When deciding upon a birthday gift for a bird lover, it helps to know their favorite birds. Heather's birthday comes right after mine and I had seen a trip advertised online that looked perfect for her since it featured her favorite birds: sea ducks. The trip would take place out on the Atlantic Ocean, where a large boat would take 20 participants to see birds they'd be unlikely to see elsewhere in early March. Potential birds included Harlequin Ducks, King Eiders, Common Murres, Dovekies, and even Atlantic Puffins. It was a no-brainer to purchase this trip for Heather.
Fast forward a few weeks. It was March 1 and I had a plane to catch. I have a flight deal where I can fly for free, but I have to fly standby. Sometimes, luck is in my favor. March 1 was not one of those days.
I missed flight after flight, eventually deciding to go drive around a local state forest to kill time. That is, until a torrential downpour hit. Around that same time, I received a call that our boat ride was cancelled due to intense winter storms. Again, it was just not my day.
One flight remained out of Jacksonville that would get me to Newark in time to catch a flight to Boston. I couldn't get on. I talked found a flight to Washington D.C. that would allow me to ultimately get to Boston IF the D.C. to Boston flight was delayed. I was told that I wouldn't make that flight either but, at literally the last minute, the sympathetic woman at the counter offered me a ticket and I was off.
Anxiety was running rampant among myself, Heather, and my friend, John, that we would be meeting. Almost unbelievably, I landed in D.C. to find that the Boston to D.C. flight was, in fact, delayed. I had a chance! Without boring you with more flight details, just know that I eventually made it to Boston around 11:30 and our Massachusetts adventure began.
We stayed at an Air B'N'B in Salem, a historic town more famous for its witch history than for anything else. All bars were closed, however, so we retired to our rooms after meeting some friendly locals and got as much sleep as we could.
Up and at 'em. Despite not having a pelagic trip out on the ocean to look forward to, we had plenty of birds we knew we would likely see and were pumped. An early breakfast at the Ugly Mug Diner gave us plenty of fuel and allowed us to power through what was to come.
And what was that, you ask? Cold. And I mean crazy cold. We first stopped at a little convenience store where we had noticed some gulls hanging out. They appeared to be Great Black-Backed Gulls, but we didn't have time to search carefully. The high winds blew a sort of freezing-slush square into our faces, making standing still looking at birds quite uncomfortable. Little did we know.
Our first new bird came about while driving along the Cape Ann coast towards Halibut Point State Park. A large cormorant flew away from the road out towards the open Atlantic Ocean. This, I knew, had to be a Great Cormorant! Not only was this a new bird for the year but it was one I had never seen before. I was pumped, although our enjoyment was cut short by the stinging cold. We kept driving.
Cape Ann is the left thumb of Massachusetts, sticking out into the Atlantic and providing ample coastline to explore. Halibut Point State Park is the largest piece of protected shoreline on Cape Ann and was our first destination. We got out and began to hike from the parking lot to the coast. Not so bad. But when we reached the rocky promontories that jutted out over the water...we almost froze to death. It was SO cold. The wind was pounding us with slush missiles and even setting up the scope was a daunting task. Still, we saw sea ducks almost immediately!
A group of ornately-colored Harlequin Ducks and Surf Scoters got us very excited, despite us losing feeling in our digits. An even larger raft of American Black Ducks complemented the already nice collection of new birds for us. I turned to John and Heather to remark how incredible it was that these birds, getting tossed by chilling 10-foot waves, seemed completely unfazed by the weather. Normally, Halibut Point State Park is one of the best birding sites in Cape Ann. On this day, we felt lucky to see anything. After several screams of, "I am SO f%^&$%^ cold!", we decided to call it and hike back to the cars.
Our game plan for the day consisted of driving along a highway that ran along the coast, stopping whenever we saw birds or just a good place to view them from. This strategy took us to stunning overlooks, sleepy harbors, past opulent mansions, and through cute little coastal villages. New birds were hard to come by, but we did the best we could given the horrendous conditions. A Brant flew past the car one point, a new bird for us, which was notable as being the warmest bird find of the trip.
One stop was especially eventful. We stopped at a fishing harbor and looked out over the water. Multiple types of birds were swimming throughout the harbor but one especially caught our eye. It was a loon, a bird we had seen in the distance at Halibut Point but one we hadn't seen well up close. And this loon looked different. To Heather and I, this bird looked much more like a more-rare Pacific Loon than a more-common, well, Common Loon. We thought we'd grab a quick phone picture through the scope but things didn't work out as planned. Twenty-five minutes of freezing later, we had no photos to show for our efforts. Then, when the bird had moved closer to us, we realized that we had been looking at a Common Loon all along. Sigh.
We stopped and scanned, stopped and scanned. We had close-up looks of confirmed Great Black-backed Gulls, good looks at some of the species we had already seen, and stunning looks over the rugged coastline. Eventually, we arrived at a Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary that contained an old lighthouse and a jetty that jut out into the ocean. As soon as we spotted the jetty, I knew I had to walk to the end. John tends to either follow along with the crazy ideas I suggest or be the one who originally suggests them. I knew he would be down. Heather, whose proclivity to slipping and falling is nearly unmatched, was less enthused. But, with scope in arms, she did it.
We walked along, each step chilling us closer to the core. But the wet jetty, liberally coated in some type of purplish algae, looked prime for a bird I had always wanted to see. I searched everywhere I could, wet from sea spray and blowing snow, feeling like I was searching for an elusive bird in the northernmost tundra. I had just about reached the end of the jetty where John was waiting. Then I saw them.
My top target bird was right there, not 15 feet away, on the lower portion of the piled rocks that made up this jetty. This was a Purple Sandpiper, a truly beautiful bird that somehow exists in the cold Atlantic waters where waves slam rocky coasts. I pointed it out to Heather and subsequently noticed two more sandpipers hanging out behind a nearby rock. I'm not usually much of a sandpiper fan, but these really were incredible birds.
John was waiting at the end of the jetty. We made it! All of us took the obligatory "we made it" photos, then rapidly retreated to the warmth of the car. I pointed out even more Purple Sandpipers to John and Heather, who both agreed that these were seriously cool birds. They also agreed that a hot meal and beer was needed as soon as possible.
A true northern Massachusetts man (you know the type) gruffly served us some chowda' and truly delicious beers. I ate some halibut chowder and it was, hands down, the best bowl of chowder I've had.
Refreshed, we set off for new areas. Rockport and Gloucester (pronounced Gloss-ter) were our next stops. Neither provided as much at all, at least as far as the internet sites I had searched previously suggested. However, we had great looks at three bird species we had seen distantly before, either on this trip or earlier in the year, but desired to see closer. A large swan sitting next to the road in a pond got us excited. This turned out to be a Mute Swan, a species that Heather and I found in Minnesota but that we had only been able to view from a distance. What a lovely bird. The second bird species, a Red-throated Loon, is a whiter-necked and more graceful-appearing relative of the Common Loon. The third species consisted of an entire group of...Common Eiders! Heather had really wanted to see these and they were new for me as well. The gaudy male led his harem of females around a protected harbor in Rockport, allowing us to get close-up views of a species not always easy to see up close.
What to do next? We had time to kill before the sun set. Fortunately, almost everything in the Northeast isn't too far apart. I suggested that we check out an area not far away that, according to eBird, had some neat sightings recently. Our destination was Crane Beach.
Crane Beach consists of a protected dunescape that borders a broad beach. All of it is wild. We hiked on the unusual mix of sand and snow on a loop trail, not seeing much at all. Still, the habitat was new for all of us. Spindly pines grew up out of the sand and low spots collected water which made them unusual ephemeral wetlands. According to an interpretive sign, the state-endangered Eastern Spadefoot bred in these. I'd love to come back and see that.
It wasn't until we ventured towards the ocean that finds began to reveal themselves. A bird flew over the dunes that we first mistook for a Northern Harrier. Then, incredibly, we noticed that the bird was a Peregrine Falcon! All three of us trained our binoculars on the bird, admiring its rapid soaring across the landscape. What a treat this was to see. Not only was it a bird all of us loved, but it was one that none of us expected to see there.
The beach itself was surreal. The biggest waves I've seen in the U.S. slammed into the deserted beach, creating a sound as peaceful as it was powerful. A raft of some duck species swam in the distance. Heather set up the scope, took a look, and exclaimed that the ducks were Black Scoters! Our scoter hat trick was now complete!
Crane Beach, and the associated park, closed at 5:30 PM and we began to walk back at 5:10. Somehow, we made it out of the park before the gate closed and called it a day. Well, called it a birding day. After some warm showers, we went out on the town in Salem where we enjoyed some of the best local beer we had had this year at Beerworks.
Nothing beats a day like this. Well, maybe the same day without a blizzard but where is the fun in that?
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