Cold Cold

Visiting Massachusetts today, staying at the Collage Town Inn , a bed and breakfast. Jack and Charlotte are very gracious people; they both have a gift for making people feel at ease.

We decided to visit Plum Island. It’s a bit of a drive from here but it’s been over a month since I’ve been to the beach. This time I am wearing layers of clothes over my long johns so hopefully the cold won’t be chasing me off the beach.

Stopped at the Massachusetts Visitors Center for directions. I bought a Mountain Dew from the soda machine then decided to visit the women’s room. Imagine my surprise to see a gentleman in the women’s room. I made a hasty exit with as much dignity as I could find (not much). I have to pay more attention to what I am doing! I am glad to say that that was the worst of my day…. Well … the cold was pretty bad….

I saw Starlings, Robin, Mocking birds, a Longspur, a Red-tailed hawk, Greater-black backed gulls, Herring gulls, Canada Geese, Crows, Goldfinch, Mallards, Northern Harrier Not a good day birding!

The beach was cold. Cold. Cold. (Maybe a bit more than cold.) Long Johns didn’t help --- well they probably did help but it was so cold that I didn’t notice if they were helping.
It was so cold our lips turned blue and our faces turned purple (not my favorite style of makeup)

Walking back up from the beach CD hurt his ankle. Slowly working our way back to the car, griping all the way about the ach in our fingers, toes and noses, it was looking like a really bummer of a day. It is amazing how warm a cold car can be when it lets one get in out of the wind.

The sun was beginning to paint patterns on the water as we started back toward the gate. We stopped when we saw a lot of people with scopes, binoculars and cameras staring motionless at an empty field. Pulling off to the side of the road we wandered over hoping to discover what had captured their attention; sure seemed to be a very big empty field. One of the women, who we sort of met at the Audubon Nature Center, told us there was a Snowy Owl out in the field. She told us that the Snowy Owl had caught a goose and offered to let us look through her scope at the owl. How can I express how impressive it was to see such a gruesome site of an owl gorging himself on goose…. He turned his head and looked straight at me as though he actually knew we were there. The only word that comes to mind (all things considered) is still Awesome. My son says that Owl has skill.