I went out birding by myself this morning at 6:30 am and ended up at the ocean in the cliffs area, not the beach. I was hoping to see some birds and a goal was to view a Common Eider duck. This is an area of Ogunquit where one goes up a steep road and the paved foot path along the edge of the cliff is aptly named Marginal Way. I had my choice of parking spots until 9 am and I parked by the lighthouse-type light. One is up high on a cliff edge with a path along the cliff edge overlooking rocky shores with a great view of the ocean.
I brought my scope with me and it was hot already at 6:30am. There were lots of people on the path; running, strolling, and only myself with binoculars. I looked for Common Eider. Well there were rafts of them along with Common Loons, Double-crested Cormorants, Black-backed Gulls (pink legs and no yellow legs viewed so no Lesser Black-backed Gull). There were Gray Catbirds, Song Sparrows and American Goldfinches in the bushes along the path. The path is generally paved and there are benches along the way. I spent about two hours along this mile long path. I looked along the rocky shore hoping for shorebirds but did not see any.
After this I drove on to Wells Pond (not really a pond but the next town along Hwy 1) where the cliffs are not as high and while there are beaches there are rocky shores also. The same variety of birds were viewed. Then I checked for some birding spots for tomorrow morning`s birding. I was home by 10 am and we left for the main Ogunquit beach at 10:30 am as we all wanted to spend the day at the main beach and the $30 a day parking lot fills up really quick. We had three folding beach chairs, a bucket full of toys. A sun tent for Cal, two umbrellas for us, a cooler, two beach bags, a two year old and a two month old. So the whole plan was to park in a lot closest to the beach so we could all carry all this in one trip.
The kids were very well organized and planned all this. Cal could sleep in the tent and was out of the sun. He is too young for sunscreen. Avery has a bathing suit that covers her arms so she needs sunscreen on her face and her legs. We all had bathing suits on. We had plenty of water, booze in cans (no liquor allowed) and we ate a beach restaurant food for lunch and ended the day with ice cream at the beach strip. We had a good spot for the tent. We were fairly early for the beach but it was packed already!! Gosh I saw people set up their chairs at 6:30 am when I was out birding. We saw the tide come in very close to us and then start to go out.
The water was bone chilling leg-cramping cold but after a few minutes one got used to the cold and the water was fine. I would not want to swim in it for any length of time. It a very hot day and was over 30 degrees today. We kept an eye on Cal and he managed fine and he even got his feet wet and he had an all body swim suit on. If one got hot sitting after 1/2 an hour, one simply went into the water for 15 minutes and that was enough to cool off for the next 30 to 45 minutes.
We ate lunch at the beach today. Ashley and I and the kids went to the beach restaurant - it was air conditioned for lunch and the guys had takeout from the same place. It was good and tasty and it was good to cool down a bit. Then we went back to the beach, the high tide was now receding and it was moving towards a low tide. So back to the water and the beach and the surf and playing. There were kites up in the air and lots of people of little boards and some people on larger boards out further. So we did the into the water, then wading, then playing, then warming up on the sand more or less all day. Avery dug a couple of beach mounds. We packed up at 4 pm and Avery and all of us had a great time in the surf, in the waves coming in and going out. The sand was everywhere.
There were thousands of people there today on the beach. The view was hundreds of gaily coloured umbrellas, including ours. There is no way one could sit there without an umbrella. I think it was 32 degrees today with a gentle breeze all day. Everyone was tired and we got home and everyone took a shower to get all the sand, suncreen and sweat off from our bodies. Then some drinks and we made a simple supper with the sausages I made in Ottawa the day before we left. Ashley made delicious eggplant and we had broccoli rice.
For dessert Norm had to have his Key Lime Pie and it was very sweet and everyone loved it. Now Ashley and Jason are putting Cal and Avery to bed and Norm and I are watching CNN. A very good day and we did manage a whole day at the beach. We wanted to do this once and on a perfect beach day. After this we will try other beaches for part of the day. No one got sunburn and seems to be fine. We are all tired this evening.
I brought my scope with me and it was hot already at 6:30am. There were lots of people on the path; running, strolling, and only myself with binoculars. I looked for Common Eider. Well there were rafts of them along with Common Loons, Double-crested Cormorants, Black-backed Gulls (pink legs and no yellow legs viewed so no Lesser Black-backed Gull). There were Gray Catbirds, Song Sparrows and American Goldfinches in the bushes along the path. The path is generally paved and there are benches along the way. I spent about two hours along this mile long path. I looked along the rocky shore hoping for shorebirds but did not see any.
After this I drove on to Wells Pond (not really a pond but the next town along Hwy 1) where the cliffs are not as high and while there are beaches there are rocky shores also. The same variety of birds were viewed. Then I checked for some birding spots for tomorrow morning`s birding. I was home by 10 am and we left for the main Ogunquit beach at 10:30 am as we all wanted to spend the day at the main beach and the $30 a day parking lot fills up really quick. We had three folding beach chairs, a bucket full of toys. A sun tent for Cal, two umbrellas for us, a cooler, two beach bags, a two year old and a two month old. So the whole plan was to park in a lot closest to the beach so we could all carry all this in one trip.
The kids were very well organized and planned all this. Cal could sleep in the tent and was out of the sun. He is too young for sunscreen. Avery has a bathing suit that covers her arms so she needs sunscreen on her face and her legs. We all had bathing suits on. We had plenty of water, booze in cans (no liquor allowed) and we ate a beach restaurant food for lunch and ended the day with ice cream at the beach strip. We had a good spot for the tent. We were fairly early for the beach but it was packed already!! Gosh I saw people set up their chairs at 6:30 am when I was out birding. We saw the tide come in very close to us and then start to go out.
The water was bone chilling leg-cramping cold but after a few minutes one got used to the cold and the water was fine. I would not want to swim in it for any length of time. It a very hot day and was over 30 degrees today. We kept an eye on Cal and he managed fine and he even got his feet wet and he had an all body swim suit on. If one got hot sitting after 1/2 an hour, one simply went into the water for 15 minutes and that was enough to cool off for the next 30 to 45 minutes.
We ate lunch at the beach today. Ashley and I and the kids went to the beach restaurant - it was air conditioned for lunch and the guys had takeout from the same place. It was good and tasty and it was good to cool down a bit. Then we went back to the beach, the high tide was now receding and it was moving towards a low tide. So back to the water and the beach and the surf and playing. There were kites up in the air and lots of people of little boards and some people on larger boards out further. So we did the into the water, then wading, then playing, then warming up on the sand more or less all day. Avery dug a couple of beach mounds. We packed up at 4 pm and Avery and all of us had a great time in the surf, in the waves coming in and going out. The sand was everywhere.
There were thousands of people there today on the beach. The view was hundreds of gaily coloured umbrellas, including ours. There is no way one could sit there without an umbrella. I think it was 32 degrees today with a gentle breeze all day. Everyone was tired and we got home and everyone took a shower to get all the sand, suncreen and sweat off from our bodies. Then some drinks and we made a simple supper with the sausages I made in Ottawa the day before we left. Ashley made delicious eggplant and we had broccoli rice.
For dessert Norm had to have his Key Lime Pie and it was very sweet and everyone loved it. Now Ashley and Jason are putting Cal and Avery to bed and Norm and I are watching CNN. A very good day and we did manage a whole day at the beach. We wanted to do this once and on a perfect beach day. After this we will try other beaches for part of the day. No one got sunburn and seems to be fine. We are all tired this evening.
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