mixed habitat & densely vegetated hiding places

For spring break we visited Rhode Island, for no specific reason other than neither of us had ever been there. We stayed in the Newport area and there was plenty to do there for a few days, especially if you like birds! We both saw several lifers.



There were three beaches in very close proximity to where we were staying, one of which was a three-minute walk away (I timed it). That one is called First Beach.




There's a canal that allows water from nearby Easton Pond to run down First Beach into the sea, which creates interesting patterns in the sand that I looked at for a long time. Look, I am autistic, I like patterns, it's a thing.




Nice light on a cloudy morning.




Great Black-backed Gull contemplates life. "I guess I'm pretty great... but could I be greater?"




First Beach was popular with joggers and dog walkers so there weren't as many birds, but it was a good spot for Fish Crows. These guys look basically the same as American Crows, but they were chatty which makes it an easy ID. They don't say "caw caw caw", they give a nasally "eh-eh".




Second and Third Beaches were on opposite sides of a narrow peninsula and had many of the same birds. (This is an American Herring Gull.)




Piping Plover was a lifer for both of us! So cute! Parts of these two beaches were cordoned off for their nesting areas. We'd find one or two hanging out with each group of Sanderlings.




Greater Yellowlegs, also a lifer for me!




Brants enjoy a preen before heading back into the water. This would have been a lifer for sdk if they had chosen to reveal themselves to her. Unfortunately she wasn't with me any of the times I saw them.




I could probably say something about these interesting rock formations if I knew anything about rock formations.


Further down the peninsula from Second and Third Beaches is Sachuest Point, a national wildlife refuge.



It's a nice easy walk around the point, with lots of good birds off the shore and on the rocks below.




Black Scoter, a lifer for us.




Sachuest Point itself.




The inland area of the refuge had many deer, who were obviously aware that they were in the safety zone and we couldn't do anything to them.




There were also a lot of bunnies. I tried to find out what kind of bunny this is, but apparently Eastern Cottontail and the threatened New England Cottontail look almost exactly alike, so you'll have to ask a bunny expert.


Just down the road from Sachuest there's Norman Bird Sanctuary.



There was a Great Egret on the other side of this pond, but when I took this picture I hadn't noticed it; sdk pointed it out a moment later.




This male Wild Turkey was deeply unimpressed by us blocking the trail as we gawked and took pictures of him. Eventually he went around us and continued on his way.




At the end of the trail there was a huge field of nest boxes inhabited by more Tree Swallows than I'd ever seen in one place!


One day it was supposed to rain, so we went to the Newport Art Museum. (It barely rained.)



They were having a juried exhibition with a really cool variety of artists.



I'm afraid I don't have names for any of these, for which my excuse is that the names weren't with the works, they were listed way off to the side and you had to hunt back and forth to match them up.



But this sculpture group is "Children of the World" by J. Oscar Molina.

Not pictured: An exhibition of art and objects related to tennis. Newport also has the International Tennis Hall of Fame, which we did not visit. The U.S. Open used to be in Rhode Island before it moved to New York so I think that's the connection.




One of the main intersections had this shark, which seems like a good landmark.




We were staying just off Purgatory Road. Purgatory Road leads to Purgatory Chasm, which we had to go check out.




It turned out that Purgatory Chasm was just a cliff overlooking Second Beach. The cliff had sort of a cavern splitting it in two, so I guess that's the chasm?




If you continue down Purgatory Road you end up on Paradise Road, and finally wind up at the aptly named Paradise Valley Park, which has this historic windmill with some informative signage explaining how historic it is. I promise this is a real place and not an AI-generated Windows 11 background.

Here are all the birds we observed on the trip:

1. Black Scoter - Lifer for both of us.
   
2. Piping Plover - Lifer for both of us.
   
3. Purple Sandpiper - Lifer for both of us. A big flock foraging on the rocks, plump shorebirds with short legs and longish bills. They're not really purple, kind of a dull gray mauve. But certainly more purple than your average sandpiper which is definitively brown.
   
4. Horned Grebe - Lifer for both of us. At a distance out in the water, but distinctive, small and dark with a rad orange swash behind the eye.
   
5. Greater Yellowlegs - Lifer for me.
   
6. Mute Swan - Lifer for sdk. Before we left we stopped at a gas station with a view of Easton Pond with the forlorn hope that sdk would see a Brant. There were none, but instead a Mute Swan flew over! Only my second time seeing one after the Lake Champlain vagrant.
   
7. Harlequin Duck - Lifer for sdk. They apparently get a lot of these in the winter at Sachuest Point, but it's getting late for them there and we only saw four, two boys and two girls. My first time seeing a female, since I'd only seen the gay couple before.
   
8. Red-breasted Merganser - Lifer for sdk. I was glad to get good looks at these because while they were on my life list, I'd only seen them once and didn't know what they were until I looked them up later. I like the punk rock hairstyle.
   
9. Brant - sdk's nemesis.
   
10. Mallard
    
11. Common Eider
    
12. Bufflehead
    
13. Ruddy Duck
    
14. Wild Turkey
    
15. Rock Pigeon
    
16. Mourning Dove
    
17. Black-bellied Plover
    
18. Kildeer
    
19. Sanderling
    
20. Ring-billed Gull
    
21. American Herring Gull
    
22. Great Black-backed Gull
    
23. Common Loon
    
24. Double-crested Cormorant
    
25. Snowy Egret
    
26. Great Egret
    
27. Turkey Vulture
    
28. Osprey
    
29. Northern Harrier
    
30. Red-bellied Woodpecker
    
31. Merlin
    
32. Blue Jay
    
33. American Crow
    
34. Fish Crow
    
35. Black-capped Chickadee
    
36. Tufted Titmouse
    
37. Tree Swallow
    
38. White-breasted Nuthatch
    
39. Carolina Wren
    
40. European Starling
    
41. Northern Mockingbird
    
42. Hermit Thrush
    
43. American Robin
    
44. House Sparrow
    
45. House Finch
    
46. American Goldfinch
    
47. Dark-eyed Junco
    
48. White-throated Sparrow
    
49. Song Sparrow
    
50. Eastern Towhee
    
51. Red-winged Blackbird
    
52. Brown-headed Cowbird
    
53. Common Grackle
    
54. Northern Yellow Warbler
    
55. Northern Cardinal

Not a bad haul for five days.