All photos are mine unless otherwise noted.
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Over the last weekend Lee and I spent four days birding at the Parker River Refuge in Northeastern Massachusettes. The refuge is run by the National fish and Wildlife people and runs for about 6-7 miles along the coast. We listed fifty-two different species of birds during the weekend along with talking with 15-20 birders about our feathered friends, where are you from, what did you see, and so on.
I used to say that to talk to people in Riverside Park on Manhattan's Upper West Side you needed to have a dog otherwise you were ignored. These days all I need is a pair of binoculars and the Peterson Guide to Birds. The common interests we have do make us attractive to people with similar passions. Birding is a great equalizer where enthusiasts talk across their binoculars to each other with an ease that is without walls or barriers.
Here is a map of the Refuge:
http://www.fws.gov/uploadedFiles/Region_5/NWRS/North_Zone/Parker_River_Complex/Parker_River/ParkerRiverMap.pdf
Only two access points to the beach on the ocean side were open due to the nesting of the endangered Piping Plovers who are a protected species. We did see one of these rare birds on the Southern point of the Refuge as it picked at the sand for whatever it found to eat, all the while completely oblivious to us. It is a beautiful bird so please look for it on the Net.
The first six photos are of the birds and the refuge, the last photos are of a few of the people who used the Northern beach as their day's habitat.
Part of the salt marsh on the West side of the refuge road. Here we saw egrets, willets, geese, gadwalls, shovelers, along with many ducks, redwing blackbirds, and more. If you don't know these birds check out the folowing site -
These are are Least Terns, a small bird weighing around 1 1/2 ounces and capable of flight in strong winds. We saw several hundred of them with the males in full courtship gear trying to entice a female by offering a small fish. It seemed to work with a few of the females but most seemed totally disinterested in the pushy males - above is an example of her lack of enthusiam towards this poor guy who is exhausting himself trying to impress.
A Red-tailed Hawk no more than ten feet from where I stood as it was searching out lunch in the marsh in front of this tree. I did not get the capture of what I saw as a small rodent of some sort, but the post meal photo is below.
"Burpp ....."
Found this turkey in the shade at a hot time of day, around noon.
Purple Martin nests in the refuge.
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- The Ocean side of the refuge -
Those who fish are an island unto themsleves,
quite content to stay in the present moment.
For children the beach is an invitation to be free,
joy and the thrill of all things new are a few of the discoveries.
What impressed me about this photo is that everyone is in their own present moment .... in the beauty of the here and now. Discovery, the order of the day.
There are two ways to read a book at the beach,
- The way you learned growing up, and,
- The way you are growing up.
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More on Parker River next week.
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Some humor:
Until next week, Peace,
Bill Lagerstrom
