Cape Ann, MA and Homeward, March 10

After completing my blog entries, Sunday morning, March 10, I headed to Cape Ann to try for King Eider.  It was a short 30 to 40 minute drive to Gloucester.  I spent almost all of my time near the Elks Club where the King Eider had been reported this past winter and historically.  I did not find the King Eider.  I met a lady who had been looking this past winter and did not find it, and found out that it is not an adult bird but a first winter bird, and is often way out or at Salt Island.  There were other birders also looking for the King Eider but not finding it.  I followed the kind lady to Salt Island, which can only be viewed by looking through openings between houses in a residential area, where we got "skunked" again on the King Eider.  At the Salt Island location, I met a local birder who told me that there was a Thick-billed Murre and a Pacific Loon at the Jodfrey Fish Pier in Gloucester in the morning.  I looked at the time and realized that I needed to stop birding and start driving to Cincinnati.  Jodfrey Pier was on my way so I stopped there.  However, the Thick-billed Murre and the Pacific Loon were no longer visible and had moved away about twenty minutes earlier.  I had earlier checked Google maps, and found out that it was 14 hours and 30 minutes to my home in Cincinnati.  I left for home at about 3:00 pm and took a course down I95, across the Tappan Zee Bridge around New York City to I78 and Harrisburg, PA and the PA Turnpike.  Google maps wanted me to go west across I90 through MA and NY, but I avoided that due to the possibility of snow, even though current temperatures were abut 45F.  I stopped to grab some quick sleep for 3.5 hours from about 10:30 pm until 2:00 am at a Love's truck stop east of Harrisburg and again for several hours at the Somerset  Rest Area on the PA Turnpike.  I arrived home at 12:30 pm on Monday, March 11.  I picked up my awaiting renewed Passport and organized for my next trip, this one a flight to Seattle and British Columbia, CA to try for the Red-flanked Bluetail and Brambling in Vancover and Citrine Wagtail on Victoria Island.  My flight is at 6:00 am on Tuesday morning from Dayton.  It will be hectic to make this schedule. 

Before I forget, here is the photo of the fox from First Encounter Beach on Cape Cod yesterday that Dan Logan took and sent to me.  Thanks Dan!  May our paths cross again sometime this year.

PS  I am writing this entry from a motel in Nanaimo, BC on Victoria Island.  My quest so far on this trip has been successful!  More about that later!