The rain kept to the west side of Narragansett Bay, so our birding around Newport was only dampish. In the parking lot of the Sachuest Point NWR, we watched a young gull trying to get the hang of dropping a mollusc to the pavement in order to smash it open. Our neophyte had figured out the dropping part, but not the targeting: his lunch kept landing softly in the grass.
The loop trail around Sachuest Point is smashing, all the more so in that we got fine looks at rafts of Common Eider (Somateria mollissima), good for my #363. Mike Tucker pointed out the salt-tolerant Rosa rugosa in fruit, not a native but apparently prized locally for its rose hips it produces. Not prized but just as apparent at Sachuest Point is the invasive Asiatic Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus). Just down the shore at Third Beach, we turned up the lovely pale yellow “Ipswich” subspecies of Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis princeps).
Back up Third Beach Road is the privately-run Norman Bird Sanctuary, where we stopped for lunch then birded the old fields and woods. The meadows are managed for Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), who returned the favor by perching in the open for good looks. Trip leader Lauren showed us the local geologic specialty, a metaconglomerate known locally as puddingstone.