Author: David Gorsline

Chip Clouse and Chuck Bell have the more authoritative rundown of Go Bird! Providence field trips: day two, day four.

Wednesday was pretty much a washout for birding. We did take a quick walk at the education center of the Audubon Society of Rhode Island in between rain showers. (I also visited a Massachusetts Audubon sanctuary on Friday–these independent Audubons in New England have some very impressive facilities.)

Finally, Thursday brought clearing weather and a field trip to Block Island, the intended centerpiece of the conference. The original plan was that we would divide into two groups and bird the island on successive days, without an end-of-day deadline since we had no scheduled dinners Monday through Wednesday. Birding as one large group on Thursday, with a closing dinner scheduled at the end of the day, had conference organizers scrambling. It worked out fairly well, although at times there was a lot of milling about, waiting for a van, and wondering where the trip leaders had gone off to.

Seas were still running about 4-6 feet (my guess) on the morning crossing. Those of us on the top deck were appraised of this fact when we were nailed by a big wave breaking over the starboard bow just as the ferry reached the Point Judith breakwater.

We started near the northern tip of the island, just in sight of the lighthouse. The scrubby woods in this area turned up a few warblers. I saw a yellow-black-and-white Dendroica warbler that otherwise must remain a mystery.

In the afternoon we moved on to Nathan Mott Park, also known as “the enchanted forest.” Birding there was fairly slow, the trail was an out-and-back, and our van was waiting for us at 2:15, so we did not linger. Instead, I looked at this nice Arrowwood Viburnum (Viburnum dentatum) in fruit.

The departure and return were sunny and smooth. Most everyone got good looks at Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) (including side-by-side comparisons to L. marinus) on the beach near the ferry landing. The shearwaters did not make an appearance.

My species count for the Rhode Island part of this trip comes in at about 70. I believe the combined group checklists came in somewhere in the 130’s.

This trip reminded me how much I enjoy birding and just generally hanging out oceanside. I still love the mountains, but the sea pulls me, too. Susan and I visited the Outer Banks of North Carolina in 1993, and that trip got me hooked on birding for good–and hooked on getting whipped by the wind on a rocky beach, scanning the horizon for gannets.

The rain kept to the west side of Narragansett Bay, so our birding around Newport was only dampish. In the parking lot of the Sachuest Point NWR, we watched a young gull trying to get the hang of dropping a mollusc to the pavement in order to smash it open. Our neophyte had figured out the dropping part, but not the targeting: his lunch kept landing softly in the grass.

The loop trail around Sachuest Point is smashing, all the more so in that we got fine looks at rafts of Common Eider (Somateria mollissima), good for my #363. Mike Tucker pointed out the salt-tolerant Rosa rugosa in fruit, not a native but apparently prized locally for its rose hips it produces. Not prized but just as apparent at Sachuest Point is the invasive Asiatic Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus). Just down the shore at Third Beach, we turned up the lovely pale yellow “Ipswich” subspecies of Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis princeps).

Back up Third Beach Road is the privately-run Norman Bird Sanctuary, where we stopped for lunch then birded the old fields and woods. The meadows are managed for Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), who returned the favor by perching in the open for good looks. Trip leader Lauren showed us the local geologic specialty, a metaconglomerate known locally as puddingstone.

Our original schedule called for today to be the Block Island trip, but high waves on the Sound and Ocean cancelled ferry service. So Mike Tucker and other ABA trip leaders improvised, and we started the day at the pond and barrier beach of Trustom Pond NWR, a brackish hundred-acre pond that is the only pond in Rhode Island without residential development. The hinterland of the pond includes some wooded areas and fresh water.

Coastal New England geology is actually rather complicated—at least judging from some of the material I’ve skimmed—not at all the simple extended barrier islands of sand that we have at home. The material in many areas is glacial till. Evidence: several relict stone walls skirted by the trails leading to the pond.

The appositely-named Moonstone Beach (formerly a nudist hangout until it became FWS’s responsibility) is managed for Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) and Least Tern (Sterna antillarum) in breeding season.

We took a break at the huge, beautiful Kettle Pond Visitor Center, the interpretive center for the network of coastal NWRs in the state. By FWS standards, this place is palatial: gift shop, exhibits, a big classroom where we ate lunch.

Good birds but not lifers: Common Loon (Gavia immer), Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), Nashville Warbler (Vermivora ruficapilla), Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis). A lifer candidate but not seen well enough to tick (on my list, at least): Common Eider (Somateria mollissima).

After the lunch break, a quick stop at Soccotash Marsh turned up a pair of the Savannahs. Then we found a relatively sheltered spot to scope the very breezy waters off Point Judith to get a distant look at a few eiders. Here’s hoping for a better look later in the week. The working lighthouse at Point Judith is a Coast Guard facility, and hence not open to us tourists. The crashing surf and high winds coaxed a whoop out of me.