amazed at how much warmer it is. 15 degrees warmer at least! I notice the sand in my mouth when I chew my lunch. The left side of my face is so sandblasted it stings. Just another blustery day...

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