Alas! Wildlife!

I've seen a plethora of exciting creatures in less than two weeks on the island. As the season progresses I'm excited for new animals and better looks at ones I've seen! 

A lot of birders have their life list which is essentially a check mark for seeing a certain species of bird. I like this idea and am always excited for a new bird to add or a "lifer"- a bird you'll probably only get to experience once in your life. However, one of the things I love most about watching wildlife is that it's different everytime. For example, I've seen an American Goldfinch on bird feeders before, but this one in the brush along the ocean with a pretty blue sky behind it was pretty exciting. I experienced another cool moment this week with an otter. I've glimpsed the movement of an otter before, but never really "seen" one in the wild. My boss did her Masters work on otters so we've been noting their tracks on the sand while out in the field. The other day we came over a dune to a pond and saw an otter frolicking on the shore. Its movement on land was like an inchworm with a seemingly overarched back. It rubbed around in the sand, played a little, and returned to the water to hunt. A few moments later it returned to shore and was munching on its fresh catch. The otter never saw us and my boss and I were both extremely impressed with our luck of such a sight. (My camera was broken by this point so I'm saying that's the reason we got so lucky!)

I doubt I'll ever get such a cool view of an otter again and will remember this instance on Martha's Vineyard. 

I think these stone crabs are cool and prehistoric looking. I've never seen so many crab shells on the shore before. These island gulls eat well!!

So far I've seen ring billed, black back, and herring gulls. 

These are Canada Geese eggs right off the trail- I would never get this close to plover or oystercatcher eggs! 

Some other birds I've seen are Common Eider, Red-breasted Merganser, Bufflehead, Dunlin, Sanderlings, Eastern Towhee, turkeys, and a Northern Flicker. 

In addition to the otter I saw a sea lion, deer, and chipmunks. 

Horseshoe crabs are still rocking that "prehistoric" look ever since it was just called the modern look hundreds of thousands of years ago.