Today was a long but very satisfying birding day. Today I had volunteered to be the "on-board bird guy" on a boat trip for my friend Doug. Each year his childen's school has a fundraising auction, and for the last two years his contibution has been a morning trip aboard his boat, and he throws me in as bonus to help identify the birds as we explore the Merrimack River, Plum Island Sound and a bit of the Parker River (for which the NWR is named). The trip was scheduled to start at 8:30am, so I headed north a bit earlier so I could stop at the refuge for a little while and check in on some of the reports I had seen posted. The big treat was a King Rail in the gravel area at "the Wardens" as I pulled into the parking lot there. He quickly ran towards the grasses, but continued to provide good looks for a minute or two before disappearing into the salt grass. A few other birders showed up and we were able to re-locate him. I managed to get a couple of quick photos before he disappeared again.
I then headed off to the boat to meet my friend and the lucky winner of the auction. She was a nice woman who brought her two children. I think they would have easily had just a good a time without me there, but I was able to point out the herons & egrets that are regulars, as well as talk about the ubiquitous cormorants, red-winged blackbirds, and willets. Marsh Wrens and Bobolinks were also singing and I was able to get them all to hear and distinguish their voices (above the din of the Willets.) I hope they enjoyed the trip as much as I enjoyed seeing the refuge from the water.
Once back on land, I called Pamela to see what she was up to, and she told me about a report that had hit Massbird regarding TWO Mississippi Kites that had been spotted in Newmarket NH... not two miles fom where I used to live. I made a phone call to my friend Steve M (who I met while I lived in NH, and who is another amazing birder - both in ability and enthusiasm, can't say enough good things about him!) to find out the latest sighting status, then made the decision to go for it. They would be life birds and I was only about 25 minutes away. Paul and Diana were heading there as they had been birding earlier that day in NH with a few of our other friends, Bob & Bonnie, so they were also all already in the neighborhood. Pam, not wishing to be left out, got in the car and headed up as well. When I arrived, Paul, Diana, Bob and Bonnie were already at the location where they had been last spotted, along with Mark, who had already seen the birds. Within about 10 minutes the birds were spotted soaring in the distance. They never did land anywhere near us but they flew realtively close and good looks were had by all, including Pamela who arrived about a half hour after we first spotted the kites.
This brings my ABA list up to 592 birds. I hope to be able to spot my 600th while Pamela and I are on our honeymoon this September (which will be an Alaskan Cruise!)
