Long-tailed duck.
Another warm one. An overcast, wet morning—a little rain passed through overnight—bringing quite a little additional thaw. Crows, house sparrows, chickadees, and a hairy woodpecker hanging around the homestead. The rushing sound of tires on the wet road.
Red-breasted mergansers.
Early on I decided we’d skip Beech Hill today, Jack and I. By mid-afternoon or so, it was time to head over to the Rockland Breakwater.
It’s a short trip. Just a couple vehicles in the parking lot when we arrived. Great, slushy snow drifts covered the access trail, so we climbed down and crossed the little beach. It appeared to be dead low tide.
Herring and black-backed gulls were hanging around the shore. I saw no dabbling ducks right away. We climbed onto the first great granite stones and I scanned offshore: a couple great cormorants perched on a big rock, and a solitary, light-colored harbor seal lounging on a smaller one. Saw a loon or two floating out there, too—and a handful of eiders.
Then I heard the distinctive, alluring chatterings of long-tailed ducks. I love the sound they make—which includes the three climbing notes of major chord—but they were too distant to get a good fix on. (For some reason, when I hear their calls, I always imagine the beginning of a symphony.) A gull stood on the breakwater in front of us with an urchin in its bill.
Great cormorant.
Farther out, I spotted a pair of red-breasted mergansers floating nearby. Then, on the harbor side, a single male long-tail. It posed cooperatively before submerging.
More loons, eiders, long-tails—and a cormorant diving close to where we walked. We met a few people returning, in small pairs or singly. I heard a high-pitched whistling sound and at first thought it might be a purple sandpiper, but it turned out to be a black guillemot in winter plumage. In all I saw three or four out there today.
On our return, I noticed a few breaks in the even gray overcast—not enough to let any sunlight through, but enough to portend a clear day tomorrow. Mist hovered about half-way up the Camden Hills, and I looked fondly up at Beech Nut atop our usual hill straight down the breakwater toward shore.
We returned, carefully, along the slushy drifts covering the access trail. Wasn’t too hard going. And then I heard the familiar quacking: a half-dozen mallards dabbling about at the edge of the slowly rising tide.
Herring gull.
Rockland Breakwater List
Beginning at 2:45 p.m., I walked the breakwater.
1. Herring gull
2. Great black-backed gull
3. Great cormorant
4. Common loon
5. Common eider
6. Long-tailed duck
7. Red-breasted merganser
8. Black guillemot
9. Mallard
Elsewhere
10. American crow
11. Hairy woodpecker
12. Black-capped chickadee
13. House sparrow
The breakwater lighthouse.
Tags: American crow, black guillemot, black-capped chickadee, common loon, great black-backed gull, hairy woodpecker, herring gull, house sparrow, long-tailed duck, mallard, red-breasted merganser
