Notes from this weekend

This was the first weekend in several that we didn't have a lot of plans or obligations, so Saturday morning found us wondering what to do with our day. (Well, until fourish when we'd be joining friends at Mark & Laura's place for a Summer Solstice Barbeque.) After a bit of going back and forth, (should we see the Kites again? no it'll be a zoo today. what about Trudeau Road to look for Black-backs? that's pretty far and will usa a lot of gas. what about oxbow nwr? that's better later in the year, now we'll probably just get eaten alive. etc etc) we decided that we'd just head up to our favorite place for a few hours - Parker River NWR on Plum Island. It very rarely disappoints. Our first target bird on the island was Seaside Sparrow, and with the help of some directions from Tom Whetmore (the guru of PI) we had one in our sights pretty quickly. It was tee'd up and singing so it was actually pretty easy to find. Would've been a great digiscoped shot, had I remembered to bring my digiscoping camera. Oh well. We moved on to "the wardens" to check on an Orchard Oriole nest and found one of breeding Bobolinks cooperatively singing right next to the road, and I couldn't resist a photo.
We continued south on the island in hopes of spotting a Gull-billed Tern that has been reported sporadically from the island in the last week or so, with no luck. We did, of course, run into several friends and other birders -many of which we'd see again later at Mark & Laura's place.
At Sand Point, the south end of the island, the breeding Piping Plovers and Least Terns put in thier appearances.

After walking the beach a bit and not finding and Gull-billed Terns, we headed back north on the island and made a stop at Hellcat, walked out the dike between the Bill Forward and North Pools, and quickly spotted a Least Bittern. Photo's not that hot due to the distance and how well they can blend in. Again, would have been a great digi-scoped shot. I ought to know better than to leave without all the cameras!

We capped the day with great food and friends.

Sunday was a day to do other things. Primarily, we went to the tuxedo rental shop and spent a few hours looking at different shirt, vest, tie, and jacket combinations and finally came up with what I (and my friends Paul & Henry) will be wearing for the wedding come September.