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| Pine Grobeak, Bolton MA |
Welcome to the first Ocean State Bird Club blogpost. I am your host/administrator Nick Pacelli. We as a board created this blog for our members to read. I bird almost every single day off from work ( I literally have no life). So most of the blogposts will be trip reports of hopefully finding new birds. These will not be checklists nor will they be brag reports. The hope is to give you enough information to motivate you to find birds yourself. If I do an overnight trip or a birding weekend, I want to fill the post as much with logistics, costs, and knowledge as I can. This will give you a starting point in your research if you are interested in a similar journey. Some of these posts will be summaries of club lead walks and guest speakers. Others will be about club happenings from charities we support to getting together for a Birds and Beer night (hopefully safely in the near future). I do understand that our members range from people that that just enjoy watching their birdfeeders to listers that chase everything hoping to see three hundred species a year, every year! So it is okay if you enjoy some of the posts and not others. The whole point is to have fun. That means me and you.
I am really only giving myself three rules,
1. Since this is a public blog I will not use cuss words.
2. I will not share info on sensitive species. But honestly I don't chase them either. As I've told many of my friends, if I see an owl I'm probably not going to tell you, and I don't expect you to tell me.
3. We will not be tackling political or even controversial birding issues on this blog. This is a place for you to escape and for me to give you info.
I want these posts to be true and honest. I'm not going to lie, sometimes I dip. I'm not going to get every target bird. So when I write a report of my day, they will not always be successful, but they will be honest. Sometimes I may be really excited and hopefully you feel that in these posts. Other times I will have a bad day, but truthfully the lows do make the highs that much better. So lets begin our journey, surprisingly outside of Rhode Island.
As many of you know, there is a winter finch irruption going on this winter. Evening Grosbeaks, Pine Siskins, Redpolls, and Crossbills can be seen in Rhode Island. One species that has not made it across the border is Pine Grosbeak. However a half day trip will most likely get you "easy" Pine Grosbeaks. There is an office park just off of I-495 that is loaded with crab apple trees. The trees have attracted a large flock of Pine Grosbeaks.
The Bolton Office Park is about an hour ride from Providence. It is about a quarter mile off of I-495. Take Exit 27 and go right. Go under the bridge and past a Veterinary Clinic. According to Google the address to the Bolton Office Park is 580 Main Street. It will be on your left coming from the highway. Once you pull in, there will be a large white Senior Living Center on your right. Drive past it going straight to a big empty parking lot (it may have some school buses) in the back. You will see crab apple trees on the little islands in the lot. The birds feed in these trees and on the ground around them.
I have went up to see the Pine Grosbeaks twice. The first was on my way to Newburyport. I saw them around 2 pm. The second time was a Saturday and I met my friend Sue up there at 9 am. Both times the birds were not feeding in the crab apple trees when I got there but my wait was less than fifteen minutes. It goes without saying, and I assure you I will not waste time writing this in every post, but there are no guarantees birding. I was successful both times I went for them. Both times the birds ate their fill and left. When they left so did I. However, they have been consistent all winter and your odds of seeing such a great bird are high.
If you go, the good news is you really don't need to get out of the car. On these really cold days, you can see these birds with your heat blowing on you. If you have mobility issues, this is one time when it doesn't matter.
You might be wondering why I would start an Ocean State blog about a bird out of state. Simple, Pine Grosbeaks do not come around very often. You/I will probably never see a flock this easily for a long time. Bolton, though an hour from Providence is an easy ride. The only place you may encounter traffic is around the Mass Pike Exit unless of course there is an accident. If you get a chance, take the ride. And bring your camera!