Birding and Photography at Gooseberry Neck and Horseneck Beach

Snowy Owl on Top of the Dune

After I dropped my grandson off at work, I swung up to gooseberry neck, hopefully to see and photograph again the snowy owls that are present there. A birder who was observing the shorebirds did tell me that a snowy owl was on top of the towers. I walked up to the towers but there was no sign of the snowy owl. I walked out to the west side of the island and followed the beach all away up to the end and then came around down the east side of the beach. There were no signs of the snowy owl. I came across purple sandpipers feeding, so I sat down observed and took pictures of them. Further down on the beach toward the parking lot a single sanderling was feeding on the wrack and even further down a large flock of dunlins and one purple sandpiper were feeding.

Purple Sandpiper Foraging

Purple Sandpiper

Sanderling With Food

Dunlins and a Purple Sandpiper Foraging in the Wrack Line

I met a gentleman walking up the beach and we discussed about  the snowy owl locations and that I had not seen any as yet. He asked me if I had been over to Horseneck Beach, I replied no I hadn't. He then told me the location of a large snowy owl that had been sitting on top of a dune. When I reached the parking lot, before I left I went and checked out the rocks on the west side of the island hoping to see the snowy owl, but no luck. I packed up the car and traveled over to the parking lot at Horseneck, got my equipment ready and walked down to the left, past large building, across the old parking lot to W. Beach Rd. and turned left and headed down W. Beach Rd. I met a nice couple walking up W. Beach Rd. who asked me if I was looking for the snowy owl. When I replied yes I was they described exactly where it was in relation to where we were standing at that point. I follow their directions look to my left and high on the dune was the snowy owl. I spent time observing and photographing this beautiful bird. Most of the time it had its eyes almost closed, but rotating his head and watching in all directions. As I was just ready to leave to nice women were starting to walk up the ramp that leads to parking lot one, I called and asked them if they were looking for the snowy owl. They reply guess they were, so I told them to come to where I was. One of the ladies was visiting from Pennsylvania and the other one lives in New Bedford, both who have never seen a snowy owl. I've pointed out  the owl location and left two  happy women.

Snowy Owl on the Dunes with Eyes Open

Snowy Owl

Snowy Owl

Leaving Horseneck I met the first gentleman that told me about the Horseneck snowy owl and he told me just after I left the snowy owl appeared on the rocks on the west side of Gooseberry and then flew over to the campground at Horseneck Beach

Herring Gull Lifting off

Today December 31st is the last day for 50% of of Topaz Star effects
Star Effects

Horseneck Beach Westport Massachusetts

It was a beautiful spring morning and my son and I traveled to Horseneck Beach, so I could see my first piping plover of the season. What struck me first about Horseneck beach, was all the the destruction on the beach secondary to the winter storms. Most of the beach is covered in rocks, large clamshells, broken shells and seaweed.

There are huge piles of sand at the top of the beach, where I gather that the state put the sand at the end of the season to prevent it from being washed into the ocean.

On the dunes the plants us just starting to grow and on top of some of the bushes song sparrows are heralding in the coming of spring.

There were a number of gannets flying by. The usual gulls were present. Running along the beach were Sanderlings.

The areas where the piping plovers and the terns will nest were already roped off and signs posted so that people would not disturb the habitat. I noticed a piping plover running around on the beach, so I went low on the sand, and let the piping plover come to me so I could get a picture of it close to the ground.

I did the same thing with the Sanderlings, rather than try to chase them down the beach I just lay down and let them come to me. It is a much easier way of obtaining photographs.

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.