Our fortnight our here in Massachusetts with the family is sadly drawing to a close, but it's been wonderful, of course; not birdy, and nor was it ever going to be, with priorities (family time), conditions (messy, cold), and time of year (tantalisingly close to the flood of spring migration, but not close enough) all knocking that down the list. But there have been exceptions.....
.... and what quality exceptions they've been, particularly over the last couple of days. Decamping to coastal southern Mass for an overnighter sandwiched between an evening and a morning's birding with brother Neil, we focused on the perfect, productive peninsula of Gooseberry Island, just a few minutes south of our Westport base. It's an absolute dream of a birding spot, which I'll go into a little more over subsequent posts, but for now, here's some Harlequins, which should be more than enough.
They're a scarce winter visitor here, with one or two regular locations on the Mass coast; here at Gooseberry Island / Horseshoe Beach, however, there have only been one or two erratically this season. So you can imagine my joy when four - two pairs, including two spanking males - put on a show and a half for us, swimming towards me and checking me out as I sat on the rocks by the causeway. Just perfect.
