4-day old Piping Plover, Good Harbor Beach, Gloucester, MA
Birding around Rockport & Gloucester, Massachusetts
After our recent trip to Maine, we made a 2-night pitstop in Rockport, Massachusetts before flying out of Boston. It was a chance to meet up with some East Coast friends and see some more East Coast birds. We had steady rain early in the visit, and overcast skies for the rest. Still, there were some good places to walk around and see birds. We stayed in a spot near downtown Rockport, a short stroll from Motif #1 (the most painted building in the world, so the story goes). It overlooked a public park. That meant Gray Catbirds outside our window. Blue Jays and Robins could be heard at anytime.
But my plans involved seawatching. Near Rockport are two well-known seawatching spots: Halibut Point State Park, and Andrews Point. They’re north of town, overlooking Ipswich Bay. According to eBird reports, you can spot some good pelagic birds from each. And if you’re lucky, a lifer Roseate Tern or Black Tern or Great Cormorant will fly by while you’re watching. If you’re really lucky, they’ll be close enough to see with binoculars, because this birder doesn’t own a scope.
Common Tern at the quarry, Halibut Point State Park
While the weather wasn’t great, the seawatching was pretty good. From the top of a cliff, it wasn’t hard to pick out Northern Gannets with their big wingspans flying by, or the tiny Wilson Storm-Petrel’s just above the surface. A few terns flew by, but none were Roseate Terns or Black Terns as far as I could tell. Nor did a recently reported juvenile Great Cormorant appear among the steady stream of Double-crested Cormorants moving past the point. Common Eider and Great Black-backed Gulls were down on the rocks at the shore.
A pair of Northern Gannetts flying by
Common Eider
Halibut Point isn’t just seawatching. It also has a nice trail that goes through a bunch of trees and bushes, and surrounds a cool old rock quarry that’s filled in with watewr. My walks produced nice views of Eastern Towhees, Eastern Kingbirds, Carolina Wrens, Northern Cardinals, and other birds I don’t get to see around Los Angeles.
Eastern Towhee
Blue Jay
Andrews Point was a challenging parking situation for an out-of-towner. Lots of “No Parking” signs, some of which looked like they had been made by residents to deter people like me from parking in their neighborhood. I didn’t want a ticket or to get my rental car towed, so I parked a few streets away and walked to Andrews Point. It’s a cool rocky coast, with fishermen and women working the shore.
Behold the largest gull on earth
The highlight of our visit was probably a family stroll along Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester. Wisely, my spouse didn’t mention to me the $25 parking fee before we went (what is with east coast beaches and outrageous parking fees? It’s $45 to park at a place called Crane Beach, where I could’ve seen Roseate Tern if I’d been willing to buck up). If she had, we would’ve gone somewhere else. And if we had gone somewhere else, we would’ve missed seeing the threatened and declining Piping Plovers. There were three adults present, and two chicks. (A local woman has been documenting the Piping Plovers at Good Harbor beach). The volunteer observer present told us that the fuzzy ping pong ball in the picture at the top was 4 days old. The other juvenile, below, was just over a month old.
Adult Piping Plover
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