Blue Goose ~ Day 90

August 29, 2014 ~ Newburgh, NY to Morristown, NJ

Guess what? Today was sunny with blue skies....AGAIN.

Wallkill NWR is one of those understated but nice refuges that doesn't seem to have many visitors.

WWW.FWS.GOV

In historic times, an influx of Dutch settlers followed the Wallkill up from the Hudson River. They dubbed the Wallkill River bottomland "The Drowned Lands" because the valley flooded extensively, forming a huge lake in the spring. Before it was effectively drained, settlers used the bottomland meadows as pasturage for cattle. As early as 1760, efforts were made to straighten, dredge, and drain the river corridor to make the land dry enough to farm. The effort didn't succeed until sixty-six years later when a large canal lowered the water table of the river. Mill owners, however, sought to keep the lands flooded, and a battle ensued between the millers and the farmers who wanted the lands drained. These battles were known as the "Muskrat and Beaver Wars". The millers were known as the "beavers." The farmers were known as the "muskrats." The disputes were finally settled in the farmers' favor in 1871.

It's all about the water, wherever I go.....

The headquarters at Wallkill was a handsome renovated farm house with a sign on the door stating it was closed, but it wasn't as I just walked in. The gentleman who quickly appeared was pleasant enough but didn't know much about recent bird sightings or how long the nearby trail was. He did think it took "about 30 minutes." I know I interrupt some of these employees, and I suppose they are expected to be accommodating to the few visitors that show up. The reception / welcome varies significantly. Refuges have different specific information and Wallkill one was all about Purple Martins....like the amazing fact that they weigh only 2 ounces! Turtles are also a priority here.

The trail was a workout (for me) as it first wound down through woods, briefly along the Wallkill River and then up and up and up through meadows and fields.

Wallkill NWR - NJ

Of course, I was once again doing this in the heat of mid-day. The quality of light is changing from summer to fall, bees were buzzing in the goldenrod with subtle intoxicating fragrances in the air. I saw a Great-crested Flycatcher and a Warbling Vireo along with the usual woodland birds hanging out in the Black Walnut trees.

Wallkill River, Wallkill NWR - NJ

A "Sightings" log at the parking lot was completely blank when I first looked at it, but when I got back, I saw two wrinkled pages on the ground, pages that had been rained on and then dried out and had just come loose and drifted away. So I checked out what people had been seeing, although the dates were sparse and many went to 2013. A sample of what people / kids saw: "2 naked hikers....beautiful nature....creepy calipibr....yellow berries...people with arrows....grass..." and something about "nipples" that had been crossed out, so I primly added my dozen or so bird species.

I have been in a junk food munchathon lately. Partly, it's the boredom of driving so much. I vow to clean up starting next Monday when I begin the second quarter of this BG adventure. And I have to stop spending money willy-nilly and cook more often and find more places to get clean during the week.....BUT, mostly it continues to offer up all these sanctuaries that make me keep going.

I consult the maps a lot lately to plan things in this dense tangle of roads, interstates, tollways, towns... Today, I ended in Morristown, NJ, where I stayed in a $400 room, discounted to $100 via Priceline. I realize that often a weekend is the time for deals, especially in and around large cities. Like this Labor Day weekend, most people are out and about having one last summer fling, and the business travelers aren't working.

I had issues with the Internet, having to reboot several times. When I complained, I was told (unbelievably) that their servers (or something) didn't support Apple computers! which wasn't the problem as I was using my work PC. And there was no place to eat except the hotel's minimal  "Market" offerings, but since I had a suite with a full kitchen, I at least could microwave a Lean Cuisine.I also got a one-serving Haagen Dazs. But no alcohol and I had no desire to get out into traffic again just for that.

Wallkill NWR - NJ (not staged)

Blue Goose ~ Day 89

August 28, 2014 ~ Hammonassett Beach State Park, CT to Newburgh, NY

Since I went to bed so early, I woke before sunrise which is now a little after 6 a.m. Well, good, I would go to the east end of the park where there were nature trails and observation points into the salt marshes. But orange cones on the road stopped me, and after thinking about it for two minutes, I thought perhaps the other side of the road was 2-way and started on that, startling a middle-age couple walking their dog. And because I had surprised them, they were crabby at first, half yelling at me that this was "one-way," but I explained what I was doing and soon they calmed down and became very talkative, especially the guy. They were so "eastern." He said to just drive across the grass to get to the road behind the cones..."Yeah, yeah, everybody does that all the time.."

So I did. It was early-morning peaceful with the ocean on one side, marshes on the other and a few walkers and serious bicyclists also out. I have had day after day after day of perfect weather and today was one more...

I took a trail onto an island into the marsh and watched a Snowy Egret for 15 minutes, its whiteness bright against the dark muddy bank where it was foraging. I waited until it moved on lifting golden feet out of the water. And when I walked back to the parking lot (through mosquitoes) I saw an amazing thing - a gigantic dragonfly, at least 4 inches long with a body the size of a thimble, swinging back and forth like it was on an invisible pendulum and then it flew in small circles, but suddenly one of its wingtips got caught on the tip of a branch. It frantically tried to get free and for about 45 seconds, it couldn't. It was just hanging by this snagged lacy wing. I could HEAR the buzzing commotion as it struggled before it finally succeeded.

The island had old pear and apple trees and half-eaten fruit littered the ground.

I drove to the end of the road; it was still early but there were fisherman out on a pier. Using the scope, I watched a Little Blue Heron, Black Ducks, Semipalmated Sandpipers and a single Yellowlegs poking in the mud flats.

Little Blue Heron at Hammonasset Beach State Park - CT

Many Northern Mockingbirds were fussing in the dense foliage around a large public beach pavilion. Everywhere, I saw signs warning people not to take shelter in these structures during storms.

The low coastal shrubbery is impenetrable. It's like that in Oregon also....bushwhacking would take hours with machetes and be a horrid job.

When I left after a couple of hours, many more people were arriving, some with binoculars, some hiking and some with fishing gear but still no crowds. Many of these beaches have lifeguards, but it was too early. The sand is grittier and dirtier along here, not like the sugar sand of Lake Michigan beaches.

The Connecticut Audubon Coastal Center property was as near as I could get to the Milford Point Unit of the Stewart B. Kinney NWR, so I made my way through city streets and then narrow lanes among private beach homes to a parking lot tucked between the marsh and ocean. The actual headquarters was a large house built on stilts with a wide porch across the front. Fall was in the air with late summer foliage drying in the sunshine, very evident on this property. I saw a Least Sandpiper doing a Thor Heyerdahl as it moved about on a mat of reeds which moved slowly on the edge of the marsh with the motion of the tides.

Least Sandpiper at Connecticut Audubon Coastal Center - CT

There were whitecaps as a strong northern wind was blowing. This is still Hurricane Sandy territory, and it was very obvious to me why salt marshes and barrier islands are so important. Here though, as along so much of the Atlantic coast, it is highly developed and has cost us (taxpayers) billions for those who now have just rebuilt on the impermanent sands.

The traffic picked up as I drove closer to New York City so leaving that Interstate, I headed for a more northern route. My plan has been to go around the big cities on beltways or other roads, staying at least 20-25 miles from city centers, and this brought me to to I84 where I felt sane again. It was like driving through the Midwest and scenic with hills, forests and long views.

I crossed the Hudson River which elicited a strong desire to live in a home high above the river on the west side and be a river watcher. (DHC, can Brendan see the Hudson from his house?) I84 goes past West Point, and when I stopped in Newburgh and ate at an Applebee's, I sensed a "Yes Sir! presence" in certain of the men eating there.

While tiring of Walmart, the 24-hour Supermarts generally have much better parking lots, as did the one in Newburgh, and I got a spot under the trees near two larger RVs. I ate Sam's Club almond cookies (a lot like very thin windmill cookies) while I read Amy Tan's new book, Valley of Amazement.

Long Island Sound at Connecticut Audubon Coastal Center - CT

Blue Goose ~ Day 88

August 27, 2014 ~ Lisbon, CT to Hammonassett Beach State Park, CT

The Stewart B. Kinney NWR refuge, originally named Salt Meadow NWR, was renamed in 1987 for Republican congressman who was "a great champion of the refuge's expansion." It consists of ten units over 70 miles of Connecticut shoreline. I did my morning thing and got on the busy Interstate toth e Salt Meadow Unit of this refuge. I used to hate Interstates; now I mostly love them. I used to say I was happiest when in my car; not true anymore, or at least not true in the northeastern part of the country. No, I don't really love them, but they are 100x more efficient moving vehicular traffic than any other option while driving through one town after another, the density of which is inversely proportional to the distance from a great city...like Boston, New York or Washington DC.

WWW.GWU.EDU

Elizabeth Fisher Read, a scholar and one of Eleanor Roosevelt's earliest female political and feminist mentors, was ER's personal attorney and financial advisor during the first part of her public career. ER credited Read and Esther Lape, Read's life partner, with playing an important role in her education as a political activist. The two women also formed the nucleus of what eventually became ER's support network of close female friends devoted both to her and to the causes she supported. Their three-way friendship endured until Read's death in 1943...The three women also spent time at Salt Meadow, the country house Read and Lape owned. Read died in New York on December 13, 1943.

Stewart B. Kinney NWR - Salt Meadow Unit - CT

The headquarters had a small note telling an inquisitive visitor (like me) to "ring the bell and a staff member will come out..." There was not a single informational leaflet available, the first time this has happened in 25 states. The "country house" mentioned above, which was donated to the refuge, was also shuttered.

I walked to an old wooden overlook (at many of the refuges, the viewing stations are now made of recycled materials) and stayed an hour watching the salt marsh, doing some yoga, soothed by a wonderful wind massage of balmy insect-free air the whole time. I watched a Great Egret and Great Blue Heron do their zen-fishing thing, and a noisy Belted Kingfisher fly across the meadow.

A wide trail to the marsh meandered down a slope of mature hardwoods. I met a couple and we talked ticks. They were appropriately and protectively attired in long pants tucked into light-colored sox and long-sleeved shirts. I had walking shoes and bare legs and capri length jeans as the temperature was climbing. The woods were cool though, and I stayed on the trail.

After researching options for sleeping, I went to Hammonasset Beach SP and checked it out. It's huge with two miles of beach on Long Island Sound and about 500 campsites. The deal is that one has to check out potential sites by walking which I did in the heat for half a mile. But I found one that backed up to a salt marsh, under oak trees, on "U" street, a quiet loop near the periphery of the complex. This is all fine except that this park charged $33 for a nonresident, but it is an option for those days when traffic and heat and few refuges start making me crazy and I start to seriously question what I am doing.

But I settled in my chair and read, munching cheese and crackers and all the angst eased. There were tents and other car / van campers in the vicinity along with RVs. Campfires, quiet talking, bicyclists, a shower, a walk to the beach at sunset...all was good.

Sunset at Hammonassett Beach SP - CT

I didn't have dinner but ate a dozen cookies called Almondina that I bought at Walmart and are my new favorite sweet treat.

It seemed that everyone retired early, in part perhaps because mosquitos came at dusk. I put my Skeeter Beaters on both windows, kept them open and slept well in the silent pitch dark.

Blue Goose ~ Day 87

August 26, 2014 ~ Fishermen's Memorial State Park, RI to Lisbon, CT

After what is becoming my morning routine of coffee, blogging and getting ice or whatever else I need, I went to Trustom Pond, NWR, one of the five RI refuges. Good for them...some states like Vermont and Connecticut only have one.

A cute little cedar-shake cottage was the "Contact Station" where I interrupted a conversation between an attractive woman in her 60s or 70s and a gentleman of like age. They were talking real estate, as she was about to move...again. It seemed it was into some place that was a good deal as long as one didn't OWN any property. He asked her if she was packed and she said, "I'm always packed; I never unpack..."

The trails were through cool woods, a relief as it was 85 degrees.

WWW.FWS.GOV

This refuge is one of five national wildlife refuges in Rhode Island. In 1974, Mrs. Ann Kenyon Morse donated the first 365 acres of the refuge. In 1982, the Audubon Society of Rhode Island donated 151 acres. Today, the refuge includes 787 acres of various wildlife habitats including fields, shrublands, woodlands, fresh and saltwater ponds and sandy beaches and dunes. Approximately 300 bird species, more than 40 mammal species, and 20 species of reptiles and amphibians call Trustom Pond refuge home during the year. Trustom Pond is the only undeveloped coastal salt pond in Rhode Island, making it even more valuable to wildlife.

How generous to donate 365 acres of coastal property. Thank you Mrs. Kenyon and the RI Audubon Society. Again, these woods along the coast truly are "lovely, dark and deep" and blessedly, insect-free right now. I don't know why, but it makes a huge difference while hiking. I find that if I stop in certain areas, there ARE birds, almost all flitting in the canopy and hard to see, but my best bird was a gorgeous Blue-winged Warbler.

Trustom Pond NWR - RI

I hung out at the Farm Pond overlook for 30 minutes, just watching, and saw two frog species, a turtle and small fish.

Farm Pond on Trustom Pond NWR - RI

I took many photos of the stone walls in RI, as they were everywhere. Even in this refuge, they were in the woods but a sign explained that this wasn't always woods and was a farm at one time. I came on an old water tower in a dark corner of the woods.

Signs constantly warn visitors of ticks and possible Lyme disease so I sprayed Esther's good-smelling tick spray on exposed skin and my clothes and did not stray into the weeds.  This is a "tick hot spot" apparently.

Ninigret NWR was just down the road, but not easily found. Eventually, after U-turns and false turns, I came to Kettle Pond which is sort of a part of Ninigret. WhateVer... There were two volunteers: a gentleman reading a Jeffrey Archer paperback and a woman who was eager to give me information. They always offer a "short film" to visitors, probably because it must be so boring hanging out in these centers for days or even hours at a time. Many of the larger ones (like Kettle Pond) are impressive buildings with all kinds of information (visual interactive displays, hands-on activities for kids, reading material, dioramas, films, bird specimens) about the ecology and raison d'être for a particular refuge. Since not many people seem to visit, a volunteer jumps at the chance to interact. I don't like watching films, but always feel I should so they can feel needed. And, while they are friendly and helpful in general ways; they don't know specific information, about birds, for instance, or the details of projects on a particular refuge.

Ninigret NWR (Kettle Pond Visitor Center) - RI

I was lucky in that an USFW employee came by and I half-jokingly asked what my chances were of seeing a Sharp-tailed Salt Marsh Sparrow which bird is featured in full color on the main pamphlet for the five RI refuges. He immediately said, "Too late..." and explained they have probably moved south already and that one almost always would need to be in a canoe or kayak. DHC and I heard the same advice at a Virginia refuge last fall. I learned that RI refuges band Saltmarsh Sparrows using mist nets which they set up and then move through the marsh clapping hands, thereby flushing and driving the sparrows into the nets where they are then fitted with "nano tags" which transmit data to a radio tower.

WWW.PRESSHERALD.COM

Data go to a central repository managed by Dr. Philip Taylor at Acadia University in Nova Scotia. Taylor is a pioneer in the use of radio towers to gather transmitted data. The tags are extremely lightweight and transmit on a single frequency. Each transmission tower has three antennas, each pointing in a different direction to determine the bird’s location based on the strength of the signal received. While using the same frequency, each uses a different burst rate so birds can be individually identified. “It’s like an individual pulse,” O’Brien said. “We record the pulse rate and send in the data.”

We talked about Hurricane Sandy and how severely coastal RI was affected and that the few undeveloped barrier islands protected the mainland better than those with structures. The refuges have benefitted from the money available after Sandy and are implementing projects not otherwise possible. This gentleman was knowledgeable and friendly and willing to take 10-15 minutes to talk to me. I loved that their bird feeders were full and actively attracting birds. There are noticeable difference in these refuges: some just seen to be doing what is minimally required as far as the public, and some actively try to engage and inform the public, like Sachuest Point and Ninigret here in Rhode Island.

I walked to a wonderfully designed, wheelchair-accessible overlook and could see Block Island in the distance, a NWR one can reach only by boat. I watched a bird feeding on the weedy flora in front of the overlook and finally figured out it was a Scarlet Tanager, probably a nonbreeding male, certainly not with the very distinctive and stunning scarlet and black of mature males.

I lingered in this lovely little place. It was late afternoon when sunshine is magical and still warm and here on the coast, sea breezes were gently blowing.

And then took a lesser road scenic route to Lisbon, CT where I stayed in a decent 24-hour Walmart, moving my vehicle at least four times to get an optimal spot.

Trustom Pond NWR - RI

Blue Goose ~ Day 86

August 25, 2014 ~ Fall River, MA to Fishermen's Memorial State Park, RI

Urban Spoon showed a Cafe Arpeggio in downtown Fall River which supposedly opened early, but I discovered it wasn't open after I had parked and put in enough quarters for two hours. However, there was a Dunkin' Donuts nearby and I reluctantly went in there, looking longingly across the street at Argeggio. But the DD was fine with mostly mostly working class clientele. Fall River is old with a history of textile mills and Portuguese culture. 

I found a table near the back after another customer immediately noticed I was looking around for a plug. At the table next to me was a guy in his 30s. I overheard him taking to what I assumed was his son. (This was the first day of school, and there were several little kids in light blue and navy uniforms in DD with their moms.) He was talking sternly, and I had an immediate negative impression so was shocked when I realized he was flirting with a tiny, very old woman with a high squeaky voice. It was sweet how much attention he was paying her. She was obviously a regular and he was joshing with her about dating and singing Elvis Presley songs to her and just generally NOTICING her. And when she left, he carried on with a little girl starting kindergarten who was with her mom. All good will and kindness, asking her about friends and gym class and how long she would be in school her first day. 

The buildings and homes were nearly on the sidewalks. I saw another sweet scene: a dark-haired couple were riding a bicycle, the girl on the guy's shoulder with her hands in his curly hair in a loving way. This was about 6:30 in the morning. There was the sense of people taking care of themselves, getting up early and going to work, living community lives near large beautiful Catholic churches, of parents taking care of their kids, of generations blending and interacting. Yeah, I know, all this from a two-hour visit....

Rhode Island's seashore is an undiscovered treasure with beautiful beaches and fewer people than Massachusetts. Unfortunately, some of these beaches are barrier islands and have been developed. These structures suffered enormous damage from Sandy but most have now rebuilt, even though the deal was that if more than 50% was affected, they were not supposed to be able to salvage and rebuild. There was a ton of money available, so the refuges along the shore benefitted also and are using the monies for projects that might not have been possible without that. Certainly, the barrier islands should all be off-limits to structures of any kind, in my opinion.

I first went to Sachusest Point NWR (pronounced sash'-oo-est) and walked a couple of miles through shrub-scrub flora and along the rocky coast in the sunshine and a cooling sea breeze.

Sachuest Point NWR - RI

Swallows were abundant and, on the off-shore rocks, numerous cormorants along with some gulls and ducks. Ospreys and Northern Harriers hunted overhead. The VC was impressive with information and exhibits.

I came on a group of young moms with assorted kids, all clambering over the gigantic rocks on the beach while returning to the main trail. One of the women noted they looked like the von Trapp family, whereupon they began singing snatches from Sound of Music. The kids were full of glee and high spirits, noisy and exuberant.

Sachuest Point NWR - RI

I could see the huge mansions of Newport across Narraganset Bay and a beach in the distance with a brightly colored and concentrated mass of people, looking like a pixelated photo.

I needed to NOT do parking lot camping, at least for a night, so had a destination in mind: Fishermen's Memorial State Park. I passed through tony Narragansett and down a peninsula to Point Judith and then back to check out the camping venue, which was just what I needed. I was able to drive through and choose an available site, paid a $20 non-resident fee, popped out of my car, got a chair set up and read for hours.

I didn't use the tent as getting the camp cot out of the car is a commotion but did use my little stove with a slight mishap. Instead of measuring water in the plastic cup that attaches to the bottom of the cooking container, I just poured the water directly in and watched the cup immediately bubble and burn as plastic does ten seconds after I lit the stove. Damn.... Hoping no one was watching, I got out tools and pried the melted plastic from the metal. It of course was ruined but not the stove, so I had Chicken Teriyaki and potato chips, cheese and crackers and wine for dinner.

Still, there were very few birds even after sitting for hours, except for Gray Catbirds which I hear and see everywhere lately, like the daily Common Yellowthroats I heard / saw constantly for the first six weeks of this adventure.  

It was a large park but very quiet, even though other campsites were close. I was in a tent only part and I could smell campfires as night fell. The showers required quarters (which I didn't have) so will try to remember that henceforward, but I could wash up and brush my teeth and not be fearful someone would walk into the bathroom.

The night was dark, warm and peaceful.

Sachuest Point NWR - RI

Blue Goose ~ Day 85

August 24, 2014 ~ Wareham, MA to Fall River, MA

It was Sunday and basically I fussed on my laptop most of the day...first at a McDonalds where I sat next to a table of retired local men. A woman joined them and somehow the conversation got around to whether or not they had seen Slum Dog Millionaire, which was interesting, both for the fact that the woman had seen this movie and her take on it and for the fact that most of the men hadn't heard of it and were passively listening to her and probably wanting to get back to weather talk.

I moved on to a Starbuck's in a Target in Dartmouth, MA. I was trying to get photos of Opal's Cottage online, editing them, checking out Smug Mug, Picasa, Snapfish... It was frustrating as the connection wasn't optimal for dealing with over 100 photos...or who knows what.

There was a shady Walmart lot across the street but there were also No Overnight Parking signs all over. When I asked, the manager was apologetic, saying it was the town's ordinance, not Walmart's and that I would probably be OK, and on and on...but "if they come and ask you to leave, just do it....."

I thought about it and continued to Fall River, MA, where the Walmart area seemed sketchy to me so I moved to a 24-hour McDonald's and thought how this was a completely insane idea....sleeping in parking lots. I wasn't bothered but slept fitfully and fully dressed.

The best part of the day was the Katie and Austin wedding reports and photos...so thanks to all who sent them.

Oops, I forgot the really best part of the day for me (not that the wedding news wasn't great also).

The waitress last night wondered if I would be going to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, This has always been on my radar but, in truth, an insignificant blip, so I was glad she mentioned it. I went and loved it...

First of all, it was Sunday and I could park for free right across from the museum with lazy warm sunshine and the first dried and curling leaves of fall drifting down on the old cobblestones. And, being Sunday morning, there were few people....none of the congestion of a busy weekday.

The museum was elegant, beautifully designed, full of exhibits in perfect presentations. There were four whale skeletons, including a right whale mother and her 10-month-old fetus. The mother had been mortally wounded after being struck by a ship propeller.

WWW.WHALINGMUSEUM.ORG

Reyna is a 49 foot (14.9m), 15-year old, female North Atlantic Right Whale. She was ten months pregnant with her first calf when she was accidentally struck and killed off the coast of Virginia, in Chesapeake Bay. She washed ashore a week later along North Carolina's Outer Banks. Her name, which is based on the Spanish word for queen, was given to her in 2009 by New Bedford fifth grader Ryleigh Beaulieu.

There was also a sperm whale which had washed up on a Nantucket beach in 2002. The cause of its death has never been precisely defined.  One of the steps in preparing skeletons is to place the bones in horse and elephant manure to clean the soft tissue and leach the oil. The Nantucket whale was necropsied at the New Bedford landfill and subsequently "the skeletal assembly was done in full view of the museum visitors." 

New Bedford Whaling Museum - New Bedford - MA

I could describe in detail all the wonderful displays, information, photos and exhibits about whales and the people involved in that industry (scrimshaw, blown glass from New Bedford, weapons used in killing whales, prints, the ethnicity of whalers, the hazards of the sea for whales, with the very sobering statistic that 70% of right whales show some degree of entanglement in man-made debris...),
but here are a few photos instead. Think about stopping at this museum if you are ever in southeastern Massachusetts (even with kids). It was awesome!

Hmmm....since I took the inside photos with an iPhone, for some reason I can't access them for this blog but will add later if I figure it out.

Blue Goose ~ Day 84

August 23, 2014 ~ West Yarmouth, MA to Wareham, MA

After working a few hours, I drove to the southeast tip of Cape Cod, to Monomoy NWR. It's an interesting place as most of the refuge is two large islands accessible by boat, but there is a piece of auto-accessible Morris Island that is also part of the refuge and is where the Visitor Center is located. The long and narrow outer islands change over the years, and breaks or re-connections happen during great storms.

Visitors can take a "ferry" and tour the islands. One of these returned while I was on the beach. At first I thought it had got too close to shore and grounded, but then watched while people just got off in the shallow water ("wait for the sandbar!") and walked to shore.

Monomoy NWR touring ferry - MA

What back stories there must be to the creation of refuges in prime seashore venues. There are often grand summer homes very close with "Private Property" warnings, although since Monomoy was a former military gunnery range, perhaps the refuge was welcomed. Still, we all know how proprietary property owners can be.

I spent 2-3 hours on the beach, poking along.

Monomoy NWR - MA

It was perfect beach weather and one area had saltwater marsh and no residences. The public beaches were in the distance with windsurfers and a few boats, and there were relatively few people close to the refuge - young kids with bright pails and shovels, a preteen boy fishing in knee deep water, Asian or Quebecois tourists exclaiming and photographing, a little girl catching minnows moving out with the tide. An Osprey and Willets flew over the marsh.

Chatham had had wall-to-wall tourists and I moved at 2 mph through the town so decided to head for US 6, the alternate east-west route, but as I was headed north to pick that up, I came upon the Cape Cod National Seashore Visitor Center. And discovered that much of the Cape that runs north of here, including that piece that curves back on itself at the tip is federally owned...your and my property. The whole scene was more pristine with dunes and ponds and beaches and impressive biking trails...not nearly as zuzu as the southern shore. The area surrounding Provincetown way at the end looks very much like Lake Michigan. The parking lots had room and the beaches were not unbearably crowded.

Provincetown was, but the annual Carnival was this week, this year's theme being Comic Book Capers, and mainly a gay / lesbian celebration. (A waitress the next night whispered to me that this is what P-town is....if I didn't know, which I did...) So there were tons of people out and about, getting ready to eat, walking along the beaches in town, and just generally loving the perfect summer late afternoon. I came on a place where I could look down on the beaches. The tide was out so there were hundreds of shorebirds furiously eating. It was a perfect place use the scope and watch them as they weren't silhouetted, which is often the default beach condition for watching shorebirds.

Provincetown, MA

Provincetown - MA

So, I did that for an hour. Parking along here was "Live Parking Only" but that worked for me.

I thought I would find a cool little place to have some wine and lobster or chowder and a salad, but the restaurants were full with people waiting in crowded parking lots, and I headed back on route 6 (very quick with limited access and a totally green corridor) to Wareham where I stayed for the night in the same spot as Friday. I thought of all the hundreds of times Bob and Faith with their family and friends made this trip. One of my favorite vignettes on this trip was coming on Hill Top Parking which is right across from the ferry dock to Nantucket and where they always parked. It's like a private home with the whole front yard devoted to parking on a slight grassy hill. A memory of the time Maria and I parked there was vivid and poignant.

Many of the homes I passed had the grey cedar shingles although some had them only on the sides of the homes, not the front. Why??

I walked to 99, a regional restaurant chain, except the waitress told me they don't call them chains anymore; they are called "corporates." She was full of information about the original owner (Charley Doe), a great guy according to her, who significantly helped fund the Pine Street Inn in Boston, a homeless shelter which tradition continues today. She was interested in why I was in Wareham, and we talked about what I was doing...."You have chutzpah" she told me. She first asked if it wasn't "scary?"   She was articulate and chatty but not in an obnoxious way. I ordered a seafood platter which was good, much better than I expected, with stuffed clam, seafood chowder, some white fish (schrod) and shrimp, both lightly breaded, but the breading easily fell off and the fish was tender and tasty.

WWW.RELUCTANTGOURMET.COM

The word scrod is said to be derived from the now-obsolete Dutch word schrode, which means “a piece cut off.”  If this is the true origin of the word scrod, it makes sense that it would mean a piece of fish that had been cut, or filleted.

Monomoy NWR - MA

Eastern Cape Cod - MA

Cape Cod National Seashore at Provincetown, MA

Provincetown - MA

Blue Goose ~ Day 83

August 22, 2014 ~ Wareham, MA to West Yarmouth, MA

Woke to the sun rising and gulls flying and screeching over the parking lot. There was a McDonald's across the street for coffee and WiFi. I got the oil changed in the van and headed for Mashpee NWR, on the southeast of the Cape, near Falmouth where a ferry leaves for Martha's Vineyard. Always wanting to go to the end of the road, I got into ferry-loading traffic, but pulled into the small Woods Hole Historical Museum, where I was fascinated by a hundred 8x10 color photographs of local women "who have attained the age of 75 or older."

While in the museum I heard the ferry leave, loving the deep rich sound of the horn, and looked at other exhibits, including a Guinness record "second smallest ship in a bottle" in one-half of a red flannel-lined walnut. An adjacent workshop with local sailboats reminded me of Dave and his boat-building place.

Another of the reasons I had come to the end of this peninsula was that WHOI, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, is here and I drove into one of its "private" campuses. Doing online research, I found out that in order to access a visitor center, I would have had to go back into the severely congested Woods Hole village (a "census designated place" or CDP in the town of Falmouth), which I couldn't bear to do. Nearly the whole day involved congestion, moving east on Highways 28, through small towns, all trying to entice tourists, some with really awful tacky businesses...at least from my elitist perspective, like small theme parks and plastic inflatables. But before I seriously headed east, I had to find Mashpee.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute stuff - MA

"Managed through a unique partnership among nine Federal, State and private conservation groups, this Cape Cod refuge preserves thousands of acres of magnificent salt marshes, cranberry bogs, Atlantic white cedar swamps, freshwater marshes, rivers and vernal pools."  

The size of many of the refuges is a dynamic process as land becomes available, so often the boundaries are jigsawed and not contiguous and may in fact be separated by miles. I did find an access point and walked a mile, leaving the crowds and traffic, but even in the woods, I heard hammers. Yet, as I noted yesterday, there is still a lot of green space on the Cape; it just doesn't seem so along many of the roads. 

Falmouth, MA

I had made a reservation in West Yarmouth via Priceline, hating to pay what I did for a no-frills motel...very no frills, but decent Internet access, clean sheets, windows that opened and an acceptable bathroom. So often the motels are managed / owned by East Indians who are invariably efficient. I always wonder what they did in their former lives and if they are just tolerating this kind of job as a means to something more lucrative and challenging. I worked a few hours while people smoked on the balcony, or took their kids to the pool. I could watch the action in the parking lot while it slowly filled up. The gentleman at the desk kept a close eye on things. He was intelligent with slightly hooded eyes and thick dark hair, not chatty but intuitive about people, making obligatory conversation if required. Ambulances and police went screaming by regularly, at least once an hour. I decided to walk to a nearby restaurant but then didn't go in as only a few people were there, and crossing the street was hazardous. 

Blue Goose ~ Day 82

August 21, 2014 ~ Framingham, MA to Wareham, MA

Eavesdropping in Starbuck's is just not impossible. Like this morning, I was two inches away from a job interview with the same scenario a couple of days ago, and no one seems the least bit bothered. The interviewer fired rapid questions to the interviewee who held her own. I hope she gets the job. She was dignified with a classy demeanor was classy, whereas his was brusque and sort of nerdy.

After catching up, I went across the parking lot to finally mail my defective camera back to Nikon. That took awhile to get it packaged, write a cover letter and troubleshoot a glitch in address malfunction but it finally got sent. Now, what are my chances of satisfaction??? I had the original sales slip and the warranty but...

I had decided to return to Assabet NWR since it was so lovely there last night, and it was kind of on my way to my next stop.

Red-tailed Hawk - Assabet NWR - MA

The sky was cloudy though today, and it was again early afternoon so the light wasn't as magical. Still, I walked a mile or so, got some decent Red-tailed Hawk photos and thought of brother Bill, as there are low rock walls everywhere in New England (and along the path here also), some mortared, but most not. A very few of the latter type fit precisely and beautifully together; the rest ranged from good to messy. Bill would revel.....rock man that he is.

Assabet NWR - MA

The Visitor Center was green with features like bathroom stalls made of recycled plastic milk bottles, a no mowing policy, solar panels and porous asphalt paths so rain water is absorbed rather than runs off. There is often work being done to remove invasive plants at the refuges and free information on what they are, and always the "water hitchhiker" warnings to those with boats. Like how to check and drain and reduce as much as possible transporting invasives from one water way to another.

I headed for Cape Cod via the interstate. What I found interesting is that even with the urban / suburban, contiguous town / village demographics, the interstates and sometimes even the lesser roads go through major green corridors. When I really paid attention, and even though it SEEMED like all I was doing was driving through heavily populated areas, I wasn't. Interstate 495, for instance, had deeply wooded areas on either side of the highway.

I stayed in Wareham, Massasschusetts, on the western edge of the Cape, buying buttery lobster spread, Havarti cheese with dill, rice crackers, a tuna wrap and wine for supper at a Stop 'n Shop next to a Walmart, where police were yelling at a couple of girls who had been shoplifting...."You think you're so smaht?" They had a full grocery cart....and were sober and chagrined.

A customer service lady said I could stay when I asked as there were "No Overnight Parking" signs all over. She immediately said, "Yes, just pahk over by the gahden area. No one will botheh you.." Strong eastern accents....

I'll admit I am getting a WEE bit bored with Walmart as a campground and am thinking of other options. Still, it is so easy....and if I arrive late and just sleep, it's fine. The last several nights, the stores have closed at 10 and are grubbier. Up until recently, they were 24-hour stores, which I like better.

Blue Goose ~ Day 81

August 20, 2014 - North Reading, MA to Framingham, MA

I awakened before sunrise and went to a Starbucks down the street, getting there a little after 6 a.m.  Most open at 5, which is nice for me, with clean bathrooms and happy workers. It's interesting to note the changing demographics. Many of the men wear dark suits and the women dresses / skirts and heels. Some look like characters in movies, like the Italian guy with sunglasses at 7 a.m. The men have grey or black hair; the women are brisk and smart, come in alone or with a male business partner and have serious work-related discussions. A barista this morning was a short bald gentleman in his 60s or 70s. There are many East Indians / Pakistanis, invariably courteous, soft-spoken and polite. Last night, I was in a Walmart and did not hear English. A beautiful, dark-haired, dark-eyed little boy was rolling a ball around, saw me watching and began earnestly telling me something in a language totally incomprehensible to me.

How many days of perfect weather will I get? It was warm today, but still not humid or uncomfortable. I have been meandering between I495 and I95, both of which run circumferentially around Boston, in mostly an urban/suburban milieu but with huge mature trees everywhere. The roads are never straight, and I seldom go over 40 mph, which is fine as I get to see neighborhoods and town centres although have to be hyper-vigilant of traffic. There are no shoulders; no margin for error and a constant flow of cars moving efficiently and as fast as the law allows. There are often signs for "Blind Driveway" or "Dangerous Curve." But the highway routes are well marked....usually.

Great Meadow NWR has two units, Sudbury and Concord. The first reminded me of Reeds Lake, in that is was accessed via a relatively affluent neighborhood street in Concord. The road into the refuge was narrow, directly between two homes, but once there, the land opened to a mix of hardwoods, riparian habitat (along the Concord River) and two large impoundments / pools, now covered with American Lotus.

Great Meadows NWR,  Concord Unit - MA

American Lotus - Great Meadows NWR - MA 

A dike trail divided them. I hiked a couple of miles, moving slowly, entranced by the cardinal flowers along the river, hearing birds, seeing a few, walking between the tall cattails bordering the marsh  on one side and the woods along the river on the other. Planes from nearby airports flew over; otherwise, it was silent.

I like that I see more people. Today an elderly, frail gentleman and a middle-aged woman moved very slowly to the first marsh overlook, he with the help of a cane on one side and companion (daughter?) on the other. A young guy was moving back and forth on the river bank looking for the perfect fishing spot. Two young women passed me, talking quietly...about other people, exercise, diet, kids, jobs, social plans; a retired couple passed me on the old RR part of the trail; a family with little kids were climbing the observation tower at the parking lot; a gentleman with a scope was looking over the marsh and a woman pointed out a bird..."That's a Great Blue Heron.."

On the way to the Sudbury unit, I passed both Louisa Alcott's Orchard Hill home and Walden Pond with a gaggle of tourists milling about. I stopped and bought a book about two late middle-aged brothers who build a cabin in western Maine. The cover shows a cabin in the woods in winter, late in the day, with lights from the windows gleaming yellow and deep snow on the ground. I occasionally wonder if I should have bought the cabin on Townsend Lake. There was a lot I liked about the setting, if not the actual cabin itself.

While I know Thoreau was an important thinker with a nimble inquiring mind and a man who has a cult following for his philosophy of simplying, I have an ill-defined sniffy attitude about him. The best I can offer is that he had / chose the freedom to be constantly introspective and observant. Why didn't he marry or have children? And if he had, as most humans do, how would that have challenged his idealism? He never seems like fully human to me, but rather a powerfully seductive idea appealing to a socioeconomic class with the intellect and leisure to question the meaning of their lives. And he didn't live all that long on Walden Pond; 2 years, 2 months and 2 days. But apart from the Walden Pond phase, I do respect his interest in Native Americans, East Indian spiritual practices, his support of abolition, his love of nature, his refusal to pay taxes as a protest against slavery and the Mexican-American War. In his flute-playing, rice-eating, yoga phase, he certainly anticipated the 1960s.

The Sudbury Unit of Great Meadows had a large Visitor Center which was closed because of "sequestrations." I come on this situation now and then, but most are open, some even on the weekend. So who makes these decisions?

This Unit was again a mix of hardwood forest and open land. I only had had a bagel for breakfast which meant I was lacking in energy and crabby. So I sat in a shaded pullout for 30 minutes before deciding to go to Assabet NWR, since it wasn't far. I almost didn't go, but after sitting quietly in the lovely, dry hardwoods, with the windows open and a cooling breeze, I was restored. I watched debris continually drop from the trees to the forest floor...bits of leaves, bark, twigs, flower parts, acorns, pine needles, some nearly weightless drifting slowly downward, while the heavier acorns and nuts plunked straight down. The shafts of sunlight always had something.

Assabet was about as perfect a NWR as one can be. The Visitor Center was just closing, but I drove on refuge roads and had maps of the trails. I ended in a cul-de-sac and again sat for 30 minutes, watching familiar things like robins, Chipping Sparrows, BC Chickadees and Eastern White Pines. These are gigantic trees; the older specimens have dead horizontal branches of varying lengths on the lower trunks and full irregular crowns of soft light green needles. They are usually the tallest trees, the patriarchs, and are all over the northeastern US. The sun was in the west, still warming the air and, again, no insects. The refuge has small lakes and ponds and more than a dozen paved and gravel trails.

Leaving Assabet, I drove 30 minutes through traffic to Framingham arriving at Natick Mall passing a Barnes and Noble, an Olive Garden, a Starbuck's and another Walmart with limited groceries but with clothing, a pharmacy, a garden center, home furnishings and mostly non-Caucasians. I stocked up on juices and water, Frappacinos, Ghirardellis dark chocolate pieces with raspberry filling and ice.

Cardinal flowers along the Concord River - Great Meadows NWR - MA

Blue Goose ~ Day 80

August 19, 2014 ~ Newington, NH to North Reading, MA

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.

Great Bay NWR - NH

One plan is to make them bat caves...seriously.

 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.

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. 

Parker River NWR-MA

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. 

Blue Goose ~ Day 79

August 18 - Falmouth, ME to Newington, NH

After spending a couple of hours blogging, and after a lot of iPhone help, I got to Timber Point Trail. The day before, I had checked eBird for this county (York). The local birders were very excited because they were seeing a Prothonotary Warbler here, along with all kinds of other birds. It is one of the many pieces of the Rachel Carson NWR scattered along the Maine coast from Port Elizabeth to Kittery Point near the New Hampshire border.  The Visitor Center is just south of Kennebunkport and Timber Point is northeast of that town. 

Rachel Carson NWR at Timber Point - ME

It was a gorgeous day, AGAIN. Timber Island is accessible only at low tide, a short scramble over rocks and seaweed. Just for the fun of doing it, I went there. I knew it was low tide, plus daily tide tables are posted on the beach. The trail TO the point was a mile long, through a sun-dappled wood and open meadows and along the beach. Being low tide, there were hundreds of people hanging out on the exposed sand. One tiny boy was screaming in fear as his dad waded to a sand spit and his mom tried to get him to follow. Even with her holding him, he was terrified. 

I thought about waiting to watch the tide cover the rocks to the island but it would have been several hours. I wondered how often people get stranded. It's close to the mainland and the size of a few city blocks but today, for instance, one would have to wait until midnight for another low tide. There are over 3000 islands off the Maine coast!

As I walked back to the car, I watched Semipalmated Plovers and Semipalmated Sandpipers for an hour. I could get very close by walking 6-7 steps, waiting a few minutes, walking a bit closer, etc. I was hoping to see some White-rumped Sandpipers but didn't, or at least couldn't positively say I did. There weren't many people on this sheltered little bay beach and few biting beach flies, so it was one more memorable vignette - close up and personal with SP sandpipers. 

Semipalmated Sandpiper - Rachel Carson NWR - ME

Next, I drove to the main unit of Rachel Carson, passing through very crowded Kennebunkport, a small town with impressive homes and notices for various cultural events (concerts, lectures, art shows), along with hundreds of tourist shops and people ambling along. In June of this year, President George H. W. Bush celebrated his 90th birthday and there were banners still noting this. 

Rachel Carson NWR, just down the road was an utterly lovely and welcome contrast with a mile-long interpretive trail, through hardwoods high above the salt marshes and small tidal creeks making their way to the ocean, visible from several overlooks. It was perfect in late afternoon with cooling breezes and only a few insects (surprisingly), and sun and blue blue sky. The quality of light was exactly like that at Big Star in the late afternoon in BACK of the cottage. Only a few other people were walking the trail. At one point, Yellowlegs flew in and landed on a small pond. I am surprised that the digital zoom on my Canon works as well as it does. The Nikon's digital was totally worthless. There were both Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs.

Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs at Rachel Carson NWR - ME

I also watched a single Spotted Sandpiper move along the muddy banks of the Merriland River. Visiting a gem like this is a reward for all the tedious driving.  The trail is beautifully designed, mostly a hardwood island high above the wetlands, with overlooks of recycled material. A trail guide explained salt marshes and the flora and fauna which can survive here, and their importance in the ecosystem of the coast. Global warming will be and is affecting them as ocean levels rise. This refuge is studying this and working on ways (if possible) to mitigate the effects. 

I eventually found my way to Newington, NH, but repeatedly got turned around and had to keep checking my phone. At one point I got on a toll road and frantically scrambled for cash at the toll booth. I only had a $20 bill and apologized since the toll was 75 cents but the toll lady laughed and said that was fine because she could use it for change for "the $100 bill I will probably get later tonight." 

I ate at an Olive Garden and settled in a not especially nice Walmart lot, but it was dark already and I read an hour before sleeping. I did wake up once or twice but only to check the sky for dawn and quickly fell asleep again. 

Blue Goose ~ Day 78

August 17, 2014 ~ Augusta, ME to Falmouth, ME

The Marriott had a generous complimentary breakfast, which I ate while watching the news from Ferguson, Missouri...specifically, the thuggish robbery.

Still had the jones for some coast; therefore, I went to Bailey Island accessible over the only cribstone bridge in the world which connects this island to Orrs Island to the north.

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Design of the 1,150-foot bridge was complicated by the tides in the area known as Will's Gut. It was decided to build a cribstone^{[clarification needed]} bridge using granite slabs from local quarries on the border between Yarmouth, Maine, and Pownal, Maine. Granite slabs were considered sufficiently heavy to withstand wind and wave, while the open cribbing allowed the tide to ebb and flow freely without increasing tidal current to any great degree. Some 10,000 tons of granite were used in the project. A concrete road (now part of Route 24) was built on top of the cribstones.

This area is highly developed with small art galleries, massage parlors, homes, restaurants, boats and shacks relating to lobsters and fishing,  real estate services, churches...and refuges in these coastal areas are even more important because of this. I drove slowly on narrow winding roads to the very end where I could turn around in a small parking lot, the whole Atlantic ocean right off the point.

Bailey's Island - ME

Just south of the cribstone bridge, I pulled onto a side road and found a restaurant where I had lunch, which was pretty much a disaster. It was much too pricey for what one got. I ordered a lobster casserole expecting generous meaty pieces of lobster meat in a good sauce. What I got was a bland, whitish sauce with a pathetic few odds and ends of lobster meat and some dry crumbs on top...dry as in probably poured from a box just before serving. The coleslaw, which was highly praised on the menu, was mostly dressed with an unspectacular sugary vinegar dressing.

A gentleman one or two levels above the waitress was moving about the deck, greeting customers and asking how they were doing.  I showed him the lack of lobster. He immediately offered to "remake" it for me. The second dish was only marginally better, with more meat and slightly browned crumbs this time, but still too much sauce which had an unpleasant texture, sort of a soupy mess between thin and thick. The place was Cook's, so if you ever go to Bailey's Island, don't go there. Later I checked it online and many reviewers had the exact same impression as I did. But they were others who thought it was wonderful...whateVer...

Still, it was pleasant sitting on a deck, watching the boats and people and birds...experiencing the Maine coast.

Bailey's Island - ME

The sky had cleared by the time I reached Falmouth and discovered a Starbucks and Walmart within half a mile of each other. The weekend was nearly over and the traffic had diminished. The late sun settled over the town; the temperature was 70-ish; the air was still and pleasant.

I had been questioning this whole project much of the weekend and half wishing I were done with it. I am driving too much in between the refuges, generating a carbon footprint angst, but which I (so far) rationalize away, often with thoughts of vacations involving planes. I am also spending more money than I should, but this is mostly for the immediate gratification of eating in restaurants, a recurring theme of my life, and obviously discretionary. Maine lobster was the current seduction with its mixed results. But I also feel blessed to be able to have this grand adventure...

Blue Goose ~ Day 77

August 16, 2014 ~ Bangor, ME to Augusta, ME

I intended to work this morning and did for a bit, but then had computer issues. The whole motel was compromised and they were frantically trying to fix it, but never did before I left. I had breakfast, hoping it would get fixed in the interim....no luck. The waiter was a recent high-school graduate, articulate, eager to start college and admittedly very apprehensive. We talked books awhile. Oh my....wouldn't it be fun to be starting college? (knowing, of course, what we know...)

I thought about what to do and where to go next. One option still niggled and that was more of the coast, specifically Mt. Desert Island, but again decided against that and ended up driving two hours to Augusta, ME, where I got lucky with Priceline and stayed in a Marriott at a very good price. I had a second floor room with windows that opened (slightly) and a stable Internet connection. What more could I want....

Had vending machine hummus with crackers, juice and salted peanuts for dinner. Worked and read and slept well.

Blue Goose ~ Day 76

August 15, 2014 ~ Calais, ME to Bangor, ME

I woke early - about 0530 - and went to McDonald's to use their facilities and get coffee and a couple of breakfast burritos. I thought perhaps I might have a chance of seeing moose or bear if I drove around early enough. I checked the maps thoroughly and found a loop road that was open but saw not a single bird or mammal. Still, it was fresh and utterly quiet, and the air had that wonderful North Woods fragrance of damp leaves and pines and essence of wood smoke.

Moosehorn NWR - ME

Moosehorn NWR - ME

As one of the pamphlets pointed out, Moosehorn is a misnomer in that moose have antlers, not horns. 

One-third of this refuge (with chunks of land in both the Edmunds and Baring units) is National Wilderness.

I only experienced this refuge briefly from a few roads, but so it goes....and I got the GISS of it. I drove south, passing through the Edmunds unit, which includes Atlantic shoreline in boundaries, with 24-foot tides moving up and down twice daily. The exposed mud flats, even well inland, are impressive at low tide with damp matted grasses in the meadows and along the stream banks. I kept looking for shorebirds which are starting to migrate south, but I didn't see more than an occasional GB heron or Great Egret. 

My next goal was whatever I could see and walk in the Maine Coastal Islands Refuge which option was pretty much only Petit Manan NWR. The others are islands and off limits this time of year to visitors to protect nesting Atlantic puffins, guillemots, terns, razorbills, eiders and eagles....Scientists and student interns live on these islands in the summer, studying these birds, protecting and enhancing habitat, censusing the birds and working to mitigate predators. A nice blog at www.mainecoastalislands.wordpress.com has good photos and more information on what they do. There are also commercial boat trips one can take to observe the birds from a distance. 

I drove a couple of hours to US 1 which is the Maine coastal route with its ragged peninsulas usually accessible by narrow curving roads. I thought going to the tiny town of Starboard situated at the end of one of these peninsulas might be fun, so I did that, the road getting more marginal as I drove south to the end. A few men with large rakes and buckets were clamming at low tide in the mud flats. It was sunny with fog slowly rising off the large islands in the distance and very quiet with only the slightest movement of the water...the moon's influence.

HTTP://HOME.HIWAAY.NET/-KRCOOL/ASTRO/MOON/MOONTIDES

The word "tides" is a generic term used to define the alternating rise and fall in sea level with respect to the land, produced by the gravitational attraction of the moon and the sun. To a much smaller extent, tides also occur in large lakes, the atmosphere, and within the solid crust of the earth, acted upon by these same gravitational forces of the moon and sun. 

Tides are created because the Earth and the moon are attracted to each other, just like magnets are attracted to each other. The moon tries to pull at anything on the Earth to bring it closer. But, the Earth is able to hold onto everything except the water. Since the water is always moving, the Earth cannot hold onto it, and the moon is able to pull at it. Each day, there are two high tides and two low tides. The ocean is constantly moving from high tide to low tide, and then back to high tide. There is about 12 hours and 25 minutes between the two high tides.

I continued to Petit Manan NWR (little island).

Petit Manan NWR - ME

Petit Manan NWR - ME

There IS a Petit Manan Island but the refuge is at the end of a peninsula. I spend several hours on the Hollingsworth Trail, named in memory of John Hollingsworth, who photographed NWRs. Many of his photos (and his wife's) are in the book I use as my main reference. This trail was roots and rocks all the way to the beach but bugs were absent and the air temperature pleasant. Nor was there much elevation change. I just had to watch exactly where I stepped. 

On the beach part of the trail, I  saw Semipalmated Plovers, a Lesser Yellowlegs and Semipalmated Sandpipers. There were large islands in the distance, sailboats, a few people beach-combing and taking pictures, and a couple with binoculars who kindly told me what I could expect this time of year in this place. I had Piping Plovers on my mind but the plovers here were the much more common SPs. There are so many inlets and coves and bays and rivers and islands on this coast. The homes have lovely gardens, porches, small white fences and most are not ostentatious. Some are obviously summer places and some have split-wood piles and pickups in the yards. Many are cedar shingled, reminding me of Nantucket.

Back on US 1, I stopped at Ruth and Wimpy's and had a delicious lobster roll and glass of wine on the deck.

Kennebec, Penobscot, Memphremagog, Meddybemps....only a few of the wonderful names on the landscape up here...

I carried on the inner dialogue about whether or not to go to Mount Desert Island, Bar Harbor and Acadia State Park and, ultimately, decided not to. It was Friday afternoon, motels ranged from $200 to $500 per night, and I had already experienced enough of the basic tourist scene in Maine in August. Also, I had been on Mount Desert years ago.

Instead I went back to Bangor, stayed in a Holiday Inn and worked. The window opened on a pleasant courtyard with a fireplace and comfortable chairs. It was a busy place with an eclectic customer base. I worked late and then read Natchez Burning until I fell asleep.

Lesser Yellowlegs at Petit Manan NWR - ME