Second Annual Plum Island Safari

 

Common Terns

It's been only nine months since I reported on my last expedition to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, and began to think about returning to that magical realm. Yesterday the freshness of June and of the nesting season under way pulled irresistibly for a Second Annual Plum Island Safari.

Killdeer

The Refuge opens to visitors at sunrise. That's when you want to arrive to enjoy active wildlife in the lustrous early light.

Snowy Egret and Gadwall at the Salt Pannes

At 6:00am cars were lined up along the road beside the Salt Pannes. Birders with scopes and cameras stood reverentially along the edge of the marsh with a panoramic view of tidal ponds, meadows, and mudflats. These regulars resembled a congregation in a religious sanctuary.

Eurasian Wigeon

Newcomers were greeted with whispered reports of rarities. "The Nelson's Sparrow is singing in the grass." "A Wilson's Phalarope stopped by for a minute." "Can you believe a Eurasian Wigeon here?"

Black-necked Stilt and Least Sandpipers

The most exotic sighting was a pair of Black-necked Stilts, a first occurrence in Massachusetts for nearly everyone present.

Black-necked Stilt probing for invertebrates

Its elegant markings and coral-colored legs, impossibly thread-like, drew and held an appreciative audience.

The Stilt takes flight

Its lanky proportions from beak to toes enabled the Stilt to search deep into the mudflats for tiny organisms that would elude most predators.

Snowy Egret

Many other birds with similar proportions hunt for fish in shallow water.

Least Tern

The dunes of Sandy Point on the southern tip of Plum Island give certain shoreline birds vital but improbable habitat for procreation.

Piping Plover adult

Piping Plovers are the most celebrated species in residence. Both the refuge managers and the public seem well attuned to safeguarding their nesting grounds.

An admiring photographer shooting through the ropes

It takes sharp eyes to locate the well-camouflaged Plovers.

Piping Plover chick

Chicks are essentially on their own after hatching. They seem to be born with fully developed legs and dart about swiftly while foraging. Their downy plumage blends perfectly with the sand.

  

Purple Martins

At Refuge headquarters the staff maintains an extensive array of 'gourds' as Purple Martin nesting boxes. These streamlined swallow relatives provide another arena of entertainment as they swoop through the air pursuing insects.

Glossy Ibis

A final captivating sight awaited us on the way home near the Essex-Ipswich town line, where Glossy Ibises feed in damp meadows. Their coloring and silhouette put a perfect cap on the fantastic nature of this domestic safari.

A Walk in the Rain

I do hope for fair skies at Halibut Point, but there are days when the urge to get there overpowers sketchy weather.

White Oak over the Bay View Trail

And so I found myself at the Park one recent morning carrying not the usual telephoto lens for distant wildlife but a standard lens suitable for dim light and close-up subjects. Parts of the landscape had a luscious quality brought out by the rain.

The quarry rim, muted by the rain

As a tradeoff, some terrain features that would have been picturesque on clear days looked dull in the gray light. My vision needed some re-orientation.

Oxeye daisies

White flowers that would ordinarily be lost in the glare of sunny days splendidly brightened the gloom.

Surf line

White traces of surf at the shoreline contrasted merrily with recessive tones of the sea, sky, and stone.

Common mullein

Felty leaves of mullein plants glowed glaucous to mint-green alongside the Bay View Trail. Their rain-beaded geometry shone from the shadows.

Catbrier leaves and flowers

I found muted microcosms in the diffused light that might easily have been overlooked in the expansive vistas of sunny days.

Gray Catbird

A Catbird kept up its banter to fill the void with birdsong borrowed from absent or quiet species. 

Baltimore Oriole

A Baltimore Oriole, one of that mimic's few vocal companions this morning, was recognizably part of the Catbird's repertoire. Its neon plumage and sharp whistles pierced the fog.

Soggy Oriole

The Oriole kept singing from its treetop perch despite soggy feathers.

Wild geranium

Late spring still offered colorful spots on the woodland floor.

Cinnamon fern and raindrops

Fern fronds, reflections, and raindrops livened up patterns at a pond.

As I emerged from The Back Forty eye to eye with a deer who seemed curious at my presence and purposes. I wonder....

Playful Light

 

Light, carrying the image, can become the image.

Ruddy Turnstone

It teases the camera to choose between subjects and mysteries.

Canada Geese

Accidents change places with intentions in the pursuit of sparks and shadows.

Sanderlings

These thwarted quests take scales off the eyes of a shoreline documentarian.

Gulls

The dynamics of the place black out actors and color the stage.

Waiting cormorants

Stillness settles on the arena as light rises in a chorus of visual pageantry.

Cormorants in flight

It dazzles the morning. In silhouette, birds animate the spectacle with purposeful life.

Gulls at sunrise

Flying birds enliven a glorious setting with their kinship to our organic sphere.

Gulls adorned

The early light seems to enjoy playing with its wakening subjects and surfaces as the dark hours give way to day.

Energizing the Spring

 

Sunrise, Halibut Point

Lengthening spring days, rising temperatures, and abundant sunshine promote the resurgence of organic life.

Royal Ferns unfurling

Dormant plants grow again. Seedlings germinate. The botanic world converts sunlight into useful forms of energy that sustain all living things.

Trout lily

Plants specialize, in part, according to the availability of sunlight. Many woodland species flower in early spring before the leafing tree canopy shades their source of energy.

Bumblebee nectaring in Staghorn Sumac flowers

Those growing in open conditions tend to be later-blooming, more floriferous, and to present greater food sources to animals.

Floating duckweed 

Algae and duckweed photosynthesize rapidly in warming aqueous environments.

Mallard

Cormorant fishing in the quarry

Their bounty sustains fish and waterfowl in Halibut Point's ponds. They anchor a food chain that extends all the way up to humans.

Goldfinch foraging among Red Oak flowers 

Succulent new growth in the treetops sets off a race for nutrition between the needs of the plant and opportunistic creatures like this Goldfinch.

Capsules of the Black Cherry Leaf Gall Mite

Multitudes of insects thrive on sugars an starches from these leafy production factories.

Blueberry Stem Gall Wasp

Many insects lay eggs that cause the host plant to develop galls forming protective shelters where the nymphs have a steady food source while they develop.

March fly on blueberry blossom
Note the violated petal.

Others short-circuit the mutually beneficial nectar-for-pollination exchange by drilling a hole through the base of a petal to steal nectar directly from the floral reservoir, rather than working its way through pistils and stamens.

Black-throated Green Warbler eating fly

A great variety of birds fuel their energetic lifestyle by consuming plant-dependent insects.

Grackle with dragonfly

Occasionally they are able to catch even fast-flying insects.

Long-tailed weasel taking captured bird to feed to its young

Some birds fall prey to predatory hunters fulfilling their own survival requirements.

Trapped insect

Web-weaving spiders make elaborate traps for their portion of the harvest.

Red-tailed Hawk carrying away a rodent

Raptors concentrate their bulk and prowess at the upper end of the aerial world's energy conversion equation.

Sunset

As light dims the energy-gathering functions cease, though cell-building processes for both plants and animals continue through the hours of darkness. All through the day and night those energies derived from the sun continue to be re-distributed in the diverse species of life.