The weather gods definitely have my back...Sunshine with hints of fall in the air, blue skies and absent any annoying insects .
Great Bay NWR is next to an airport. It was originally Pease Air Force base and a weapon storage facility. The beginning of the two-mile trail runs along rusty barbed wire and old bunkers in various states of disrepair.
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| Great Bay NWR - NH |
AMERICASWILDLIFE.ORG
Abandoned military bunkers may be ideal for managing and conserving bats in areas affected by WNS. They may be manipulated, treated for the fungus, have no sensitive fauna or flora and are on protected lands. ES and Refuges partners have the ability to research, manage and conserve bats on Refuge lands by sharing staff experience (and creativity), labor and costs.
Over six million bats have already died of a fungus that attacks them in hibernation. It's called WNS or White-nose Syndrome and was first identified in 2006. So far, WNS has affected bats mostly in the northeastern US. The Forest Service "estimates that at least 2.4 million pounds of insects will go uneaten" as a result of bat mortality. (Wikipedia).
Of course, I didn't see bats in the middle of the day as I hiked a couple of trails. The first was actually an old road, much of which was covered with pine needles, through gorgeous hardwoods of hickories, pines, oaks, maples and spruce. There were actually many birds moving about in the canopy, mostly silent, but with no mosquitoes or biting flies, I could spend time looking up and waiting for them to pop into view: Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers, Great-creasted Flycatcher, Eastern Phoebes, Black and White Warblers, BC Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches, Tufted Titmouse, Baltimore Oriole.... The middle part of this trail was especially lovely because it ran parallel to Great Bay.
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| Great Bay NWR - NH |
The few open areas were filled with goldenrod. After eating lunch in the car, I walked a 1/2 mile boardwalk trail in the opposite direction through more woods and lush ferns. This refuge was profoundly peaceful, even with the occasional plane or helicopter thundering overhead.
Leaving Great Bay, I got on a toll road to Newburyport, MA, and then went east to Parker River NWR on Plum Island. I think what I have liked best about the northeast are the grand old houses, and Newburyport has many, side by side and close to the sidewalks but also some with spacious shaded lawns set back from the street. Of course this part of the country was settled in the 1600s as is often pointed out on small plaques or signs whenever applicable.
The very impressive Visitor Center at Parker River was closing at 4 p.m. I got there at 3:45, but the young man inside was in a hurry to leave and was shutting down even as I looked over the available information. He did give me a quick "spiel" about beaches closed to protect nesting Piping Plovers and pointed out specific places on the refuge map, but really wanted outta there. There was a white board with current Piping Plover information: 25 nesting pair this year with more than 60 chicks. Most of these have fledged at this point, but there were four chicks still on the nests, so most beach access was closed. The basic nest is one of small stones on open beaches. DHC and I saw these in Ludington SP a few summers ago. As I sat in the parking lot looking over the road / trail possibilities at least two other cars drove in and walked to the now-closed VC. Too bad....Couldn't volunteers help keep this refuge open longer?
Plum Island is an approximately 7-mile long barrier island. I spent several hours slowly driving to the southern end. The northern two miles is developed, with homes on fragile sand, and those property owners will eventually pay a price for their view. The dunes of barrier islands are dynamic, always moving as the ocean waves, tides, wind and storms ultimately have their way.
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| Parker River NWR-MA |
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| Parker River NWR- MA |
The beaches were on my left as I drove south, although behind dunes, and the estuarine marshes on my right. There are open watery places called "salt pannes" in these marshes where the salinity is high due to constant evaporation. At one spot, the water surface had a yellowish, rubbery-looking, bumpy texture and half a dozen peeps (small sandpipers) were able to run about on top of this, pecking and probing. They were silhouetted and looked slightly too big for Semipalmated or Least SPs but probably were one of those species. An occasional bicyclist or jogger went by and a few cars but no crowds....just egrets, hawks, gulls, ducks, swans, shorebirds, herons and thousands of swallows. I had intended to hike as there were a couple of interpretative trails but I had arrived at that point of indifference. It had been a long day, and I needed to find somewhere to sleep, which is much harder in these urban areas.
I drove an hour to North Reading, in the general direction of three NWRs west of Boston, so was situated for the next day. As usual, it was a Walmart but a Walmart that did not have a deli or a produce section or alcohol. But did have a Subway and a very pleasant East Indian gentleman working the cash register who politely asked if I had had "a productive day." He had moved here from San Diego where work was harder to find and the middle class was being priced out of a decent livelihood.
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