Since we arrived in Massachusetts a couple of days ago, one thing has been abundantly clear: Northeasterners like their beaches! Holy moly, are the beaches crowded and traffic terrible on weekends near the coast. Massachusetts isn't even that populated of a state, and yet people are packed like sardines on every stretch of sand or sand-like substance they can find. Remind me to avoid this in the future...
Another thing we've noticed is that it's that time of the year again. This year's chicks are all grown up and ready to go out on their own, and their parents are ready to relax somewhere further south for the winter. This is great for the birds, but bad for us. We're finally hitting that time of the year where, if we don't get a bird now, we likely aren't going to have another shot. This S-U-C-K-S, sucks!!
For instance, we had Atlantic Puffin on our target list when we came out here, only to discover that the boat trip we were going to take to find said puffin stopped sailing about a week ago because puffin numbers have dropped so low. C-R-A-P, whatever that spells!! But, to catch you up on the past few days...
Friday morning, we took a quick trip to a St. Louis park to chase a reported Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. After wandering around a huge but beautiful park for an hour, we took avail of the Internet and a few local birders. With that help and only 15 minutes before we had to leave for the airport, we managed a brief but satisfying glimpse of the flycatcher and were on our way to Boston.
Saturday morning, we made our way up the East coast from Boston, starting at Plum Island/Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. Between finding three of our targets before lunch and a huge Lobster Roll, we were feeling pretty good. But then, the pitchers started throwing strikes.
We decided to chase one of the last Black-billed Cuckoos reported recently, about 90 minutes' drive inland. Upon reaching the report area, we even randomly ran into the people who had reported it! But even with their help, we could not track it down.
Sunday, we intended to drive up into the White Mountains to chase Bicknell's Thrush. However, both of us were coming down with a cold, so we decided that a 5-mile hike with a 2,000' elevation gain for a slim chance of a glimpse of the bird probably wasn't prudent.
So, we drove back toward the coast, to a preserve where we'd seen Black-billed Cuckoos before. But, nearly an hour of searching didn't turn up even a sniff of a cuckoo,
Then, we proceeded toward Scarborough Marsh, near Portland, ME, due to many reports of Nelson's Sparrow from there. But, following our chain of luck, it turned out that a TRIATHLON was being run that day, and the path where the sparrows had been reported was part of the running route. We gave it the Ol' College Try but there was just too much activity to find anything.
Next, north about 20 miles to a marsh where several Nelson's had been reported THAT MORNING! But, we got there around noon, and with the heat of the day, the sparrows were quiet.
So, in lieu of a birding trip, we tried to schedule a whale watch out of Bar Harbor on Monday to get out into the ocean a ways, but their boat was booked solid. They were open on Tuesday, so we booked that, and then hunted for something to do on Monday.
Turns out, many of the birds we wanted to see were reported from the ferry that sails from Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick, Canada, to Grand Manan Island, about 20 miles off the mainland. Given that we love boats (not!) and adventure (well, ok), we decided to make that our destination.
So, we embarked on a 3-hour drive to a tiny village in the northeast corner of Maine called Lubec. It was near a ferry that would take us across the harbor into mainland Canada in relatively short time, so seemed like a good route. Plus, we had time to visit Quoddy Head State Park, the easternmost park in North America! Lubec is also home to the Easternmost pub, grocery, laundromat, and, it turns out, every business in town is the Easternmost of its kind.
After getting up at 530AM Eastern, we drove across the border (Hi, Canada!) to the ferry, only to find that THE FERRY DIDN'T RUN UNTIL 9AM and we would miss our boat to Manan!!! Whoops! So, we did a U-turn, went back across the border, and drove 60 miles around the bay to enter Canada from the mainland (Hi again, Canada! Long time, no see!), and then drive 30 miles to the ferry. We made it with 5 minutes to spare!
The ferry trip was fantastic, especially since they only charge for the return trip (You're awesome, Canada!). We found three target birds, including our first-ever sighting of Atlantic Puffin, despite what all the haters said!
So, maybe we struck out on the cuckoo, American Woodcock, and a few other birds. But, we're now at 650 for the year, which ain't bad!
Tomorrow, we do our Whale Watch trip to hopefully find a storm-petrel or some other rarity, and then start heading south toward Nelson's Sparrow land again. We return home on Wednesday, at which point we'll re-evaluate our plans in light of current list and migration being well underway.
Man, this Big Year is complicated to plan!
Are Lobster Rolls that special when even McDonalds here offers a Lobster Roll?
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