On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
After next week, we have just 5 OTR posts in the queue. After that, we have a wonderful long series from Auntie Anne that we’ll want to break up into groups over multiple weeks, with other posts in the weeks in between. Right now we don’t have OTR posts in the queue that would allow us to do that.
So this would be a great time to start putting some posts together, if you’re so inclined.
Winter Wren
One of our favorite outings in Massachusetts is to visit the ocean along the North Shore. The coast line varies here from the sandy beaches of Salisbury to the marshes and dunes of Plum Island/Parker River NWR down to the rocky headlands of Cape Ann. We pretty much will visit any month of the year except July (greenhead fly season!), but late fall and winter have their own special charms, especially on Cape Ann. One of the highlights in any visit to Cape Ann is a trip to Halibut Point at the northern tip of the cape.
Most of Halibut Point is a state park (there is an adjacent conservation property open to the public also). The state park contains the site of an abandoned quarry. In the winter, the flooded quarry can freeze over with some interesting ice patterns.
Overlooking the quarry (here unfrozen) is a fire control tower constructed as part of the coastal defenses during World War II. The park visitor center (with a museum) is at the base of the tower.
A jumble of discarded quarry rocks overlooks the ocean itself as you walk to the ocean from the quarry proper. From the top of the overlook, you can see Crane Island and Plum Island to the west. The Isles of Shoals and Mount Agamenticus are visible to the north on clear days.
When the wind blows from the north, some dramatic surf can crash onto the rocky shore below the overlook.
There are also tidal pools where rock crabs and starfish can be found.
While the vistas are great, to me the best part of a winter visit is seeing the colorful sea ducks. The star attractions are small flocks of harlequin ducks. They are a pretty reliable sighting from November through March and often can be seen diving for food in the turbulence close to the rocks. These two males and an accompanying female are taking a rest break from feeding.
Common Eiders are also a reliable find like this one close to the shore. Unfortunately, I have never captured a photo of the more colorful adult male eider at Halibut Point, although I have many good shots taken from the Gloucester breakwater (which we usually visit also beforehand).
Mergansers (generally red-breasted) are also commonly seen, like this female in flight.
Less common, but not unusual to see, are long-tailed ducks like this pair (male on the left).
Any of the 3 scoter species that frequent New England shores are also possible to see. My favorite is the (somewhat comical looking to me) male surf scoter. I captured this shot through some (out of focus) spray from a wave crashing on the shore.
TBone
Wee wren, King of Birds, brush your gray wing against my head, again, tell me I am not crazy or alone.
The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
St. Stephen’s Day was caught in the furze,
Although he was little his honour was great,
Jump up me lads and give him a treat.
Chorus:
Up with the kettle and down with the pan,
And give us a penny to bury the wren.2. As I was going to Killenaule,
I met a wren upon the wall.
I took me stick and knocked him down,
And brought him in to Carrick Town.
Chorus:
3. Droolin, Droolin, wheres your nest?
Tis in the bush that I love best
In the tree the holly tree,
Where all the boys do follow me.
Chorus:4. We followed the wren three miles or more,
Three mile or more three miles or more.
We followed the wren three miles or more,
At six oclock in the morning.
Chorus:
5. I have a little box under me arm,
Under me arm under me arm.
I have a little box under me arm,
A penny or tuppence would do it no harm.
eclare
That first quarry photo with the ice is fascinating.
p.a.
Thanks! I have gotten out of the habit of checking out OtR a bit, but (insert numerous dirty/angry words) do we need these mental health breaks.
Winter Wren
@TBone: Had to google that. Interesting tradition – unfortunate for the wren!
swiftfox
There are some old bird names that I still use: oldsquaw, solitary vireo.
Winter Wren
@swiftfox: Yes, the folks in charge of such things have been on a worthwhile campaign IMO to make sure the common names are descriptive and remove potentially offensive names, but I sometimes fall back to the names I learned when I was young. Certainly long-tailed duck is more descriptive than oldsquaw as is yellow-rumped wrabler over myrtle warbler (although I guess in that one there was a species merge to consider also). Unfortunately my photo doesn’t capture the eponymous long tails, I think they must be trailing in the water. I love the sounds these ducks make – not your typical quack!
stinger
Thanks for these photos!
TBone
@Winter Wren: LOVE your nym! I couldn’t find the Resistance poem about the Wee Wren, King, that I wanted to share, so my first sentence was a botched recollection and I settled on a Scottish jig!
Albatrossity
@swiftfox: I still find myself using old names like Marsh Hawk! But time marches on, and yes, I do think that naming birds after people is a practice that needs to go away. Let birds be birds!
These are lovely pictures, WW. Thanks, and now it looks like I have another destination to put on my bucket list!
Dagaetch
fellow North Shore resident here. I LOVE Halibut Point, it’s absolutely one of my favorite places to go. Great pictures, maybe I need to get over there this weekend.
MCat
I’m originally from Massachusetts. These pictures are making me homesick. But I will be visiting in October. I love the North Shore.
barbequebob
Thanks for the photos.
Those are the places I would go to find the Harlequins in particular.
Has probaly been a good ten years since my last trip there. Was much closer when I lived in Amesbury MA 40 years ago.
frosty
I joined NJ Audubon last fall for their “Harlequin Romance” near Barnegat Light, where they guaranteed you would see Harlequin Ducks. We did! Or at least they told me that was the bird I got a glimpse of between the waves. Good enough for me!
Winter Wren
@Albatrossity: It’s a neat place to visit along with the Gloucester Breakwater and even just taking Ocean Drive along the shore there with its dramatic views of the rocks and ocean. Cape Ann sticks far enough out into Massachusetts Bay that true pelagics such as gannets, murres, razorbills, and dovekies are not uncommon to see from Halibut Point during migration (although I personally have never seen any there).
Winter Wren
@Dagaetch: Saturday is looking like a nice sunny day with good lighting!
Winter Wren
@frosty: Harlequin romance – clever. A few years back, we were fortunate to visit Iceland and see these guys in June where they breed on glacier meltwater rivers. Probably my favorite looking drake, although the male wood duck is definitely up there as well as a bufflehead in the right light.
NutmegAgain
Halibut point! I used to go up there with my friends when we were in high school. It was all very low key back then. There was kind of a grassy yard you could park in, but there was no paving (pretty much including the road) and just a slightly worn path down to the rocks. It was such a wonderful place, so beautiful, so quiet. I hope nobody gets ticks now, walking through the high beachgrass toward the rocks…