Day 12--Gloucester, Rockport, and Plum Island

I awoke at 6 AM yesterday and got out of NYC before the traffic got bad. I had a really good 2 days hanging out with my son. On Sunday night we tried another wood fired oven pizza place in Manhattan called La Pizza Fresca. We had eaten there last fall and loved it, and were not disappointed a second time. The pizza was outstanding--true Napoli style pizza. So 2 nights in a row we scored top quality pizza.

I arrived in Gloucester, MA before noon and began birding the coastal waters there for winter waterfowl. It was a sunny but quite cold afternoon (photo above is of Rockport harbor). There were some birds about, but not the large numbers I had hoped for. Some of the highlights included common eider, common goldeneye, white winged scoter, black guillemot, and great cormorant. At the end of the afternoon I drove back to Lincoln, MA to stay with some good friends.

This AM I was on the road by 7:30 heading back up to the same area. Late yesterday the NARBA hotline announced that a seriously lost sage thrasher had been found in Salisbury, MA--this is a bird of the American southwest. I arrived in Salisbury to find many local birders happily looking at the thrasher that was sitting a the top of an evergreen. The rest of the day brought 4 other new birds for the year--a 1st year snowy owl, several snow buntings and American tree sparrows, and a rough legged hawk. So the current year to date total is up to 185 birds. Tomorrow I will be looking for a king eider that eluded me today. Stay tuned!