Blue-Headed Blackbird: Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge

Due to one of my internships this summer, I have to go to Newport, RI for some shows, and have taken the opportunity to visit Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge and nearby Sachuest Beach before the shows. Since I have been ridiculously busy this summer, I will try to catch up with pictures from my recent adventures without much text. Here goes.

Sachuest Point NWR:

Sachuest Point is very rocky, especially on the south and east sides, which are the sides most exposed to the force of the ocean.

The rockiness is great for birds like these Double-Crested Cormorants. I counted 74 cormorants on the "Island Rocks" as the signs say, which are visible in the first picture.

I found this live Little Skate (I'm pretty sure it's a Little Skate, my rented Peterson Guide says that they are the most commonly found skate in summer in this area, and it has no eye-spots that are generally found on Winter Skates) stuck in some rocks as the tide went out. I tried to help him by moving the rocks but he unfortunately chose heavy rocks to get wedged under.

This Little Skate was right nearby and a Great Black-Backed Gull had been eating it. Not sure if the GBBG had killed it or just scavenged it.

Blue Mussels love the rocky habitat at Sachuest.

I think these things are shedded parts of barnacles. Barnacles are actually crustaceans like crabs and lobsters, and I'm guessing they molt like crabs do. Maybe these are a large amount of barnacle carapaces?

Common Buckeye butterfly, a first for me.

I counted 29 Forbes Sea Stars, Asterias forbesii on the rocks on the shelted northern side of Sachuest Point, somehow I had never found sea stars in the wild before and I was pretty excited. Again, I'm pretty sure this following one is Forbes Sea Star and not Boreal/Northern Sea Star Asterias vulgaris, but because information is rather limited on invertebrates, even in New England, I am IDing them based on range.

Forbes Sea Star

The rocks that the sea stars were on:

Sachuest Beach:

Sachuest Beach is a stone's throw from Sachuest Point, but it is a completely different type of habitat. It is an ocean beach that is littered with Atlantic Surf Clam shells.