Parker River National Wildlife Refuge

To close out astronomical summer in the northern hemisphere, we paid a visit to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island, off the northeast coast of Massachusetts. The island is named for the beach plum shrubs that grow on its dunes, and the wildlife refuge is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Entry costs $5 for a day pass for a car, or it’s free if you have a national parks pass. Parker River is popular with birdwatchers, and it contains a number of beach access points, lookouts, and trails throughout the island. There are also a couple of canoe routes that allow you to get up close and personal with the marshes, but we didn’t explore any of that this time.

You enter the wildlife refuge at the north end of Plum Island, and the road runs roughly north to south up and down the island. Along the road, there are seven numbered parking lots and several other pullouts for lesser attractions. We started at the first, and northernmost, parking lot, which serves as one of the main access points for the beach. The beach was quiet, though not deserted, with a few dozen people spread out across the sand. A couple people were braving the water, but most were walking along the beach, fishing, picnicking, or just enjoying the sun. We walked a ways down the beach, hung out with seagulls, and examined dead crabs before finding a spot in the sand for our peanut butter and jam sandwich and banana lunch.

Ring-billed gull

After lunch, we returned to the parking lot and started making our way down through the rest of the refuge. We stopped briefly at the Salt Pannes Wildlife Observation Area and the North Pool Overlook, a pullout on the road and a small parking lot respectively. At the salt pannes, we saw a wildlife, a lone swan with the tip of its beak submerged (likely a mute swan but it could theoretically have been a trumpeter), and at the North Pool was a family of mute swans, two adults and four juveniles that were adult-sized but still brown-feathered. Our next big stop was at the Hellcat Wildlife Observation Area (parking lot 4), which features a boardwalk trail and observation tower.

A short distance from the parking lot, you can turn off the boardwalk and cross a dike to reach the observation tower, which overlooks the North Pool to the north, the Bill Forward Pool to the south, and salt marshes to the west. Here we found the largest concentration of bird photographers, fully equipped with cameras, tripods, and telephoto lenses larger than my arm. I had my, relatively speaking, compact 55-250mm lens with me, which on a crop sensor camera is at the bottom end of the range you need to get started birding. I did still manage to capture a bunch of mallards, some yellowlegs, mute swans, a great blue heron, and an unidentified duck-ish bird. Back on the boardwalk, we made a loop through the forest, with trail spurs that led to views of the ocean and marsh. Including all the spurs, the trail is about 1.3 miles, plus another ~1000 feet out and back to the observation tower.

Across the marshes

View from the Hellcat observation tower - North Pool

Shortly after the Hellcat parking lot, the refuge road stops being paved, which ranges from “slightly annoying” to “I hope my engine doesn’t fall out.” It seemed worse going south than north, but we and the car survived. We made stops to hike the Pines and Stage Island Trails (slightly before parking lot 5 and parking lot 6). The Pines Trail is a quick 0.3 miles in the woods with a marsh overlook. The Stage Island Trail is 0.7 miles one way to the Ipswich Bluffs. Along the way, you see marshes, a couple pools, and across the Plum Island Sound to Great Neck. I found a group of yellowlegs at one of the pools, but unfortunately I wasn’t carrying a ruler to determine whether they were 10 or 14 inches tall, so I’m not sure if they’re greater or lesser yellowlegs (or a mixed group).

Yellowlegs

Our final stop was at the last parking lot before Sandy Point State Reservation, a Massachusetts state park. There was another observation tower looking out across an expanse of waving reeds/grass and beach access, which we used to get one last look at the ocean before heading home. I also got my last bird photos of the day, of a sandpiper of some kind. My best guess is a semipalmated sandpiper. We ended up spending a little over 5 hours at Parker River, which included lunch, some time on the beach, and all of the main hikes, but not playing on the beach/in the ocean or extended birdwatching stops, so depending on who you’re with and your interests, your timing and choices of activities may vary.

Field of grass

(Possible) semipalmated sandpiper