Today, Saturday, February 25th, 2023, twelve intrepid members of the bird club went to our
neighboring state to the east for a great day of birding. We met at the commuter lot in Branford
off I-95. It was a chilly 15 degrees or so, but that didn’t dampen our spirits. We arrived at our
first stop, Beavertail State Park in Jamestown, a little after 8:30 am. We saw lots of great birds
there, including an Iceland Gull, as many as 10 Razorbills, and more than 100 Black Scoter and
Common Eider. The scoters were making their mournful calls, a sound we never get tired of
hearing. We also saw numerous Harlequin Ducks and Great Cormorants there. The drake
Harlequin Ducks are truly stunning. After leaving Beavertail, we stopped briefly at a couple of
places as we headed to our next destination. At Mackerel Cove Beach, we saw Sanderlings and
a few Bufflehead. At the Marsh Meadows Preserve, we saw a Kingfisher and a Mallard/Black
Duck hybrid. Our next stop turned out better than we expected. We went to Scarborough State
Beach in Narraganset and saw not only the Black-headed Gull that’s been there but also Horned
Larks and Snow Buntings and two Bald Eagles as they soared over our heads. There were also
several dozen Horned Grebes out in the water there. Amazing! We then went to nearby Camp
Cronin in Point Judith. We could easily see Block Island from there. Birds of interest at that
location included Northern Harrier, a few more Razorbills and Common Goldeneye. As we left
there, it started to snow, confirming that we had made a good decision to not go further east to
Sachuest Point this year but rather head west, back towards Connecticut. We ended up at the
ranger station near the entrance to the Trustom Pond Refuge where we were able to observe the
birds visiting the feeders there while staying under the porch roof. We saw several good birds
including a cooperative Fox Sparrow and two Hairy Woodpeckers. Our next stop, as the snow
fell was nearby Perry’s Mill Pond. We saw a pair of Wood Ducks, several American Wigeon
and Hooded Merganser there. As the snow continued to fall, we decided to head towards our last
destination for the day: the Weekapaug Breachway. We drove past the canal, saw a few
Common Loons in the water and then continued on to look for birds at a nearby farm on Noyes
Neck Road. There, we were treated to looks at several good birds including Red-winged
Blackbirds and Brown-headed Cowbirds, Savannah and Field Sparrows and, one of the biggest
surprises of the day: an American Pipit! We also saw a large flock of Ring-billed Gulls feeding
on a manure pile there. All in all, we saw about 60 species of birds. We all had a great time
despite the weather and we look forward to going back to our neighboring state next year!
Chris Loscalzo
