Gooseberry Island - Westport Massachusetts

Gooseberry Island is connected to the mainland by a causeway. The island is part of the Horseneck Beach State Park Reservation. There is a parking lot at the beginning of the island. People use the island for walking, sunbathing, fishing, boating, bird watch and and of course photography.
The island is surrounded on its western side by Rhode Island Sound and on its eastern side by Buzzards Bay. There is on the Buzzards Bay side a bathing beach and a boat ramp. The rest of the island is surrounded by mainly cobbles with sand present at low tides.
For an excellent account of Gooseberry's history you need to look up the Gooseberry Journal at <http://gooseberryjournal.wordpress.com/>
I arrived early in the morning, on a cloudy day, at low tide and walked up onto the Northeast Beach where I observed a number of sea ducks feeding among the rocks and shorebirds working the wrack line. I found a "comfortable rock" where I could sit down low with my camera and lens on a tripod in front of me and allow the birds to get used to me and come to me.


Common Eider



Common Eider

Surf Scoter

I was pleasantly surprised when among  the common eiders there were a few surf scoters. Usually the surf scoters do not come in close enough for great picture taking. However, today I was very lucky.





Least Sandpiper



Semipalmated Plover

RuddyTurnstone

lThere were a number of species of shorebirds present. The interesting part was of the shorebirds were still in breeding plumage and a Spotted Sandpiper was already in winter plumage.
Most of the shorebirds will be migrating southward although some to spend the winter in the Westport area.
Another yearly phenomenon that occurs on Gooseneck is the large gathering of swallows prior to their migration southward. There were many swallows flying in from the mainland and landing on the Phragmites, where they would stay for a while then fly and hover around.
I stayed up until a lot more people arrived and started walking their dogs on the beach which of course disturbed the birds in my photography. Dogs are permitted on gooseberry in this golden retriever was enjoying the water by swimming after a ball.
There were a number of fishermen on the Rhode Island sound side either fishing from the shoreline or from the causeway and a few were fishing out utilizing kayaks.
Because of how Gooseberry is positioned it lends itself to sunrise and sunset photography. There is much to photograph on the island and you can just take snapshots or decide what you want to photograph on that day and concentrate on it.

Here is a map of Gooseberry that is copied from the Gooseberry Journal

Day five of my Log of the Searcher Natural History Tour Around the Baja by Boat January 27, 2011

Well, we are starting an another day at Laguna San Ignacio. After another great breakfast by Charles the chef, we got ready for another panga ride. The pangas belong to the ecotourism group Kuyima. There is interesting meaning to the word Kuyima. Here is a quote from the book "eye of the whale: epic passage from Baja to Siberia" by Dick Russell. "Kuyima simply means two things -the whale could light up the darkness or it could dance in the clouds." I really recommend this book for all to read, it is available on Amazon.com - http://www.amazon.com/Eye-Whale-Epic-Passage-Siberia/dp/0684866080.

We continue to have encounters with the mother/Gray whale pairs which came close to the boat and one even went under the boat.. In the picture, the whale is going under the boat upside down. You will notice that there are only several short deep creases on the throat to allow for expansion of the throat during suction feeding as opposed to the humpback whale, which has multiple creases on their throat.

Touching

Happy ship-mates

There  She Blows

Calf

Calf resting on mother

Gray whale Fluke

We also encountered bottle-nosed dolphins and birds.

Frigatebirds in Rigging

Brown Pelican

Royal Terns

Bottle-nosed Dolphins

Surf Scoter

Later in the afternoon, we all took a beach walk, which had some interesting sightings.

Dunes

Skeleton on the beach

Animal footprints in the sand

shell in the sand

There was another great sunset as we now started our trip south toward toward Cabo San Lucas and make the turn into the Gulf of California. There was sadness among everybody on leaving the close company of the gray whales and feelings toward them. As I stated before, this was a very moving experience and I highly recommended it to everyone.