a long way to the water lineJune 25, 2005
The drive down the dirt road to the southern end of the refuge was enlivened by frequent braking for aggrieved killdeers and angry willets. The killdeers were escorting their downy young down the middle of the road. I got good looks at the fluff balls on stilts that are killdeer chicks. The willets seemed to be angry for no visible reason. At least I didn't see any new willets near the road. Maybe willets just don't like cars even if the young are safely hidden in the grass. But once I've run the gauntlet of shorebirds, the day is still all about gulls and radios, but with heat, a mallard , and exceptionally low tide thrown in. It's an awfully long walk to the water line and there aren't nearly enough extra signs, let alone rope, to mark the refuge boundary.I try to set up halfway between the last sign and the water line but that makes it hard to catch trespassers behind me and doesn't make it all that much easier to catch the ones in front of me. There's so much beach it looks like you could walk to England from here ... well maybe to the Isles of Shoals. Fishermen are standing way out on the sandbars off the south end of the island. These sandbars are rarely visible. This is the lowest low tide I've seen this summer ... of course technically summer just started a few days ago on the solstice... and we really don't have summer here anyway exactly ... it's more like what the old Yankee farmers (those would be the Farmer's Almanac type downeaster type Yankees not the kind that were pinstripes and epitomize evil here in Red Sox nation but I digress) always said: "New England has two seasons, winter and July." By that calendar we seem to be in July right now. Where was I? Oh yeah, lots of beach to patrol.
I'm wearing a path right to the water line intercepting people who blithely stride vigorously into the closed area. It's hot and I'm getting thirsty. One of the fishermen offers me a bottle of Poland Spring water for which I'm grateful. He catches a fish shortly thereafter so he must've built up some good karma. He cradles the striped bass against his chest and a nearby sunbather takes a picture with her digital camera. They exchange email addresses -- the guy and the camera woman, not the guy and the striped bass --- and he throws the striper back.
A female mallard waddles around the beach making the rounds of the people. She's looking for food. A tame mallard? Breading? (That's Janet-speak for tame ducks and geese begging for bread from people.) How strange is this? Very strange. She cozies up to people but they don't give her anything. She keeps trying. I stop watching her 'cause I have to go intercept some more trespassers. Next time I notice the mallard some toddler is chasing her yelling "AFLAC! AFLAC!" I couldn't make this up if I tried!
My big official action of the day comes when I spot 4 people in the closed area of the beach well north of Emerson Rocks. I radio the gatehouse but Unit 61 replies and asks which way they're headed. I take another look and realize they are headed south toward me. 61 advises that I should just wait for them to get to me and talk to them then. I wait. They must have gone north well before I came on duty and are now heading back. Finally I intercept them and ask if they realize they are trespassing in a nesting area and could they please not do that again 'cause it's very important not to disturb the parent birds this late in the nesting, not to mention one of the nests should be hatching any minute -- the one pair that renested immediately after Nor'easter the Infinitely Prolonged. They were mortified. They hadn't been paying attention. They assured me that they had no wish to disturb the piping plovers and they were really sorry and would never do that again.
Things calmed down after the 4-people thing and mostly I watched a great black back gull steal crabs from a pair of herring gulls and I listened to the radio chatter about how many spaces were left in the parking lot and when to close or open the gate.
I neither saw nor heard a single piping plover.
Todays'
Bird Sightings
Plum Island
killdeer 6
yellow warbler 1
American goldfinch 2
mallard 1
herring gull 38
great black back gull 4
ring billed gull 4
Bonaparte's gull 12
double crested cormorant 4
common tern 1
Baltimore oriole 1
Mammals
refuge staff & visitors
Coast
Guard Assets
none
Today's
Reading
At the Turn of the Tide by Richard Perry
This
Year's Reading
2005 Booklist
Today's
Starting Pitcher
Matt Clement
Ignore this nav-thing unless you are reading Journal of a Sabbatical
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Copyright © 2005, Janet I. Egan