Day 14, EAst Coast Trip, Sunday Oct 1 2023, At Salisbury MQ

  Day 14 Sunday October 1, 2023 At Salisbury, MA

The sun was shining this morning and that's always a good sign. The Temperature got up to 73 F which was the highest in about two weeks. It was a good day to go see some more wildlife.

 We looked up the National Wildlife Refuge that was in Hampshire about 25 miles from here. It seems like a good place to go, it had a few roads, and many trails. We decided to head there, taking our lunch of course with us as we were thinking about having a seafood dinner that night.

The ride up to the NWR does include driving on I-95 for about 8 miles. I-95 for this stretch at least, is four wide lanes, each way, plus exit lanes when there's a ramp, so there's plenty of room. As it was Sunday we noticed the traffic heading south, going  the other way, was very full but moving along at a nice pace.  (Bostonians heading home agan after being "Up North") Going through the E-Z Pass lanes makes it much quicker and going north the traffic didn't slow down very much. The GPS even tells you to get over into the proper lanes for E-Z Pass. I cannot say the same about the traffic going south after we left the refuge, as it was stop and go for a number of miles before the toll booths.

The fence between the Military post and the Refuge

One of the ponds on the trail

 

There is a nice, quiet, wooded entry into the NWR  which is called Great Bay NWR. When we arrived we found that the road we thought we could drive on, had a gate locked for "no entrance". So we tried to figure a good place to watch for where birds were located. Interestingly this location is adjacent to a very large munitions storage area that was used during World War II.  ** (See paragraph at bottom). It was then we noticed by this huge gate that there was a bird activity and so we camped there for more than an hour and picked up some birds. That included the Bluebird, in Eastern Phoebe, a House Finch, and a Northern Harrier that perched himself on the telephone pole. Also saw  a small flock of Chipping Sparrow's. 

After lunch, we did decide to walk one of the trails that was just one half mile long. It was a boardwalk so walking was easier. The entry sign said there were six benches along the way which we use if possible, but there was only one on the entire trail. (Time for a letter, eh? To the management).)

Bittersweet Berries (poisonous)

 Turkeytail Mushrooms (the fan tail?)

Green Spored Parasol

Ruby Meadowhawk Dragon Fly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boardwalk takes us through a very thick maple forest. I believe it's a second or third cutting but the trees are 80-100 feet tall and as there are many fallen timbers, so one would know that it's been there a long time. One of the big features of this forest was the number of mushrooms that we saw along the way. I think we saw eight or 10 different varieties many of which we photographed.

One half way around the loop there is a large pond where we did see some Widgeons and a Green Winged Teal. There were no Great blue Heron's, or Egrets to be seen. I think the pond was too deep for them as they like shallow water. Remember the Marshes of Parker River!

Greenshield Lichen

Paneolus antillarum

Little puffball mushrooms (their name)

 

It was a quiet walk and the time by the pond was quiet, relaxing and refreshing.

We headed back to the trailer a little earlier than we usually do, but that was okay considering it was really a very fine day.

The closed (permanent) main gate .We saw birds here  on the fences.

 

Downloading pictures, and checking mail, got us up to the suppertime. Then we ordered those lobster buns, and I added a bowl of clam chowder from a restaurant that specializes in that. Although lobsters are a little pricey, that special taste was delightful. It was a good way to end the day. (East coast food!)

It looks like tomorrow will be a laundry day in the morning and then back to a NWR in the afternoon.

One more day here and then will be moving up to Scarborough, New Hampshire.

Thanks for reading, and keep in touch,-- Jim 

**Paragraph... (from above)

The munition storage area is  connected with what was called Pease AFB  until recent years. It held many of the Strato bombers that carried nuclear weapons , and troops deploying from overseas often land here to embark.  The National Guard refuels ther planes frm here (Air to air). Now the airfield complex is called "The Pease Development Authority". and has over 300 businesses, with  about 10,000 employees at the site.  What a change from the war years of WW2.