Machias Seal Island Puffin Trip

   

On Thursday I got to cross off one of my top priorities from my bucket list. I went to Machias Seal Island to see the puffins (other Alcids and Arctic Terns). This trip had been three years in the making. Luckily it did not disappoint. 

   I had reservation to take this trip from Bold Coast Charters since 2019. I was supposed to go on the trip June 2019. Unfortunately for me, I got weathered out by a storm that brought with it ten foot waves. My friend Laurie and I planned a vacation around the trip. After my cancelled trip, I did spend five days in Acadia National Park. So I rescheduled for Thursday June 25, 2020, but as we all know, nothing good happened in 2020, I rescheduled for June 24 and hoped the third time was the charm. When I rescheduled for this year. I asked my friend Sue Palmer if she wanted to take the trip. She said yes. 

Logistics-

 

The awesome little house Sue rented

 First off, you need to make a reservation. Reservation period usually starts just after the New Year. The sell out fast. As in, a day or two!!! When I made my reservations for 2019, they could be bought at 8:30 am Jan 5. I started calling right then and hit redial 38 times (exact count). I talked to Captain Andy and he answered all of my questions for five minutes. I also sent an email before I got through on the phone. Tickets for the year were sold out by the afternoon the following day!!!

   Reservations for 2021 were different. The people that got Covid cancelled had first dibs, Instead of calling them, they contacted me. I sent an email with the same day as last year. 

   The cost of a ticket is $160. Half is paid by check mailed to Bold Coast Charters after you make your reservations. The other half is due cash or check the day of your trip.

The boat holds 15 paying customers. Its name is the Barbara Frost which was Captain Andy's mother's name.

Website- https://www.boldcoast.com/

To find out when reservations for trips can be made check the website everyday after Christmas. If this is something you want to do, you need to know when reservations can be made and set an alarm on your phone so you can start immediately.

Getting there-  You probably aren't going to fly to Maine from RI so you will have to make the long drive to Cutler on the Bold Coast of  Maine. From the MA/RI border where I live, my GPS said it would take me 6 hrs 24 minutes. This was leaving my house at the god awful hour of 3:30 am Wednesday. This meant I got through all of the Boston traffic before it started. However, realistically it is a seven hour drive. I drove straight through stopping at one rest area just to use the bathroom and I got gas in Ellsworth. It still took me seven hours because of road construction near Bangor. My ride home took 7 hrs 30 minutes thanks to hitting the MA border at 3:30 pm on a Friday.

Accommodations-  When I got weathered out in 2019, I stayed at Cobscook State Park about 45 minutes from Cutler. The campground and park are beautiful. If you like camping, I highly recommend  it. This time around, Sue got an Airbnb. She rented a house for a few days in Roque Bluff. When I realized paying half would be about the same cost as camping, I asked if I could take the couch. So we were roomies for two night. 

  Despite being fifty miles north of the touristy Bar Harbor area, there were quite a few motels in the Machias area. So finding a place to stay should not be a problem.

 

Captain Andy (no I don't know his last name)

The boat trip-

   As I said, the cost is $160, with half paid up front. The trip last between 4-5.5 hours. The goal is to land on Machias Seal Island and go to the blinds. Inside the blinds, you photograph Puffins, Murres, and Razorbills for a little more than an hour. Assuming you make it that far, the birds can be as close as three feet. Some may even land on the roof of your blind. 

   The boat does not leave at a set time everyday. The time is tide, wind, and weather dependent. Our trip went out at 11 am. The Wednesday trip left Cutler at 9 am and the trip on Friday was scheduled for noon. 

If you read any part of this post please remember the following- Bold Coast Charters does not guarantee island landings. If sea conditions are unfavorable THEY DO NOT LAND! I can assure you Captain Andy knows how badly the paying customers want to land and see Puffins close up, but he errs on the side of caution. If he feels island landings are unsafe, he will not risk it. The cost is the same for landings or not since he can not predict the weather.  I don't know what the ratio of successful landings are in a given year. However, thanks to the big storm in the Atlantic, they had not put passengers on the island in a week!

Common Murre, notice the chocolate
colored head

Our trip

  Now that I got all of the logistics I could think of out of the way, it is far more fun to tell my first hand experience.-

   We met a few minutes before 11 am at Cutler Harbor. Parking is tight, but it is also allowed on street. Captain Andy met us with a little skiff to get us out to the Barbara Frost. As usual on these kind of trips, he went over what to expect, safety instructions, and a little history. We got on the main boat and took the main boat to Machias Seal Island. The trip is ten miles and took 45-50 minutes to get there.

  The boat had fourteen paying customers (one cancellation). Of the fourteen, Sue and I were the only birders!!! The other twelve people were photographers. Not really even birders that enjoy photography (like Sue and I), How do I know this? Well, Sue asked a couple people if they were birders or photographers and they replied photographers. But here was what got me, NONE OF THE OTHER TWELVE PASSENGERS EVEN BROUGHT BINOCULARS! They brought fancy camera equipment but they didn't bring bins. Captain Andy had three spare bins for people to borrow, and none of them took him up on it.

   Anyway, Sue and I birded the entire ride from Cutler to Machias Seal Island. We were rewarded with twenty two Wilson's Storm Petrels (exact count of those seen) and a Leach's Storm Petrel! Leach's is a rare bird and a lifer for Sue. Once we got closer to the island we had flyover Razorbills, Puffins, and Murres. For the ride over though, the Leach's was the star of the show.

   

Razorbill

Once we arrived at Machias Seal Island, Capt. Andy was cautiously optimistic we could land. However we did not land right away. He wanted the tide to ebb some more which should make the waves smaller. As we waited for the tide to drop we had alcids fairly close to the boat. We saw hundreds up on the rocks of the island. We circled the island very slowly and had birds all around. We also saw some seals. Most important to me, we saw some Arctic Terns flying. They were a lifer for me. Though they were too far away for a decent photo, I was happy to see them. 

   After about an hour, Andy got in the little dingy alone and motored over to the island to see if we could safely land. He came back so quickly that I was sure it was a no. But when he pulled right up to the side of the boat he gave us a thumbs up. The dingy only holds a few people so it took three trips to motor the fourteen of us and his two mates (Abby and Levi)

Once we were all on shore Levi walked us to the blinds in two groups. Each blind holds 3-4 people. Sue and I got put in a blind with a guy named Brian from Ohio. It worked out for Sue and I because we only had to share our blind with one other person. But it also worked out really well for Brian because we were willing to share our camera holes and rotate so we all had different angles for photos. 

   The birds were only feet from us. The majority of birds in front of us were Razorbills. There was a large group of Common Murres directly in front of our blind but too far away to get photos of single birds. I took a few dozen photos of the Murres but mostly I concentrated on Puffins and Razorbills since some were within spitting distance.

   Razorbills were everywhere around us. Dozens were sitting on rocks and sunning themselves, fighting, or chattering. The Puffins came and went. They didn't stay around too long. One would fly in, hop around on some rocks, then go down to its burrow. Though there weren't as many puffins as Razorbills, there was usually one for each of us to shoot at any given time.

 

 The "Money shot" of a puffin is to get a photo of a Puffin with fish in its beak to feed its chicks. We saw few birds with fish in their mouth. I saw one Razorbill and one Murre. There were a couple Puffins that came back with fish. But they moved so quickly to the burrows that getting a photo was proving fruitless for all of us. About ten minutes before we had to leave a puffin flew in right next to the blind with some fish. It landed on a rock within feet of me, and I had the best angle to see it. I shot off about seven photos in five seconds then I pulled Sue into my spot and she did the same. After her five seconds were up, She moved over so Brian could get the money shot. Did I mention how incredibly lucky Brian was to be in the blind with us? Oh, that's right, I did. Needless to say, Sue and I were stoked and we high fived. 

   Ten minutes later, Levi came and got us, but not before seeing a single Northern Gannet that has been hanging around the island. Levi walked us back to the boat stopping at the helicopter pad so people could use the outhouse. This was awesome because Arctic Terns nest in the mowed grass and are within two feet of the pathway. Nowhere else will I ever get an easier photo of an Arctic Tern.

   Capt Andy took us back to the boat in three trips again. Talking with others, and overhearing conversations, it seems like we lucked out with the Puffin with fish in its mouth. One of the blinds didn't have any puffins land at all with fish.  Despite having to wait three years to go on this trip, it was well worth the wait. The weather was perfect and the birds were awesome. We all went back to Cutler with full memory cards and a memory to last a life time.  Some of us even had binoculars to put back in our cars.     

    Many photos below-

Common Murres

Common Murre

Razorbills

My lens is in the shop. So I had to make due with my 
70-300 mm. This is what I was getting with it. Thank
goodness we got to go to the blinds. 

This photo and the next five are 
Atlantic Puffins

Nesting Arctic Tern

   

Francis Carter Preserve

   

One of the many Indigo Buntings at Carter

One of my favorite places to bird in Rhode Island is Francis Carter Preserve in Charlestown. (Carter from now on). This huge preserve is owned by The Nature Conservancy . If you walked all of the trails it would take you most of the day, and that is if you didn't get lost. The main attraction to the preserve is the huge grassland in the middle. 

   There are dozens of acres of grassland at Carter. Large open grasslands are a rare landscape in Rhode Island. As such, some of the species that are common at Carter are rare across the rest of the state. Many of the birds I'm going to describe below can be found in the grasslands.

    Carter is locally famous for being the only place in the state that Grasshopper Sparrows breed. Grasshopper Sparrows got their name because their song does sound like a bug. Hearing them (if you know what you are listening for) is fairly easy after late May. Finding them in your bins is a little tougher. However, with a little patience, you should see one popped up on a bare twig or small bush singing its little heart out.

   Another common bird at Carter are Brown Thrashers. If you walk any of the trails along the perimeter of the grassland, you will run across at least a couple Brown Thrashers in the path or scurrying into the woods edge. While you looking for Brown Thrashers you will hear the optimistic song of Prairie Warblers. Their song rises in pitch as it goes. You should see Prairie Warblers also along the woods/grasslands edge. 

   One of my favorite breeding birds at Carter are the Indigo Buntings. If you can learn the song, you will realize they are breeding all over the place. For some reason, the song does not register in my head very easily, and it takes me a while to pick up on it. That said, there are enough Indigo Buntings around where you should see a few while walking the edges.

   The most exciting breeding bird at Carter is also the newest. For the last two years Blue Grosbeaks have nested in the grasslands! I went there on Friday with fellow board member Catherine B. Unfortunately we did not see the Blue Grosbeaks (though we had fantastic looks at the Grasshopper Sparrows). I went again on Saturday with my friends Tim Metcalf, Scott Tsagarakis, and Carlos Pedro. The Blue Grosbeaks put on a show for us. Both the male and the brown female were flying all over the grasslands. We saw them a half dozen times either flying or sitting on a small bush. Fun fact I did not know, Blue Grosbeaks twitch their tail like a Phoebe. 

    There are other good birds that breed at Carter. I'm positive that Tree Swallows, Baltimore Orioles, Orchard Orioles, Bluebirds, and Eastern Kingbirds nest there. Kingbirds are easy to find. Last time I was there we also saw Bank Swallows flying over the fields and the time before that Northern Rough Winged Swallows (they must be breeding close by).  Catherine saw a Broad Winged Hawk on Friday while I was down a wooded trail, so they must be added to the list of breeders. 

   Carter has also been producing rarities. This March a Northern Shrike was seen for a few days. I theorize it could have been their much longer than that and no one knew about it. Much more recently, about ten days ago my new friends Jennifer Krider and her son Ian heard a Mississippi Kite! They got a recording of it. Who knows is a Kite family growing up in there as I write this?  The last bird I will write about are the Whip-poor-Wills. If you are at the preserve at dusk you should hear the Whips. The place I usually hear them is where them is where the path from Old Mill Rd comes out into the grassland. Bring bug spray if you want to enjoy the Whips.

    Carter is huge and it has many entrances. The most popular, with a bathroom, is on Old Mill Rd which is off of Rt 112. There are also entrances at Botka Woods Rd, Rt  112, and Kings Factory Rd. If you have never been there I suggest Old Mill Rd and take a photo of the map. A ten minute walk down a slight hill will get you to the grasslands. As you open your car door you should hear Prairie Warblers singing along the powerlines. You could also download a map online 

   Despite going to Carter twice this weekend, it is still new to me. I've only been visiting their for the last three years. It is still exciting to me to see the birds there. I'm still learning new things about the place. We are very fortunate to have such a unique ecosystem in the state.

    

May misses and Heard Only Birds

   

The best photo of the best bird I saw over my two days off.
Virginia Rail

   I had Thurs/Fri off from work but I had to work the weekend. For me, that means May is pretty much over. On Wednesday I'm leaving for North Carolina to do some pelagic and land birding for a few days. Between now and Wednesday I have so much work stuff to get ahead on and too much personal stuff to catch up on. So, although I may get out for a couple hours after work the next couple of days, realistically I'm done.

   As I said a couple posts ago, May goes by way too fast. Obviously, missing an entire weekend next week will shorten a month, but I got to tell you, I think migration is about over anyway. For sure there is still a very good possibility for a rare bird such as another Mourning Warbler or Olive Sided Flycatcher to show up. But in terms of big numbers and the trees being covered with bright little birds, we are past the peak. Here is a quick rundown of my two hard days of birding. 

   Thursday morning I got great looks at a Virginia Rail at a swamp in Westerly thanks to my friend Sue. From there, we went to Burlingame north where we saw an Acadian Flycatcher and heard Hooded Warblers and Pileated Woodpeckers. 

   Then Sue and I went Rome Point. There had been two very good warblers there. A Kentucky and a Mourning. We got lucky and heard both. We didn't see either. Though later in the day, my friend Tim and I got a brief look at the Kentucky and he even got a couple photos.

   Friday I birded alone almost all day except at my first stop, Miantonomi. Louise R and I birded there from7-9 am. The woods were quiet. The only birds that we say that weren't residents were a Blackpoll and a Yellow Billed Cuckoo. He had great looks at both birds, but there was a disappointing amount of migrating birds. That theme continued all day.  Other than hearing a couple more cuckoos and finding an Acadian Flycatcher, my day was boring.

   This all leads up to migration being just about over. For me, it is a good thing I am not listing this year. I missed quite a few birds I normally see. I missed the rare Yellow Throated Warbler at Trustom early in migration. However, I missed some expected birds also. I did not see any Cape May, Nashville,  or Bay Breasted Warblers, or Louisiana Waterthrush (I didn't go for the Waterthrush) this spring. Somehow I missed Bay Breasted while others had it at Mia. I did not see any Yellow Throated Vireos. This was a bummer because I don't have any life photos of them. Though I still have a decent shot at the Vireo and the Cape May in the fall, especially on the Block. I'm sure there are probably others I missed but those are misses I never miss.

   Probably more frustrating than missing a few birds is the sheer number of "heard only" birds I have on my list. I have a tough time with songs and sounds. I am not musical at all. Usually I have to relearn all of the Warbler songs every spring because I will forget them by June. Over the last two weeks I have had Black Billed Cuckoo, Mourning Warbler, Kentucky Warbler, Whip-poor-wills,  Black Throated Green, Mississippi Kite, Tennessee Warbler, Worm Eating Warbler, Hooded Warbler, and Sora as heard only birds. 

   Right now I am at my "peak" of knowing bird songs and calls. Like I said, I will have forgotten them in the next couple of weeks. That said, hearing birds for me is only a tool to help see them. I'd much rather see a bird than hear it (Wood Thrush and Red Tailed Hawks being exceptions). Some birds like Sora and Mourning Warbler you don't expect to see. However, not seeing Hooded Warbler or Worm Eating is quite a surprise. Both nest in Rhode Island so maybe after I get back from the Outer Banks, chasing them could be a June goal. 

   Why did I write a post that was pretty much negative? Simply because it was honest. I did not see as many migrants as usual. Though part of that was there wasn't any pressure too. However, list or not, I want to see the birds. I still love seeing Bay Breasted and Nashville Warblers.Who wouldn't? I would much rather see the Missisippi Kite soar than hear it. Still, I got to see most of the birds. I found two very good birds on my own this May. I found Eastern Meadowlarks at Franklin Farm in Cumberland. If they are nesting, they most likely are the only ones breeding in the state. I also found Acadian Flycatchers at Weetamoo Woods. So all in all, though it sounds like complaining, May has had far more ups than downs. As Bill Belichick would say...On to shorebirds

Looking at the Birds

 There is a difference from birding and bird watching. If you talk to someone that does neither, they will almost certainly call you a bird watcher. Truthfully all of us with feeders at our house are bird watchers. We enjoy looking at the birds that come to our feeders or nest in our yards. We can do watch birds from our kitchen table, deck, or a lawn chair.

   Birding is far more active. Birding is actively going out to find the birds. Going birding requires patience, skill and time. The more of these three things you have the better the birder you will become. To be a good birder you need to study. You need to know the field marks of birds that look similar so you can tell them apart. If you think bird watching and birding are the same, I challenge you to walk out to Napatree under a hot sun when the next rare bird is found there. All the while rushing back so you don't get a parking ticket. You will understand the difference.

   But here is the thing about birding, birders spend far more time looking for rather than looking at birds. Think about that for a second because it is true. All of us have gone to Trustom right? Think about how many minutes you take to look at birds through your binoculars during a two hour walk. How long are the eye cups actually over your eyes? Chances are that amount of time is less than a few minutes. Of course, there are many reasons for this. There are plenty of roots and rocks to watch out for. There are plenty of places where there aren't birds to look at. These are  valid reasons. 

   The other main reason we don't spend a lot of time looking at the birds is because subconsciously our main goal is to ID them. Think about it. How many times have you raised your binoculars only to say out loud "Robin" or "just a Chickadee". Chances are if it is a common bird, you lower the binoculars and move on. Yes, I am just as guilty as anyone else. There is only so many times I can admire a robin when my main goal is a Pileated Woodpecker.

   However, what I am really trying to do is watch and look at the birds in migration, even the common ones. For example, I seem to be seeing Rose Breasted Grosbeaks everywhere. I've probably seen ten over the last four after work walks. They are still beautiful even though I am seeing them every day. So instead of raising my binos and saying out loud "another Rose Breasted Grosbeak" and then moving on, I have been watching them. I have been admiring their beauty. I watched a male chase off another male at the Cumberland Monastery last night. It was fun

   While I was at Great Swamp on Friday I came across a very cooperative Black and White Warbler. It was feeding only feet from me and didn't care about my presence at all. I've seen dozens of them so far this year. But this one wanted to put on a show. So I stayed there and I watched it. It would sing while it was feeding doing that high pitched buzz. The whole show lasted a good three minutes. I am happy it decided to hang out with me for that time.

   Since warbler migration only lasts a month or so, I am doing my best to keep my binoculars up when I see a pretty bird. Just because orioles are everywhere, it does not take away from their beauty. I love seeing them, I love getting photos of them. So this spring once I ID them I'm going to keep my binoculars on them for a few more seconds and really enjoy the colors. I will be better off for it.

A Long Single

   

My favorite warbler, Black Throated Blue.

   If I were to use a baseball analogy to describe Spring Migration so far, I'd say we hit a solid single to the outfield. We have rounded first but know that for now second base is out of reach. For sure spring migration is here. There are warblers, Great Crested Flycatchers, vireos, and thrushes. They just do not seem to be in big numbers yet.  I think between last week and today, I saw 18-20 new species for the year. This sounds good, but I think there are a lot of "easy" birds I still haven't seen.

    No complaining. There were plenty of birds to see, I just had to work a little harder for them. Today I birded my little heart out for twelve hours. I did about eleven miles (then I rewarded myself with Chinese Food, it's all about balance). 

This Osprey landed almost over our heads at Asa Pond

    I started my morning at Mia in Newport and ended it at Tri-Pond Park in South Kingston. My companions for most of the day were Sue Palmer and Tim Metcalf. We also birded with Carlos Pedro and Louise Ruggeri for part of the morning. 

   Mia was pretty slow all things considering. The highlight for us were two male Rose Breasted Grosbeaks. There was also a Black Throated Green Warbler calling before we got there, but we did not see or hear it. I also saw a Hummingbird. 

   

Thanks Little Buddy (Black and White Warbler)

From there we hit two land trust properties in Jamestown. Highlights were American Kestrel and my favorite warbler, Black Throated Blue. We could also see 53 Glossy Ibis flying around the marsh near Weedon Lane.  We did see or hear the more common warblers including Parula, Blue Winged, and Black and White.

   After buying lunch we stopped at Great Swamp but only hiked a little bit. There were multiple Redstarts and a Black and White that wanted me to take its photo. My main focus were Northern Waterthrush and Yellow Throated Vireo both of which we dipped on. 

Probably the best bird of the day, Solitary Sandpiper

  We hit another land trust in South Kingston near URI that I do not remember the name of. By far the best bird was a Solitary Sandpiper. We should have reported it, because that is a very good bird. However, a dog/dog owner scared it off and it flew out of sight so there was no point. 

My last stop was Tri-Pond park in South Kingston. There were multiple Warbling Vireos. I saw some swallows, Chimney Swifts, and Yellow Warblers around the pond.

My day ended photographing this singing Warbling Vireo

   All in all, Today was fun. I saw many  species of migrating birds but I know it could be better. It's only going to take one or two nights with the right winds for everything to explode. Until then, I'm not complaining. It is still nice to see color in the trees.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, May goes by too quickly!!!

Spring Migration

 

All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know- Hemingway

   I had known that line before the Ernest Hemingway documentary came on PBS last week. However  it always confused me. Where does one start with the truest sentence they know? As you may have noticed I haven't wrote any posts for a while. There are a combination of factors including working crazy hours, not seeing much of anything worth writing about, but mostly writers block.  So I put to use Papa's advice and the truest sentence I can think of (at least for the near future) is: Spring Migration is the most fun part of birding throughout the year. 

Spring Migration is the most fun part of birding throughout the year. Right now we are in the beginning of migration. The early migrants came in late March and early April. These include Eastern Phoebe, Tree Swallow, Osprey, Great Egret, Wilson's Snipe,  and the toughest for me, Blue Winged Teal. 

   Throughout the rest of April we will start to get some of the migrants. Black and White Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, and American Redstarts, and Broadwing Hawks are either starting to trickle in or will be soon.

   

However, May is what it is all about. There is nothing like the first three weeks of May. I write this now to give you advice to take some vacation days between May7-20. Peak migration only lasts for a short amount of time so try to spend as much time as you can in the field. 

Many people are already asking where to go. First off, these birds need a place to land, eat, and rest so they could be anywhere when the sun comes up. That said, there are obviously some migrant traps all around the state. Up north, the best place is Swan Point Cemetery in Providence. During May, the guards open the gates at 7 am to let birders walk in. There is a standard crew that is there almost every morning. Sometimes there are twenty five or more birders walking the roads. The best two spots are the North Woods and the paths near the Mausoleum.  Another good northern location is Hunts Mill in East Providence

   On the west side of the bay, Trustom is the hotspot. It can be very birdy. Some good rarities have shown up there such as Yellow Throated Warbler and Summer Tanager. 

In the middle of the state is Ponaganset Road in Scituate. For the life of me I do not know why it is a hot spot. It has woods habitat and a lake, but so do dozens of places around the state. That said, it is a great spot. You will likely see Scarlet Tanagers, a variety of warblers and thrushes while walking the road. The land on both sides of the road is off limits to protect the drinking water. So road walking is your only option. It is far away from the other hot spots but I do try to bird there a couple of times during May. A Cerulean Warbler was calling there for hours last year much to the delight of dozens of birders.  

In my opinion the best warbler spot in the state is Miantonomi Park in Newport. There is plenty of on street parking near the park. Swan Point used to be the place to be, but I think that has changed to Mia for whatever reason. On a good day you should see orioles, tanagers, grosbeaks, and many warbler species. Hopefully there will be a Swainson's Thrush around too. You can tell pretty quickly if the place has a lot of birds or is dead. If it is dead, go somewhere else because the birds won't arrive past mid-morning. Though, if Mia is dead, chances aren't too good for finding birds elsewhere. 

   Last May 16th was the best day ever in Rhode Island for spring birds. There was a massive fallout at Mia. You've heard the phrase "the trees were dripping with birds". Well that day it wasn't a cliché. Eighteen species of warblers were counted including Canada, Prothornatary, and Tennessee. There were multiple birds on every tree. One tree I was looking at had a Cape May, and Indigo Bunting, a Scarlet Tanager, and a Blackburnian!!! There were so many Bay Breasted Warblers, I stopped getting photos of them. There were cuckoos, vireos, and flycatchers. It was insane. 

   There had been northeast winds for over a week prior. These winds kept the birds grounded. There was a huge back up of birds south of us for a week just building in number. The evening of the 15th the wind turned southwest. All of these birds took off by the millions. They were all behind schedule. Unfortunately for the birds, around 10 pm the wind turned again and it started to rain. So the birds landed wherever it was safe and that place was Mia. Even the most experienced birders said they never saw a day like that. Will conditions line up like that again this year? Probably not, but if there is one place to be, it is Miantonomi .

  An often overlooked place is Great Swamp. Great Swamp has everyone of the early migrants I mentioned at the top. However, it can be good for May migrants also. I usually go someplace else in the morning and make Great Swamp my afternoon walk. Birding is not as good as it would be in the morning, but it is still a beautiful walk.

  I started this post with the truest sentence I could think of so I will end it with a few more. May goes by way too quickly. Spend as much time birding as you can. Home improvements can wait till June and you can do your garden in the afternoon. Enjoy it while it is going on because in the birding world, NOTHING is going on in June in Rhode Island.

Red Crossbills at Conimicut Point

 

The best photo I got today.

    It has been a long time since I wrote anything on this blog. There have been a a variety of reasons for my lack of writing. Last week I worked a ton of hours and slept when I wasn't at work. When I did get a day off, I didn't have very good luck finding my targets. I wanted to do a post about wood frogs but the vernal pool closest to my house was frogless. This weekend I went to Provincetown to watch for migrating whales but all I found was a strong east wind. 

  Finally, today, I have something to write about. After work I went to Conimicut Point in Warwick to look for the Red Crossbills. The Crossbills have been there for over a week. There are a couple dozen Pitch Pines along the parking lot that are loaded with pine cones. The good news is the birds feed on the pine cones most every day. The bad news is they don't seem to stay at Conimicut when they aren't feeding. 

   Luckily for me, after about half an hour of looking through the pines I found a small band of Red Crossbills. They have been very cooperative for many photographers and I have seen some fantastic photos. However, while I was there, the birds seemed to stay in the deepest part of the tree. It was tough to see the whole bird never mind get great photos. None the less, the Crossbills stuck around for at least forty five minutes and I was patient..

   My friend Richard Tucker showed up and we watched the birds until they flew off. As best we could tell there were at least two females, one adult(ish) male, and two juvenile males in the tree. With the two of us looking through binoculars and camera lenses, we drew quite a crowd. At one point we had a dozen other people staring into the tree with us. When the birds flew away so did we.

I know the Crossbills were very cooperative this morning though I do not know the time. I was there from about 3 pm until 4:25. I probably saw the first one about 3:45. If you go, there is plenty of parking. There aren't two many trees to look at so if they are there you should find them.