Let’s Go Wildlife Watching at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Newburyport, MA
By Joe Anderson
Spring is in the air and while we all start to get outside and enjoy the warmer, longer days, the wildlife around us is hard at work capitalizing on this time of abundance. That is why this is the best time of the year to get out and look for wild animals.
Spring is your best chance to catch a hungry black bear searching for food after sleeping through the winter. This is also when most species give birth and you may see juveniles trying to get a head start in life.
For birdwatchers, spring is the season we have been waiting for all year. Don’t blink. If you are looking for migrating birds in the Northeast, there are not many better places to go than the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge (PRNWR). This refuge, located on Plum Island in Newburyport, Massachusetts, is great for a wide variety of wildlife viewing opportunities. It’s home to sandy dunes, salt marsh, pine forest, and freshwater ponds with trails, boardwalks, and bird blinds offering easy access to each habitat.
Whether you prefer to walk into the woods or just get out of the car to see what’s around, PRNWR makes it easy to access nature and see wild animals. Plum Island is a great place to visit without any specific target species in mind. But if you want to see Snowy Owls, the massive salt marshes and sandy dunes on the island are the best places to look in the winter. While these majestic birds can be elusive, and surprisingly hard to spot (given their bright white feathers), they are actually among the few diurnal owls, meaning they are active during the day.
Besides Snowy Owls, there are a few other hard-to-find birds that can be seen more easily at PRNWR. One example is the American and Least Bitterns, which hide in tall grasses of marshes and ponds. Searching for these species in the freshwater ponds on Plum Island might be your best bet to actually see one anywhere around the Northeast. These ponds are also home to a wide variety of ducks, wading birds, and other species that prefer to stay close to water.
But if you are going to Plum Island in spring, you are probably going to look for the warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and other migrating birds that can only be seen at certain times of the year. While these species can be found throughout the refuge, there is nowhere better to see them than the Hellcat boardwalks. Raised a few feet from the ground and going through a habitat that is great for bird viewing, these boardwalks give you the chance to see these beautiful birds up close and often at eye-level.
Hellcat, and the rest of PRNWR, can be crowded with birdwatchers during the spring migration but there is good reason for it. It’s because Parker River National Wildlife Refuge is known to many as the best birdwatching spot in all of Massachusetts.
Joe Anderson is an avid bird watcher and enjoys sharing his favorite birding locations with others.
