Rhode Island Hotspots

Six members took advantage of the clearing weather after the big storm that hit New England last weekend.  Rhode Island recorded 34-36” of snow, but we went prepared with snowshoes, just in case access was blocked to our favorite destinations.  Fortunately, the snowshoes were not necessary.

Day 1 - Saturday was warm and sunny. We had six target birds for the weekend, and our first stop was at Blackstone Field in East Providence to find the female Tufted Duck that was reported. No luck with that, even though we tried for it from both sides of the Seekonk River.  We did find 2 Gadwall, 4 Bufflehead, 4 Red-breasted and 3 Hooded Mergansers, C Goldeneye along with Mallards, Canada Geese and Mute Swans.  Greenwood Point, located on the opposite side of the river gave us 54 Horned larks, 2 Shovelers, 4 Wigeon, 4 Black Ducks, 16 Gadwall, 20 C Goldeneye, 1 Ring-necked Duck, 15 Bufflehead, a C Loon and a Wood Duck.

Next stop was to a new location, Sabin Point State Park in Riverside, where a Barrow’s Goldeneye was reported.  We did not miss out this time, and all of us got great views of the Barrow’s, even though it took some thorough scanning through at least 60 Common Goldeneyes to find it.  Also there were 30 Wigeon, 42 Brant, 2 C Loons, 20 Bufflehead, 5 Greater Scaup and a single Horned Grebe.

The pickings were slim at Colt State Park in Bristol, but we managed to spot 2 Long-tailed Ducks, 2 Hooded and 4 Red-breasted Mergansers, Bufflehead, a Horned Grebe and a bucket load of Brant, a minimum of 120 birds finding some open grass to feed on in the field.

It was noontime before we stopped at Grafik Coffee in Portsmouth for a nice picnic lunch outdoors on their picnic table.  Yes, it was warm enough to do that!  We shared lots of laughs, while we took a break from the birding.

Next stop was Glen Manor House in Portsmouth, a banquet facility that we hoped did not mind our presence.  We picked up 50 Surf and 100 Black Scoters, 50 Greater and 2 Lesser Scaup, along with other species we observed earlier.

Middletown Town Beach and nearby Third Beach gave us more Surf and Black Scoters, Bufflehead, C Goldeneye, Wigeon, C Loon, C Eider, and Brant, but also added two White-winged Scoters, 35 Sanderlings, 7 Ruddy Turnstones and a lone Dunlin to our growing species list.

Some packed down snow and ice along was present on the trail at Sachuest Point NWR, but we trudged through to a couple of lookouts anyway.  We added a dozen Harlelquins, 4 Great Cormorants and a couple of Red-winged Blackbirds.

We tried one last birding spot before calling it a day. Unfortunately, Green End Pond was frozen over and only Mallards, Crows and gathering gulls were using the ice to rest.

After checking in at the Howard Johnson by Wyndham in Middletown, we dined at the Atlantic Grille, where Lobster was in short supply, but good food, good company and laughter was not.  

Day 2 - It was colder and windier today.  After breakfast at the hotel, we headed straight to Beavertail State Park.  We found the heavy snowfall had caused the authorities to close off the area around the point, but we parked and walked in.  We found all 3 scoter species, Great Cormorant, C Loon, Horned Grebe, C Eider and new for the list, 2 Razorbills.

A sighting of 5 Black-headed Gulls was reported at Narragansett Town Beach, but when we arrived, the beach was loaded with people walking dogs and no Black-headed Gulls.  We also missed this bird at Scarborough Beach State Park, though not for lack of scanning with the wind in our faces.

The dirt road into Camp Cronin Fishing Area was in rough shape, but we made it and found more Harlequins, a couple of Horned Grebe, 20 Black Scoters and a C Goldeneye for the effort.

By the time we got to the end of Moonstone Beach Road, also a slog through water filled potholes, snow flurries were falling that soon turned into pellets bouncing off our only exposed areas, our faces.  This describes our walk on the beach to an opening where we could view Trustom Pond.  The spot did not disappoint, even though the access was difficult.  We added 20 Redhead Ducks and 2 Canvasbacks, but no Tundra Swans.  There were also over 200 Greater Scaup, at least one Lesser Scaup, 10 Ring-necked Ducks, 20 Wigeon, 2 Gadwall, a Hooded and 15 Common Mergansers, a C Loon, 2 Black Ducks, 6 Mallards and 7 Horned larks.

Our last stop was at the Trustom Pond Visitor Center, where we hoped to pick up some birds at the feeder station.  The feeders were empty, but we spotted a Bald Eagle and a Northern Harrier flying overhead from the parking lot.  We finished with a total species count of 67 and three of the six target species we sought, while enjoying a wonderful weekend of winter birding on the coast.  Click below to view complete species list.