Category Archives: Gloucester

Warblers and Whatnots – A Handy Guide to Identifying Backyard Warbling Songsters

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May is the magical month for migration through Massachusetts (along with many other states and regions) and this year seems extra magnificent. The past several weeks have brought an abundance of exquisite creatures passing through, on their way to northern breeding grounds, along with familiar favorites arriving here to breed in our backyards, local woods, ponds, and fields.

I created this short video for all of we who are “warbler challenged,” that is, struggle to identify these tiny choristers warbling and darting through the treetops. Each spring and autumn migrations I turn my camera’s eye to try to capture what charmer is flitting about in hopes of capturing even a fleeting moment, deciding to try to id when I return home and can have a longer look.

The clips that were chosen are meant to show the birds from all angles – belly, butt, front view, side view, wings in flight, and male and female when captured. The warblers/kinglets/vireos are organized by color to better help make side-by-side comparisons, i.e. all the yellow together, etc.  I’ve done my best to give the proper name and will eventually add the audio recordings.

A few notes – a recent tip I learned for discerning whether a Palm Warbler or Yellow-rumped Warbler: The PW has yellow feathers under it’s tail, while the YRWarbler has a patch of yellow on top of it’s tail. Another distinguishing characteristic of the Palm Warbler is that it continually wags it’s tail and you can see the tail wag in the PW clips. The first shot of the Magnolia Warbler, the feathers are so strongly orange -hued I wasn’t sure what I was looking. The second shot shows the more characteristic yellow.

To my songbird friends, please write and let me know if I have made an error; this is a work in progress and we can change anything 🙂

The last clip is a mystery bird, possibly a female Blackburnian Warbler??

 

Beautiful, Beautiful Orioles and Don’t Forget to Set Out Orange Halves!

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Currently in our garden and fields we are seeing Baltimore Orioles, Orchard Orioles, and new to my eyes, an immature male Orchard Oriole that has not yet grown into his adult plumage.

Baltimore Orioles finding nectar and insects in the crabapple trees. Love watching them hang every which way to poke at the blossoms.Immature Male Orchard Oriole

Orchard Oriole

Baltimore Orioles (and Catbird) in our garden

 

Thank You Happy Valley for the Beach Clean-up!

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A huge shout out today to the volunteers from Happy Valley for the Good Harbor Beach clean-up Saturday morning! The photo below shows Richard and Donna setting up a tent of provisions for the volunteers.

Happy Valley is the fourth group of volunteers to tackle Good Harbor Beach this spring. You may ask, does the beach need so many clean-ups? The answer is a resounding yes!

This past week was Senior Skip Day with, at one point, reportedly, approximately one thousand kids at GHB. The teens came from high schools all around Massachusetts including Brookline, Stoneham, Wakefield, and Marlborough (these are the names of the schools provided by the kids). Beginning around 9am, the kids began pouring onto GHB, and drinking right from the get-go. Fortunately, the portable bathrooms this year are open in May (thank you City!) But they ran out of toilet paper so the dunes soon became the place of choice to relieve themselves. The kids were asked repeatedly to keep out of the dunes and to clean up their trash.

By early afternoon, there was an alcohol related fender bender in the parking lot. I don’t know if this is what prompted the Gloucester Police to come but at around 3:00 pm, there were two officers on the beach breaking up the party and carrying six-packs off the beach.

Thank you to whoever called the police! The weather was lovely and warm and there were a number of families on the beach that appeared very uncomfortable around the large groups of drunk and belligerent teens.

The above photos are of how the kids left the beach, and this is after the trash had been collected into piles by volunteers and the DPW. The gulls got into some and many pieces were blown into the dunes, along the shoreline, the marsh, and all around the parking lot.

We citizens who love and treasure Good Harbor Beach do not mind sharing the beach with teens skipping school, we just don’t think they should leave their mountains of trash behind, and also relieve themselves in the dunes. We are grateful to the DPW for cleaning up the garbage and grateful to all the volunteer groups that have been coming this past spring  however, we really need to manage out trash better. Allowing it to blow into the ocean and beach habitat is simply not acceptable!

Two suggestions, and if you think of any, please share-

Hand out trash bags to beachgoers, especially large groups.

Assign an officer on the beach to give out tickets for littering. Word would get out soon enough if the fines were steep enough.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank You Seaside Sustainability and Chris Cefalo for Helping Clean Good Harbor Beach

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A huge shoutout to Rebecca Spencer, Colleen Meister Murdock, and all the volunteers with Seaside Sustainability for their tremendous clean up efforts at Good Harbor Beach.

This is the third week in a row that clean ups have been taking place at GHB, beginning with Cape Ann Climate Coalition Interfaith Group, followed by Applied Materials, and then Seaside Sustainability on Saturday. Each group of volunteers has come away with bags and bags of trash.

We are all so very grateful for these extraordinary good works by all the volunteers!

We would also like to give a ginormous shout out to USMC veteran Chris Cefalo. I have seen Chris often at GHB cleaning up trash but I didn’t realize until after speaking with him this morning that one of his main focusses is small pieces of plastics, roping, and monofilaments that you see entwined in the seaweed and debris at the wrack line. These bits of plastic are ubiquitous. They break down into micro plastics. We breathe them and they are now in our lungs and hearts. The bits of plastic are consumed by sea creatures of every imaginable shape and size. And it was monofilament wrapped around Super Mom’s foot that caused her to lose her toes.

Chris’s bucket this morning was overflowing and he had only traveled half the distance he had planned. Several years ago, Jill Ortiz, one of our Plover ambassadors, had been lobbying to get a (free) micro plastic bin set up at GHB. This would have helped volunteers like Chris dispose of the plastics. Unfortunately, the City showed zero interest and nothing came of her efforts. Perhaps now is the right time to revisit the topic. Just saying!

Many, many thanks again to all the super volunteers working so hard to keep Good Harbor Beach clean and safe for people and for wild creatures <3

The Wonderfully Joyful Empty Bowl Circus!

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Photos of just some of our incredible community members who make the annual Empty Bowl Circus a tremendous success. Thank you Open Door for the invitation to photograph; it was my joy <3

Enchanting Seaside Circus at the Open Door’s Empty Bowl Event!

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This evening’s Open Door’s Empty Bowl Circus was a magnificent success. It is such a joy to see  the community come together to help support the tremendous work done by Julie LaFontaine and her team. Lots of photos to come but in the mean time, the following is a short video of some of the marvelous Seaside Circus performances.

Seaside Circus Cape Ann was founded by Eileen Little. Performers include  Joel Hart, Erin DeMay, Kylie Rose, Katelyn Beaudoin, Judith Ngari, Soni Razdan, Ky Bernard, and Jessica Guilmain.

Music obtained from the Internet Archive of Royalty Free Music. Sway (Quien Sera) by Bob Carroll, Frank DeVol

April Full Pink Moon Over Eastern Point

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April’s full Pink Moon over Brace Rock

 

Happy Earth Day feat. the Carolina Wren and why we LoVe leaf litter!

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Joy in the wild garden- What fun to observe our resident Carolina Wren vigorously tossing leaves around while looking for insects. Just one in a million reasons why we leave leaves on the ground, and don’t cut down expired flower stalks. Leaf debris and stalks create the ideal inset habitat, and insects are the number one food for birds during the breeding season. Songbirds need the extra protein to make eggs and keep their young well-fed. 

 

Happy Earth Day feat. Red-winged Blackbirds!

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A most welcome sign of spring!

Male Red-winged Blackbirds establishing their territory, in flight display and with their wonderfully varied courtship calls. Towards the end is a brief shot of the object of their desire, the elusive female.

Good Harbor Beach Erosion and Piping Plover Update

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Good morning PiPl Friends!

Our PiPl population is returning to GHB! In addition to Super Dad and our footless Super Mom that arrived on March 24th, the male that nested successfully last year and whose mate is the very pale female, has returned, along with two additional males that arrived just after the nor’easter- for a total of five! The morning after the nor’easter also found three Sanderlings and a charming pair of Savannah Sparrows. I think the Sparrows may be sticking around as I saw them again this morning!

Newly arrived Savannah Sparrow

Filming at Good Harbor Beach the day after the nor’easter I felt an odd mix of awe and fear. Awestruck by the atmospheric beauty of the beach in the lifting storm, and also dismayed to see the damage to the dunes and how all the fantastic work the DPW had done in preparing the beach for the coming season had taken a real hit. The tides have been extremely high, I think higher than is usual for these spring storms. Recently, at full high tide, there was no beach. In the past few days the the tides seemed to have receded somewhat and hopefully the shifting sands will continue in that direction.

Sanderlings resting after the nor’easter

The most remarkable thing to see is how the one area that has been roped off consistently for the past eight years, going on nine, that very specific nesting area at #3, has been damaged the least by storms of the past several years. It is a real lesson in dune ecology that when you protect the base of the dune from foot traffic, which allows native flora to take hold, we can give the beach and dunes a fighting chance against rising sea level.

DPW crew at GHB. They are working to restore all that they had done the week prior to the storm.

Update on our PiPl documentary, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay: We are in the home  stretch and still on track to have a final cut ready by May 1st (please keep your fingers crossed with me!). I gave a wonderful local conservation minded organization a ‘test run’  of the first half of the film and was overjoyed to see they were thoroughly engaged. I am working with the amazing team at Modulus Studios, Eric and Shannon, and we are at the finals stages of finessing, finessing, and more finessing!

March was truly a fantastic month for fundraising. My deepest and most heart felt thanks and gratitude to our wonderful supporters.

Please consider making a tax deductible donation to our online fundraiser here at Network for Good. We are also looking for underwriters. If you know of an organization that would like to be associated with themes of nature, bird biology, shorebird and Piping Plover protections, and conservation of beach habitat, along with receiving the benefits of becoming an underwriter — promotions at both the beginning and end of the film for their organization, each and every time the film airs, please contact me at kimsmithdesigns@hotmail.com. Our sister project, Beauty on the Wing, has aired in PBS stations covering 85 percent of US households and is still continuing to stream on public television. As an underwriter, your organization will have the potential to receive tremendous good will from underwriting The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay!

Returning male, mate of very pale Mom

With gratitude to the following PiPl friends for their kind contributions – Lauren Mercadante (New Hampshire), Sally Jackson (Gloucester), Brace Cove Foundation (Gloucester), JH Foundation/Fifth Third Bank (Ohio), Jane Alexander (New York), Janis and John Bell (Gloucester), Jennie Meyer (Gloucester), Alice and David Gardner (Beverly), JoeAnn Hart (Gloucester), Kim Tieger (Manchester), Joanne Hurd (Gloucester), Holly Niperus (Phoenix), Bill Girolamo (Melrose), Claudia Bermudez (Gloucester), Paula and Alexa Niziak (Rockport), Todd Pover (Springfield), Cynthia Dunn (Gloucester), Nancy Mattern (Albuquerque), Marion Frost (Ipswich), Cecile Christianson (Peabody), Sally Jackson (Gloucester), Donna Poirier Connerty (Gloucester), Mary Rhinelander (Gloucester), Jane Hazzard (Georgetown), Duncan Holloman (Gloucester), Karen Blandino (Rockport), Duncan Todd (Lexington), Sue Winslow (Gloucester), Amy Hauck-Kalti (Ohio), JoAnn Souza (Newburyport), Karen Thompson (San Francisco), Carolyn Mostello (Rhode Island), Susan Pollack (Gloucester), Peggy O’Malley (Gloucester), Hilda Santos (Gloucester), Maggie Debbie (Gloucester), Sandy Barry (Gloucester), The Massachusetts Daughters of the American Revolution, Mary Keys (Madeira, Ohio),and my sweet husband Tom 🙂 

Surfer Salvatore Ruvolo at GHB morning after the storm, with music by Peter Dayton  – “Perfect Wave”

PERFECT WAVE – AFTER NOR’EASTER SURFER GOOD HARBOR BEACH

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Surfing at Good Harbor Beach as the nor’easter is dying out.

“Perfect Wave” by Peter Dayton.
Permission from the artist.

Gloucester Dogbar Breakwater Nor’easter

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One hour before hight tide with, reportedly, 20 -30 foot waves and 67 mph wind gusts off the coast of Cape Ann.

Happy Easter!

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The best kind of Peeps – Plover Peeps. Happy Easter, Happy Spring Friends!

Piping Plover chicks one-day-old

PIPING PLOVER PEEPS AT ALEXANDRA’S BREAD!

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Just in for spring, we have a limited edition of Plover PEEP yellow unisex tees and onesies, perfect for your Chicks, big and small!

The T-shirts  are a great length, longer than average, and both the tees and onesies are a beautiful super quality 100 percent cotton.

Question – do you think we should order kids sizes in the tees?  I had one made for Charlotte in pink and i think it’s adorable. Let me know if you are interested in youth sizes.

And, Alexandra has a replenished batch of Cape Ann Piping Plover Project stickers!

All profits from the sale of the tees and stickers goes towards replenishing stock and toward our documentary, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay, coming soon!

Alexandra’s Bread is located at 265 Main Street, Gloucester. 

Open from 8:30 until 2:00 Wednesday through Saturday

GOOD HARBOR BEACH INN DEMO UNDERWAY

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Last wall of the Inn –

Saying farewell to the old, much enjoyed Inn, to make way for the new Good Harbor Beach Inn.

While filming the demolition, I had a pleasant conversation with one of the new owners, Mark Martignetti. Mark is also leading the construction on the project. Mark expressed his deep love of Gloucester and the family’s hope to make the Inn welcoming and equally as iconic as the old Inn. He showed me a rendering of the new GHB Inn, which appeared nearly identical to the old. One change that can’t be helped is the height. Some of the units will increase by 18 inches to adhere to FEMA’s coastal flooding regulations.

Mark also spoke about his family’s new restaurant Sogno, located in Woburn. Sogno, pronounced Soñ-yo, means dream in Italian. His Dad’s dream had always been to one day own his own restaurant.  Everything on the menu sounds wonderfully delicious and we can’t wait to give it a try! Link to menu – https://sognoitalian.com/menu/

VIVA SAN GIUSEPPE!

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The Groppo family and friends St. Joseph Feast preparations underway-

Getting ready to feed an army, including the mail lady and the construction workers fixing the road out front! The Groppo home overflows with love, friendships, and faith. Viva San Giuseppe!

Good Harbor Beach Gray Seal Update

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The young Gray Seal pup at Good Harbor Beach has returned safely to the sea. He spent the day at the beach under supervision while most people and dog owners kept themselves and their dogs a safe distance from the resting seal.

This is the time of year when seals are becoming weaned from their Moms. They are found on shore for a variety of reasons, often simply to rest. Not always though. Sometimes they may be injured, starving, trying to escape danger, or ill.

Please keep at least 150 feet away from a resting seal and call the Seacoast Science hotline (603-997-9448) to let the staff there know of the stranding.

USCGC William Sparling in the Outer Harbor at Sunset

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Love seeing the Coast Guard cutters from Niles Beach.

From wiki –

Design
Like her sister ships, William Sparling is designed to perform search and rescue missions, port security, and the interception of smugglers. She is armed with a remotely-controlled, gyro-stabilized 25 mm autocannon, four crew served M2 Browning machine guns, and light arms. She is equipped with a stern launching ramp, that allows her to launch or retrieve a water-jet propelled high-speed auxiliary boat, without first coming to a stop. Her high-speed boat has over-the-horizon capability, and is useful for inspecting other vessels, and deploying boarding parties.

The crew’s drinking water needs are met through a desalination unit. The crew mess is equipped with a television with satellite reception.

Operational career
On 15 August 2022, it was announced that William Sparling would be homeported in Boston, Massachusetts.

The vessel’s manufacturer, Bollinger Shipyards, of Lockport, Louisiana, delivered the ship to the Coast Guard, for her sea trials, in Key West, on July 20, 2023. She was commissioned at Station Portsmouth Harbor in New Castle, New Hampshire on October 19, 2023. Her sponsor was William “Bill” Sparling’s widow Caroline Sparling and her first commanding officer was Lt. Jacklyn “Jackie” Kokomoor.

From the Coast Guard’s website –

The Coast Guard accepted delivery of the 54th fast response cutter (FRC), William Sparling, July 20, 2023 in Key West, Florida. William Sparling will be the fifth FRC to be homeported in Boston.

William Sparling was one of the first Coast Guard enlisted members to be awarded the Silver Star Medal, one of the nation’s highest military awards for valor in combat. Sparling served as a landing craft coxswain during the Battle of Tulagi, a strategically important island in the Pacific theater, during World War II. The island was captured by enemy forces in May 1942, and Allied forces were concerned that the occupation of Tulagi would be used to threaten Allied units and supply routes in the region. Allied forces arrived at Tulagi on Aug. 7, 1942, to reestablish control of the island. The amphibious assault, supported by the landing craft piloted by Sparling and other coxswains, was the first U.S. offensive of World War II and was one of the first in a series of battles that defined the Guadalcanal campaign.

During the invasion, Sparling and other coxswains landed the first wave of U.S. Marines from USS McKean on the beaches of Tulagi. Over the next three days of fighting, Sparling and others made repeated trips between the Navy destroyer and Tulagi to deliver equipment, ammunition and other supplies to Marines as they engaged a determined occupying force of 800 troops. On Aug. 9, the remaining enemy forces surrendered, and the Allies successfully secured Tulagi.

The Coast Guard has ordered 65 FRCs to date. Fifty-two are in service: 13 in Florida; seven in Puerto Rico; six in Bahrain; four in California; three each in Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Texas, New Jersey and Massachusetts; and two each in Mississippi and North Carolina. Future FRC homeports include Astoria, Oregon, and Kodiak and Seward, Alaska.

For more information: Fast Response Cutter Program page

More from the Industrious Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Time to Hang Your Hummingbird Feeders!

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Despite that our little woodpecker friend has an injury under her right wing, the extraordinarily industrious Yellow-bellied Sapsucker has, for the past five days, worked on, and dined from, her sapwells. She arrives each morning at sunrise, departing around noontime. The timelapse video shows only one hour of her morning, compressed into one minute.

Dubbed Miss Featherton by Charlotte, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker arrived bedraggled and injured but I think is becoming rejuvenated from the sap. Insects, too, are beginning to appear at the wells. I read that Ruby-throated Hummingbirds often follow the migration of sapsuckers as they too will imbibe on the sap and insects attracted. We usually hang our Ruby-throated Hummingbird feeders out at the end of March, but with all the sap flowing, we hung our feeders a few days ago.Notice the red wound under her right wing from the still taken from the video

Sap-licker!

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Friday evening’s International Women’s Day event at the UUChurch was beyond fantastic – Cape Ann women authors reading Cape Ann women authors. I kept the program with the list of authors and can’t wait to dive in to the books shared by the authors.  JoeAnn Hart did a simply stellar job organizing the event, held in conjunction with the Gloucester Writers Center.

I was so inspired after being with these wonderfully gifted women and listening to the poignant words of so many inspiring Cape Ann authors, I wrote a poem that night about the weary female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that has suddenly appeared in our garden. I’ll keep working on it but here is the beginnings –

Sap-licker

Startled songbird silently flings
from approaching steps.

Behavior not usually seen by the insouciant
feathered friends that call our garden home.

Why so timorous?

Neatly arranged squares and holes
riddle the bark of the Dragon Lady holly.

The masterfully drilled, cambium pierced checkered grid is glistening
in the sun – with deep wells and narrow streamlets of sweetness.

A sap-lick!

I wait to see her, half hidden and as
quiet as the owl after a long night

Weary and bedraggled, the Sapsucker returns
An arduous migration, no doubt.

She pauses guardedly
No one must know of her creation
with its treasured life fluid seeping down branches.

Her soft yellow belly and stippled feather patterning
Mirrors the spotty bark.

Her camouflage is not blown. She dives in with tender gusto
Delicately excavating the holes with brush tongue.

Wind rustles through leaves and she flings off
Only to return again and again and again
To her life-giving channels of gold flowing through tree veins.

Happy World Wildlife Day! #WWD2024

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Every year on March 3rd, United Nations World Wildlife Day (WWD) is celebrated  The purpose of the celebration is to recognize the unique roles and contributions of wildlife to people and the planet.  Read more here.

A special event for World Wildlife day is being held at the UN tomorrow, March 4th, that anyone is welcome to tune into. Here is the link and more information:

https://www.linkedin.com/events/worldwildlifeday2024uncelebrati7163493005688041473/comments/

#SaveTheDate 📅 🌱 Tune in online to watch the hashtag#WorldWildlifeDay 2024 UN Celebration!

When: 4 March (10AM-1PM EST)
Where: webtv.un.org

This year, we are exploring digital innovation and highlighting how digital conservation technologies and services can drive wildlife conservation, sustainable and legal wildlife trade and human-wildlife coexistence, now and for future generations in an increasingly connected world. 📱💻🐟🐯🌳

Meet our organizing partners: UNDP, ifaw, Jackson Wild, and WILDLABS Community

hashtag#WWD2024 hashtag#ConnectingPeopleAndPlanet hashtag#DigitalInnovation hashtag#TechForWildlife

 

A CELEBRATION OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

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Cape Ann women writers reading selected works by Cape Ann women’s writers!

Join host JoeAnn Hart and a group of Cape Ann writers at the Unitarian Universalist church for this collaborative reading.

The event takes place on Friday, March 8th at 7pm at the UU Church.

Quinnie the Harlequin Catches a Crab!

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Dear Friends,

I had to take the week off from posting wildlife stories as I am in the home stretch of getting our Piping Plover documentary back to the film finishing editing studio. The film is coming along beautifully and we are already getting requests from communities to schedule soft screenings (unofficial screenings). One of the primary goals of the film is to help beachgoers better understand why we want to protect these valiant little shorebirds that are nesting in our midst and I think/hope/pray it will be successful in that regard <3. I can’t wait to share it with you all!

Although I haven’t been posting, I am still filming on early morning walks and am getting a backlog of wonderful wildlife scenes to share. There just are not enough hours in the day!!

With thanks and deepest appreciation to everyone who has so generously contributed to our film. If you would like to make a contribution, please go here to our tax deductible online fundraiser. All contributions go to the film finishing studio and to applying to film festivals.

With gratitude to the following PiPl friends for their kind contributions – Lauren Mercadante (New Hampshire), Jennie Meyer (Gloucester), Alice and David Gardner (Beverly), JoeAnn Hart (Gloucester), Kim Tieger (Manchester), Joanne Hurd (Gloucester), Holly Niperus (Phoenix), Bill Girolamo (Melrose), Claudia Bermudez (Gloucester), Paula and Alexa Niziak (Rockport), Todd Pover (Springfield), Cynthia Dunn (Gloucester), Nancy Mattern (Albuquerque), Marion Frost (Ipswich), Cecile Christianson (Peabody), Sally Jackson (Gloucester), Donna Poirier Connerty (Gloucester), Mary Rhinelander (Gloucester), Jane Hazzard (Georgetown), Duncan Holloman (Gloucester), Karen Blandino (Rockport), Duncan Todd (Lexington), Sue Winslow (Gloucester), Amy Hauck-Kalti (Ohio), JoAnn Souza (Newburyport), Karen Thompson (San Francisco), Carolyn Mostello (Rhode Island), Susan Pollack (Gloucester), and my sweet husband Tom 🙂

If you do not see your name listed above, please, please let me know. I absolutely do not want to leave anyone off. My computer crashed again and am working like crazy to recover all the data lost. Thank you!

Stay safe in the pending storm, and have lots of fun, too!

Warmest wishes,

xoKim

The handsome drake Harlequin we nicknamed Quinnie is finding a veritable feast while staying the winter on the shores of Cape Ann. He dives into the fast moving incoming tide, surfaces with a crab, then heads to a nearby rock to floof and digest his lunch.

SHOP ALEXANDRA’S BREAD FOR YOUR VALENTINE LOVES (AND PLOVER LOVERS, TOO)!

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Alexandra has a bevy of delightful Valentines cards and gifts for your loved ones. The hand block printed cards created by Mary Rhinelander are wonderfully whimsical, and extra charming printed with Valentine sweetheart sayings. Mary is also making lavender scented sachets with her prints. Our Plover Lover Besties T-shirts and onesies are currently available in pink (perfect for Valentines) and blue (tees only).

THE EAST OF MAIN STREET IS OPEN, despite the construction. It’s very easy to cut through, either the parking lots or the side streets.

Shop for Valentine cards and gifts, Plover tees, onesies, and Plover stickers at our wonderful local bakery and home goods shop, Alexandra’s Bread, located at 265 Main Street in Gloucester.

VERY COOL – KINGFISHER CASTING A PELLET FROM THE GOOD HARBOR BEACH FOOTBRIDGE!

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The amazing things we see! I have been observing from some distance a male Belted Kingfisher foraging at the Good Harbor Beach Creek. I write ‘some distance’ because he absolutely does not like it when people notice him and he will immediately depart the area.

While filming him on the footbridge and only hoping he would fly so I could see his beautiful wings, he also cast a ginormous pellet!

According to Cornel, Kingfishers “live mostly on a diet of fish including sticklebacks, mummichogs, trout, and stonerollers. They also eat crayfish and may eat other crustaceans, mollusks, insects, amphibians, reptiles, young birds, small mammals, and even berries.” I typically see them hovering over the water when foraging and they also hunt by looking from a perch overhanging water. Baby Kingfishers do not cast pellets, only the adults. By the time a King Fisher leaves its nest, it can no longer digest fish skeletons and invertebrate shells, and instead, begins disgorging pellets of undigested matter.

Kingfishers are one of the few species of birds where the female is more brightly colored than the male. We can see this is a male as he is minus the belt of rusty red feathers the female displays. Kingfishers have a handsome crest atop their heads and seemingly disproportionately large dagger-like bill.

We can usually find the Kingfisher by listening for their piercingly sharp rattling call, which I tried to capture but it was always way too windy. Kingfishers remain in our region year round, although this is the first Kingfisher I have seen foraging at Good Harbor Beach. He hasn’t been seen now for several weeks but I do hope he returns!