I haven’t seen Peter D in a while, so today we went birding down to the Wells area to look for the American Avocets. Peter has yet to see them in Maine, and I wanted a better look, so we set off in that direction this morning.

Unfortunately, the tide was near dead low early today, so the creek was Avocet-less as we expected (at that tide). The plan was to bird the area until the tide started coming back in, so we next went to Ogunquit Beach. About 8 Yellow-rumped Warblers worked the bayberry, 5 Horned Larks were in the dunes, and a immature Northern Harrier passed by a mere 25-30 feet in front of us! But, it was cold, and then snow began to fall.

A quick check at the Avocet spot resulted in no birds (the tide was still dead low) – and besides, with the mud now freezing, the Avocets could have easily flown south by now. The next stop was Wells Harbor, where we planned on killing some time while the tide began to turn, but it was brutally cold on that jetty, so we didn’t last too long. 2 more Northern Harriers passed by, and a Common Merganser joined the more regular ducks in the channel.

One more check at the Avocet spot produced little. With a while to go before the marsh began to refill, and with the roads getting a bit slick (reducing our ability to rush back if we were running late), we decided to slowly work our way north. A drive out to Drake’s Island produced a brief look at a Northern Shrike – one of our favorite birds – and our first of the fall for this species. A walk at Laudholm Farms provided a handful of American Tree Sparrows, but a walk at the Rachel Carson NWR Headquarters was bird-less. Our last stop was at Parson’s Beach, and it turned out to be one of our birdiest spots of the day: a male American Kestrel eating a vole on a signpost, a Red-tailed Hawk catching a larger rodent in the marsh, a late Belted Kingfisher and a Great Blue Heron in the channel, a flock of about 200 European Starlings in the bushes, and an impressive assemblage of 33 Red-necked and about 20 Horned Grebes just offshore.

On the way home on the Turnpike, sipping hot chocolate, cars and trucks slammed on their brakes (thank goodness the roads here were not slick), as a car caught on fire and was rapidly engulfed in flames on the side of the road just ahead of us. It was a rather impressive fireball, but thank goodness the driver made it out unscathed. With the traffic completely stopped, folks were getting out the cars to watch, waiting for the firetrucks to finally show up (about 15 minutes later). At first it was odd that all we saw was one uniformed fireman stopping traffic. It was soon apparent that we was driving southbound, saw the car fire, pulled over, jumped out, donned his gear – which happened to be in the car – and ran over to make sure no one was inside. (That’s a hero in my book).

A woman standing at the car pulled into the median (on the southbound side) was the firefighter’s wife and we chatted for a moment as everyone waited for the trucks to arrive. Then, a Maine Turnpike Authority truck pulls over and starts yelling at the woman for having her car in the median. “Move your car! Get it out of here! You can’t pull off on the left side! You’ll cause another accident!” She calmly informed him that it was her husband who was the only fire fighter at the scene and she pulled over to let him out. “I don’t care,” the MTA guy raged, “Move your car!” And he continued to yell.

Peter and I were in shock. Should the car be in the median- no of course not, he was right. It was dangerous. But, I think it would have been more dangerous for a fireman wearing full gear to try and sprint across three lanes of speeding traffic! Besides, in a spilt second the car had burst into flames – what if there was someone inside!!! He risked his life to possibly save someone’s life – why should he have risked his life running across three lanes of traffic?! What if the pause to wait for a clear moment (traffic was not light today) was the difference between getting someone out alive? What would you have done? Then, on top of it the way this MTA guy just began to absolutely berate this woman – before he knew why she was there. I could understand that reaction if she was setting up a tripod to take pictures, but she was just trying to keep an eye on her husband - especially with no other firefighters or police there yet.

I was nearly as furious as she was! I give her a lot of credit – instead of blowing up at the guy should rather calmly asked for his name and simply said, “I will be talking to your supervisor tomorrow!” Good for her. Meanwhile, I gave her my number if she needed a witness to sign a report, or whatever, because I agreed with her and the way she was treated was simply uncalled for. I told her, “The rest of us appreciate what your husband did.” And I do.

As the fire trucks arrived, put out the fire, and lanes began to open, we headed north in the flurries, sipping our hot chocolate, able to talk about the birds of the day and count Red-tailed Hawks along the roadway home.

(Unfortunately for me and Peter, the “best” bird of the day was a tardy Field Sparrow that was visiting the store’s feeders while we were out birding. It was, of course, gone by the time we got back!)