Newport, RI and Provincetown, MA (1 Viewer)

More of a couple of days than a day - I hope no-one minds just had to write it down somewhere. I was travelling with my parents and my wife along the NE Coast and through some early starts managed to have a couple of great mornings birding.

In Newport, RI on the advice of the B&B owners I headed out of town a little to Sachuest Point NWR. I got there just as the sun was coming up on a rather overcast but unseasonably warm day. The reserve was massive and empty and I had the fields, scrubby brushland and rocky coastline all to myself. It was such a great mornings birding that I hardly know where to start. In just a couple of hours I had picked up 6 lifers and had had some of the most exciting birding since my arrival in the US (and subsequent new found love of birdwatching) a year ago.

Although there were many, the two major highlights were:

Watching as a Short -Eared Owl swooped in to pick out a mouse of one of the main fields. This would have been enough for me but suddenly all hell broke loose, another Short-Eared appeared and decided to take on the first bird for it's meal. After a minute long dogfight I thought the second bird had finally given up the chase as it started to beat a retreat away over the field. It was then that I noticed the Northern Harrier entering the fray. It attacked the first Short-Eared Owl relentlessly - an amazing sight as it turned upside down showing its talons and the Owl the kind of weaponary it was up against. This was too much for the Owl and it finally relinquished its meal and left the Harrier to it.

The second highlight was seeing my first Harlequin ducks. The coast line at Sachuest is very rocky, and here in amongst this violent water were fairly large numbers of Harlequin Ducks. They seemed to have chosen the roughest part of the coast and were happily ducking under the breaking waves and skipping over the incoming sea. It was an amazing sight.

That day I had:

HORNED GREBE
RED-NECKED GREBE
COMMON LOON
A. BLACK DUCK
SURF SCOTER
BLACK SCOTER
HARLEQUIN DUCK
COMMON EIDER
GREATER SCAUP
COMMON GOLDENEYE
BUFFLEHEAD
RED-BREASTED MERGANSER
NORTHERN HARRIER
A. COOT
DUNLIN
PURPLE SANDPIPER
HERRING GULL
RING-BILLED GULL
GREATER BB GULL
SHORT EARED OWL
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER
A. TREE SPARROW

We then headed further up the coast to Provincetown MA. Right at the tip of Cape Cod for those that don't know and Monday morning I again headed out early for a super couple of hours. The beach here was sandy and with something of a storm blowing in the waves were around 4-6 feet. As soon as I crossed the dunes from the car park I could tell it was going to be good as I spotted a whole host of Gannetts moving along the coast from left to right, with some venturing in as close as 50-100 yards from the shore and diving dramatically into the sea. Compared to the frankly useless winters on Long Island Sound this was birding paradise - with hundreds of Sanderling scurrying at my feet and Gannets and Gulls aplenty at sea. Within a couple of hours I had seen:

COMMON LOON
NORTHERN GANNET
COMMON EIDER
LONG-TAILED DUCK
COMMON GOLDENEYE
BUFFLEHEAD
RED-BREASTED MERGANSER
SCOTER sp?
SANDERLING
DUNLIN
BONAPARTE'S GULL
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE
LARGE ALCID (probably RAZORBILL)
HOUSE FINCH
BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE
A. GOLDFINCH
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER.

All in all a great couple of days, great memories, two places to visit again and recommend to friends as well as a welcome relief from the paucity of birds in CT at this time.

Hi streatham,

Your post was especially interesting to me as I have been contemplating a trip to the NE USA before too much longer. I have quite a few "holes" in my life list which could be filled in nicely with some of the birds this area of the country has to offer. Common Eider, Razorbill, etc. would be "lifers" for me.

Good Birding,

Hi Larry,

All I can say is do it! I had a great couple of days and I am desperate to get back there as soon as possible - luckily I just found out my wife has relatives on Cape Cod so I think we will be paying them a visit in the near future. What are you seeing in Missouri at the moment? Anything exciting? CT is a little dead at the moment - there seems to be a few redpolls and a lot of pine siskins around in the north of the state - just hoping that some more winter finches show up.

We are getting a few winter finches, i.e. Purple Finch, Pine Siskins, and some Red-breasted Nuthatch. The other day I had three Brown Creepers, one Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Rough-legged Hawk, etc. Saint Joseph is located right on the Missouri River so we have a lot of Bald Eagles are this time of year, thousands of Lesser Snow Geese, Canada Geese (various sizes, small, medium and large) a some Ross's Geese in with the Snows. We had Trumpeter and Tundra Swans on a lake south of town since December 20. I was out today and did not see them. I believe the very cold weather sent them south.

Later,