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| Parker River NWR, Plum Is. MA. |
Today we went birding. We met our guide Peter in Concord and carpooled to Plum Island, Mass. I have birded the island during the warbler migration in early spring, but never in the heat of summer; and today was a stunner, 94 degrees.
Yesterday we drove from the Boott Mill in Lowell to Marlborough via the scenic route picked out by Garmin to avoid a traffic jam where I-425 meets US 3. The route took us through Groton Ma. and Jaffrey NH. In Jaffrey we bought fresh field corn for dinner. The route was much nicer and less traveled than freeway, but there were many stoplights.
Plum Island is named for the Beach Plum, a native plant that grows on the sand dunes in tangled thickets that also include Poison Ivy and Bayberry. The Red Fox enjoys eating the plums. We need to watch out for the Poison Ivy, which is hard to detect among the other bushes.
Our destination is the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island. The Friends of the Parker River have a great web site that describes the NWR.
http://www.parkerriver.org/
Our destination is the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island. The Friends of the Parker River have a great web site that describes the NWR.
http://www.parkerriver.org/
Thanks to an early start, we arrived at the Plum Island refuge before 10:00; ready to look for birds. We parked in the first lot after the entrance and immediately saw a large flock of immature Tree Swallows take to the air from the bushes on the far side of the parking lot. The Purple Martins sitting on their nest box near our parking spot seemed to ignore the commotion. We walk across the road to the Parker River and spot both Least Tern and Common Tern. Well, given that the temperature is over 90 degrees and that July it is not the best birding month, we were on a good start.
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| Plum Island forest; birds are hard to spot. |
Leaving the car in a parking lot, we hiked the Hellcat Interpretive Trail on boardwalks looking into bone dry marshes to find Catbird, Eastern Kingbird and great flocks of Starlings. We were staring out from an overlook, watching motorboats move down the river that separates Plum Island from Newburyport when a dark shadow crossed the viewing platform. It was a diving Merlin. The falcon was quickly out of sight, but it was a great birding moment. Peter was kind enough to point out the abundant Poison Ivy alongside the boardwalk.
Tired, hot and hungry, we drove down the island's only road, stopping now and then to look for birds and we end up at the entrance to the Sandy Point State Reservation , which was FULL. We waited until a car vacated the parking lot before we could enter the reservation. There was a comfortable shady picnic spot on the trail to the beach and we stopped to eat lunch. While we were resting a flock of shorebirds appeared from the opposite shore and headed our way. They flew directly overhead and Peter identified them as Willets.
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| Plum Is. in Summer. |
We had a good day of summer birding. The full list of birds: Purple Martin, Tree Swallow, Osprey, Grackle, Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Double-crested Cormorant, Least Tern, Common Tern, Herring Gull, Ring-bill Gull, Black-backed Gull, Semi-palmated Plover, Semi-palmated Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper, Northern Mockingbird, Turkey Vulture, Cedar Waxwing, Northern Harrier, Red-winged Blackbird, Towhee (H), Canada Goose, Black Duck, Cowbird, Eastern Kingbird, Merlin, Robin, Sanderling, Catbird, Whimbrel, Willet and Yellow Warbler.
The Last bird, Yellow Warbler, was a prize for those who stuck it out on a long hot, sweltering, South Point trail when I had turned back to head for the car.
We left Plum Island happy. Thanks goes to our guide Peter.
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