This page contains a single entry and its associated comments from my blog, "Natural High." That makes it ideal for bookmarking, printing, or linking to if what you wish to do is capture this one entry. (The "Main" page contains several entries, additional links, and is constantly changing as new items are added.)
Sachuest slideshow surprise
We went to Sachuest, Don Douglas and I, in search of Harlequin ducks, those wonderfully colorful little surfers who love to hang around the rocks in breaking seas.
They're here only in the winter and "here" - in this area - means only at Sachuest Point in Newport, RI. They go off to fast moving mountain streams to mate and raise their young. Bottom line - they love fast moving, aerated water for whatever reason - be at ocean or stream.
In any event, we were surprised, not only by a Great Cormorant and an enthusiastic Song Sparrow, but by a little fellow that showed up just after we finished taking pictures of the Harlequins. You'll meet him at the end of the slide show below. It will take a few moments to load, then it should start going through the slides on its own.
Yep - that is the little animal women used to love to wrap around their necks. Seeing him was a first for me, although I saw some similar animal I could not identify once while kayaking on the Wood River in RI. I would expect them near a river. They are great swimmers and like to eat fish. Just never occured to me that they would be at the ocean, hunting among the rocks and breakers.
And when i quickly checked my pictures while still on scene, it looked like one of them showed him foaming at the mouth. Since these are largely nocturnal animals and this was the middle of the day, I immediately thought of rabies. But Don pointed out that his behavior wasn't at all like a rabid animal. Then when researching mink on the web I learned they frequently had white on their chins. And, of course, when I looked closely at the pictures I could see the white was fur, not foam!