August 27 - Duxbury to Milford to Hull

We’ve settled into a beautiful weather pattern here in late summer, one that is leaving us with a combination of low humidity, temperate days and days of overcast days and soaking rains. The grasses that have been brown since early July are starting to green up again, and the days of oppressive heat seem to be behind us.

Tuesday morning was one of those warm days, without any harsh breezes, just a beautiful and wonderful way to spend a South Shore day. We headed, of course, for Duxbury Beach, and more birding. There wasn’t much different to see there from the end of last week, when we had reveled in the presence of common terns, ruddy turnstones and black-bellied plovers. A northern harrier, though, put on a show for our attendees. I saw it dip behind a bush in the distance and crept up to a spot from which I thought it would emerge. Sure enough – whoosh! – it soared upward from behind the bush, wings spread, eyes focused on the ground in search of meadow voles or other prey. It remained within view most of the morning, from our various viewpoints across the saltmarsh grasses.

The only oddity of the day was a sighting of three red-breasted mergansers off the Gurnet, the southern head of Duxbury Beach. Early migrants, two months ahead of schedule, or summering birds we’ve missed all year? Hard to tell. Still, for a birder, any sighting out of context is a fun one to get.

On Thursday, volunteers extraordinaire Tim O’Neil and Abby Childs took over the Duxbury Beach program for the morning. Tim, the birder, and Abby, the environmental scientist, pooled their talents to educate and entertain our faithful program attendees.

Friday we headed north for our regular morning birding adventure. But before we even fired up the van, Property Manager David Ludlow and I were walking out of the office when I suddenly stopped and pointed to a dead branch in the sky, and a big, black bird. A turkey vulture had chosen to perch above our heads. I joked that as the day wore on, our birds would only get bigger.

Well, at our first stop, we didn’t get bigger in size, but in stature, according to the birders’ hierarchy of sightings. Our great horned owl spot in Scituate produced an owl perched in a tree, and a chance for extended looks through the telescope. What a beautiful sight. Then, amusingly enough, our next sighting was a wild turkey, a bird bigger than a turkey vulture. Now the barbs began to fly: “Hey John, know any good ostrich farms?” I vowed to find something bigger. I should have shut my mouth.

We spent the day in and around Scituate, at Wompatuck State Park, where kingbirds, wood ducks and a winter wren held our focus; on the “Spit” off Third Cliff, in search of egrets, herons, and shorebirds (yes, yes, and yes, including fifty red knots); at Mushquashicut Pond and a gathering of swans; and under a swirling storm of tree swallows at the spot known as Myron’s Puddle, for local birder Myron Litchfield. By the end of the day, we totaled 61 species sighted.

Saturday, David and I took off for some off-the-job training, taking advantage of a common day off to explore the open spaces of Connecticut. David had a life list of 72 species sighted in Connecticut, and wanted to get above 100. We started at Milford Point on the coast, and before 9:30 a.m. had picked up eighteen new birds for his list, including a clapper rail, a life bird for me. We moved up the coast to New Haven and the Long Wharf Nature Area, a beautiful parcel behind the Eli Whitney Museum in Hampden, then Hammonassett State Park back at the shore, where we added two little blue herons, not to mention thousands of swooping tree swallows, a sharp-shinned hawk and a northern harrier. At Mansfield Hollow State Park we tallied common nighthawks, pine warblers and a female eastern towhee, and then headed for our final spot, the James L. Goodwin State Forest in Hampton. Two ruby-throated hummingbirds, a northern flicker and others padded our states for the day. After we passed out of Connecticut, through the town of Scituate, Rhode Island, on Route 6 and finally headed for home, we counted our birds: 87 species. Now I need thirteen to get 100…


Sunday, with rain forecast for the afternoon and the Marshfield Fair still in full swing, we headed for Green Harbor, Brant Rock, Ocean Bluff, and Rexhame, the seaside villages of Marshfield, for “Birdlife and History Along the Marshfield Coast.” We did our five minute spot on Ray Brown’s Talkin’ Birds radio program on 95.9 FM WATD, talking about upcoming programs, just minutes before finding a target bird for the day in a black-crowned night heron sharing a tree with an osprey on the Green Harbor River. That afternoon, we moved north, to a similar program, “Birdlife and History Along the Hull Coast.”

This week was definitely for the birds, but then, that’s what we do. Next week is a sad one, as the end of summer is signaled by the final Duxbury Beach programs of the year. But then, that means that the Farm Day calendar countdown has begun, and the beauty of New England in autumn is drawing nearer.