Cape Ann, MA

Brace's Cove, Gloucester

     One of the signs that the holiday season is quickly approaching is the trip to Cape Ann in Massachusetts to see the wintering birds along the Atlantic coastline. Our targets for this annual outing include loons, alcids, wintering seaducks like Long-tails, eiders and Red-breasted mergansers, and THE bird we all head north for, the Harlequin duck. Our main quarters for weekend are in Gloucester, a beautiful seaport steeped in a tradition of commercial fishing and sailing. Visitors flock to this year-round resort just to bask in the embiance of the rugged coastline. The headlands serve to afford us birders with an outstanding vantage point from which we can survey the protected waters of the harbors.

Common eider

       Northern gannets plunge into the frigid waters from high above while the Common eiders swim in small groups closer in to the beaches. This is definitely a location where spotting scopes are a necessity as many of our quarry prefer to remin farther out from the shore. It's a challenge to distinguish between the Red-throated loons and the Red-necked grebes as they bob in and out of view while riding the surf. I often find myself excitedly training my glass on a potential Black guillemot (not so black in winter!) only to discover that in fact it is another of the myriad of buoys marking the locations of the lobster pots scattered upon the harbor floor. While the lobsters are foraging in the depths, the seals choose to take advantage of the unusually warm temperatures and are seen sunbathing on the rock outcrops peeking up above the surface of the water.

Harbor seals

      In the 2 1/2 days we spent skirting up and down the coast, we managed to see most of what we came north for. Highlights along the rocky shoreline included Horned grebes, many Common eiders, Common and Red-throated loons, all three species of scoters, the Black guillemots, Long-tailed ducks, and of course the most strikingly handsome of the entire group, the Harlequin.

Harlequin duck

      Further inland we were treated to pleasing looks at a lone Snow bunting at close range, and a field of Canada geese sharing their turf with a half dozen Snow geese with a couple of Blue morphs. Best of all, one handsome Barnacle goose was situated squarely in the midst of the crowd.

Barnacle goose among Canada geese

      And so, as we headed back to SE New York, we were pleased to have been able to add a number of new birds to our "year lists" and in the process to have unofficially begun the 2011 holiday season.