Sunday, August 11, 2013

Bird Island or Bust

It was a splendiferous day for a paddle to Bird Island in Buzzards Bay.  Not a cloud in the sky as participants in this year's Bird Island Challenge headed out into the bay from Zecco Marine into the Wareham River.  The event is a fundraiser for the Gleason Family YMCA in Wareham and offers entrants a choice of three different turnaround points: Long Beach, Great Hill, or Bird Island.  The previous two years conditions didn't allow participants to round Bird Island.  However on this near perfect morning there was little doubt the island could be encircled.

All Bird Island participants started their journeys near this retired Nantucket Lightship in the Wareham River...

As I reached the closest point in my Bird Island orbit, I snapped this photo of some of the island's namesakes...most of them terns...
 

The island serves as a major nesting site for both common and the more rare roseate terns.  Not sure if these are common or roseate.

Then it was time to paddle back to the Wareham River into a very pleasant breeze out of the northwest. And not a piece of trash to be seen!

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