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9 September 2010
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Rockport, Maine, USA
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Posts Tagged ‘mallard’
Friday, June 4th, 2010
 American redstart (first-year male). The day started out pretty early. Another Friday morning bicycle ride through Camden, Lincolnville, and Hope. Four of us on this morning’s ride, which took us up through low-lying mist into higher sunlight, then back again. As on the last two early Friday mornings, I saw and heard—mostly heard—a lot of birds. Today, most notably: a Canada goose (at Megunticook Lake, where we started), a common loon (calling somewhere along the route), ten warblers, four flycatchers, and three thrushes. Thirty-seven species over the course of eighteen miles.
 Chestnut-sided warbler. Immediately afterward, Jack and I hiked Beech Hill, as usual. Somewhat foggy still, with clouds hanging low over the inland hills and bay islands. Few species at first, although a white-tailed deer loped through the woods about fifty yards in front of us, left to right, causing us both to stop and gape. But then the birds began to sing and fly, and by the end of our hike of the wooded trail, I’d counted thirty (only four not on my bike list). Notably, I kept walking into tiny filaments that some worm or spider had strung across the trail—seemingly always at the level of my face. About the tenth or fifteenth of these, and I broke down and said, “Damn it.” Not proud of that.
This afternoon, the sun emerged, and I took another bike ride. Starling, grackle, herring gull. Then about a quarter to six, I had a call from a fellow birder asking if I’d like to photograph Wilson’s phalaropes at Weskeag Marsh. Turns out I did—so I drove over and got a couple distant shots. I hadn’t been there in several weeks. The pannes were full, the marsh green and lush. Yellowthroats called, a snowy egret flew in, black ducks and mallards dabbled, and there were flyovers by great a blue herons and an osprey.
All in all, a multifarious kind of day.
Early Morning Bike Ride
(Knox and Waldo counties; not in order of sighting.)
1. Canada goose
2. Mallard
3. Ovenbird (voice)
4. American redstart (voice)
5. Chestnut-sided warbler (voice)
6. Yellow warbler (voice)
7. Common yellowthroat (voice)
8. Black-throated green warbler (voice)
9. Black-throated blue warbler (voice)
10. Black-and-white warbler (voice)
11. Blackburnian warbler (voice)
12. Nashville warbler (voice)
13. Red-winged blackbird
14. Common grackle
15. Eastern phoebe
16. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
17. Alder flycatcher (voice)
18. Eastern kingbird
19. American robin
20. Wood thrush (voice)
21. Veery (voice)
22. American goldfinch
23. Rose-breasted grosbeak (voice)
24. Black-capped chickadee
25. Tufted titmouse (voice)
26. Northern flicker
27. Song sparrow
28. Chipping sparrow (voice)
29. Common loon (voice)
30. American crow
31. Blue jay (voice)
32. Northern cardinal (voice)
33. Cedar waxwing
34. Mourning dove
35. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
36. Tree swallow
37. Gray catbird
 American redstart. Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7:30 a.m., I walked the wooded trails.
Red-eyed vireo
Chestnut-sided warbler
Ovenbird
Black-capped chickadee
American goldfinch
Rose-breasted grosbeak
American redstart
38. Eastern towhee
Cedar waxwing
Gray catbird
39. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
Alder flycatcher
Black-and-white warbler
Song sparrow
Common yellowthroat
Nashville warbler
Yellow warbler
Mourning dove
Eastern phoebe
Tree swallow
40. Field sparrow
41. Savannah sparrow
American crow
Veery
Tufted titmouse
Black-throated green warbler
American robin
Northern flicker
Black-throated blue warbler
Eastern wood-pewee
 Wilson's phalaropes, Weskeag Marsh. Weskeag Marsh
Mallard
42. Black duck
43. Great blue heron
44. Wilson’s phalarope*
45. Snowy egret*
46. Killdeer
47. Greater yellowlegs (voice)*
48. Osprey
Elsewhere
49. House sparrow
50. European starling
51. Herring gull
*First-of-year bird.
 Rockport Harbor mist.
Tags: alder flycatcher, American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, black duck, black-and-white warbler, black-capped chickadee, black-throated blue warbler, black-throated green warbler, blackburnian warbler, blue jay, Canada goose, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, chipping sparrow, common grackle, common loon, common yellowthroat, eastern kingbird, Eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, European starling, field sparrow, gray catbird, great blue heron, greater yellowlegs, herring gull, house sparrow, killdeer, mallard, mourning dove, Nashville warbler, Northern cardinal, northern flicker, osprey, ovenbird, red-eyed vireo, red-winged blackbird, rose-breasted grosbeak, savannah sparrow, snowy egret, song sparrow, tree swallow, tufted titmouse, veery, white-breasted nuthatch, Wilson's phalarope, wood thrush, yellow warbler
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Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
 Savannah sparrow. Today’s forecast called for a 90 percent chance of rain, but it was merely overcast and muggy when dog and I headed for Beech Hill. A bit cool, but not bad. Shirtsleeve weather. The undergrowth is lush and green and just about what I’d expect for the first of June, but after my stunning Monhegan weekend, I didn’t have much hope for any memorable bird sightings.
 Upper wooded Beech Hill trail. Sure enough, I counted only the commonest species most of the way uphill: ovenbird, towhee, catbird, yellowthroat, vireo, chestnut-sided warbler. Alder flycatchers, once they finally arrive, don’t much shut up—but some early nesters have gone quiet. No song of phoebe, for instance, or robin.
It’s also hard to get decent photos on such a gray day, at least with a telephoto lens. Fog and mist covered the ocean-side slope and wafted along the peaks of the inland hills. So on a lark I brought my digital recorder. I focused on alternate calls—chestnut-sided, redstart, veery—and got a snippet of the crazy-ass yellowthroat. But the wind picked up enough to interfere, I’m sure, and there’re always a few noisy vehicles passing on Rockville Street or Route 17.
 Mourning doves on the Beech Nut chimney. I was surprised to have counted thirty-one species once our hike was done. Perhaps the oddest sighting was a pair of mallards in a tiny woodland vernal pool.
Pulled up back home and noticed a female house sparrow poking around the rock wall. Hers was my best portrait of the day.
Before long it rained, fairly heavily. It was nice to get some rain for a change.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 6:30 a.m., I walked all trails.
1. Ovenbird (voice)
2. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
3. Common yellowthroat
4. Chestnut-sided warbler
5. Gray catbird
6. Eastern towhee
7. American redstart (voice)
8. Alder flycatcher (voice)
9. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
10. Nashville warbler (voice)
11. Song sparrow
12. Savannah sparrow
13. Common raven (voice)
14. American crow (voice)
15. Yellow warbler (voice)
16. Hermit thrush (voice)
17. Blue jay (voice)
18. American goldfinch
19. Chipping sparrow (voice)
20. White-throated sparrow (voice)
21. Mourning dove
22. Northern cardinal (voice)
23. Tufted titmouse (voice)
24. Eastern phoebe
25. Northern flicker (voice)
26. American robin
27. Rose-breasted grosbeak (voice)
28. Black-throated blue warbler (voice)
29. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
30. Veery (voice)
31. Mallard
 House sparrow (female).
Tags: alder flycatcher, American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, black-capped chickadee, black-throated blue warbler, blue jay, chestnut-sided warbler, chipping sparrow, common raven, common yellowthroat, Eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, gray catbird, hermit thrush, mallard, mourning dove, Nashville warbler, Northern cardinal, northern flicker, ovenbird, red-eyed vireo, rose-breasted grosbeak, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, veery, white-throated sparrow, yellow warbler
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Monday, May 31st, 2010
 Dead cedar waxwing. Earlier this month, the Alaotra grebe—a small species from Madagascar—was declared extinct. On Monhegan this morning, I got a look at the preserved remains of a lovely cedar waxwing that’d run into a window and died. (Note: an estimated 100 million or more birds die in the U.S. each year from running into windows.) Then on a hike through Cathedral Woods this afternoon, my friends Kristen and Paul and I came upon a whimsical memorial to a dead wood-warbler.
 Ovenbird memorial. This particular trail in the woods is known for its tiny “fairy houses” made of bark and twigs and lichen and spruce cones. And this particular house had a makeshift cross, a snail shell, and a sort of lean-to holding the corpse of a lovely ovenbird. I can hardly express how touching this was to stumble upon on Memorial Day.
A number of house cats—including an exotic breed or two—stalk the yards of Monhegan, and no doubt a few kill birds. In fall, the island gets by peregrine falcons and other raptors, efficient machines for murder. And, sure, every living thing dies. But it sticks with you when you view the dead bodies of more than one recently living bird in one twenty-four-hour period. It sticks with me, at least.
 White-eyed vireo. So it’s with somewhat deeper appreciation that I counted forty-five living species this warm, summer-like spring day on Monhegan—including plenty of living waxwings (about a hundred). Also including a white-eyed vireo (a lifer for me), a bird Kristen and I tracked down in a thicket off the Burnt Head trail; obligingly, it hopped up onto a dead branch just as I raised my camera. Three individual birds were most discussed this weekend: Saturday’s western kingbird, the white-eyed vireo, and an olive-sided flycatcher reportedly seen in the same area as the vireo. We tried for what one birder called the “all-excited flycatcher” but saw and heard only a bunch of alders. Oh, well.
One interesting aspect of this trip were two thirteen-year-old Maine birders—long-time friends—who really knew their stuff. One of the boys got nice photos of the white-eyed, and the other ended the day with a sighting of a black-billed cuckoo. I believe they both photographed the wayward western kingbird. And this afternoon, on the boat back inshore, they both stood with me in the bow snapping photos of northern gannets.
The northern gannets, by the way, were very much alive.
 Northern oriole. Monhegan List
(Numbered for full trip; not in order of listing.)
55. White-eyed vireo**
56. Northern flicker (voice)
57. Spotted sandpiper*
58. White-throated sparrow (voice)
American robin
Cedar waxwing
Red-breasted nuthatch
House wren
Winter wren (voice)
Carolina wren
Magnolia warbler
Alder flycatcher
Golden-crowned kinglet (voice)
Double-crested cormorant
Herring gull
Great black-backed gull
Laughing gull
Common eider
Black guillemot
Mallard
American goldfinch
White-winged crossbill
Ring-necked pheasant (voice)
American crow
Common grackle
Red-winged blackbird
European starling
Purple finch (voice)
Common yellowthroat
Yellow warbler
American redstart
Black-throated green warbler (voice)
Blackpoll warbler (voice)
Gray catbird
Mourning dove
Black-capped chickadee
Northern oriole
Brown thrasher
Northern cardinal (voice)
Eastern kingbird
Alder flycatcher
Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
Song sparrow
Blue jay (voice)
Osprey (voice)
Elsewhere
Northern gannet
Bald eagle
Tufted titmouse (voice)
*First-of-year bird.
**Life bird.
 Northern gannet, living and breathing.
Tags: alder flycatcher, American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, black-capped chickadee, black-throated green warbler, blackpoll warbler, blue jay, brown thrasher, Carolina wren, Cedar waxwing, common eider, common grackle, common yellowthroat, double-crested cormorant, European starling, golden-crowned kinglet, gray catbird, great black-backed gull, herring gull, house wren, laughing gull, magnolia warbler, mallard, mourning dove, Northern cardinal, northern flicker, northern oriole, osprey, purple finch, red-breasted nuthatch, red-winged blackbird, Ring-necked pheasant, song sparrow, spotted sandpiper, white-eyed vireo, white-throated sparrow, white-winged crossbill, winter wren, yellow warbler
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Sunday, May 30th, 2010
 Carolina wren. It’s hard to put into words the shift in reality you feel when staying on an island a several miles offshore. A smallish island, with another hundred souls or so, and some leashless dogs, and pickups without license plates driving slowly along windy one-lane gravel roads. Especially at this time of year, when the air smells of the ocean and lilacs and cut grass and roses. And there’s a bird in every tree.
 Cedar waxwing—not an uncommon bird on Monhegan. Another fruitful day on Monhegan. Up at first light (about 5 a.m.). Two hours birding before breakfast. Hazy in the morning, then a spattering of rain. Then clearing into full sun and summer-like warmth. The calendar seems much earlier than the season.
Birders’ excitement yesterday—there’s always some crazy vagrant—was the western kingbird we saw hanging out with the eastern kingbirds at the watery wetland they call The Meadow. We also heard tell of a white-eyed vireo and, today, an olive-sided warbler, but we neither saw nor heard either. However, I personally listed a dozen new island species, including four first-of-year birds (red-breasted nuthatch, winter wren, golden-crowned kinglet, and willet). That’s a good fifty-four species on the trip so far—certainly no record, but not bad for a migration mostly gone by.
 Yellow warbler. I got a couple decent photos but thought I’d lost them all as my camera battery died while downloading. Thankfully, I didn’t—but if I had, it wouldn’t've been nearly as upsetting as if I’d been inshore. The Carolina wren was fairly nice. Also a couple of waxwing shots. (I saw a pair of waxwings, by the way, feeding each other berries—a behavior I’ve witnessed in the past but involving apple blossoms.) But no photo overshadowed the dramatic Heimlich Maneuver rescue of a guest at dinner. Lucky for him he sat near a doctor who, though she acknowledged it was her first Heimlich, expelled the food expertly. (Others of us who had taken CPR classes stood by just in case.) In the end, he finished his meal and had chocolate cake for dessert.
This evening, I watched the sunset over the ocean with Kristen and Paul. Gulls were riding the wind lazily in the gathering darkness, headed somewhere to roost. And on my walk back to my room at the Trailing Yew, I saw the silhouette of a great blue heron in flight.
Such is Monhegan. Such is life.
 Willet. Monhegan List
(Numbered for full trip; not in order of listing.)
43. Brown thrasher
44. Common raven (voice)
45. Chipping sparrow (voice)
46. Northern parula (voice)
47. Red-breasted nuthatch*
48. Magnolia warbler
49. Alder flycatcher
50. Willet*
51. Ruby-throated hummingbird
52. Winter wren* (voice)
53. Golden-crowned kinglet* (voice)
54. Great blue heron
Laughing gull
Common eider
European starling
Ring-necked pheasant
Mourning dove (voice)
Blue jay (voice)
American goldfinch
Common yellowthroat
Northern gannet
Black-throated green warbler (voice)
Blackpoll warbler (voice)
Barn swallow
House wren
Cedar waxwing
American redstart
Carolina wren
Black-capped chickadee
Gray catbird
Eastern kingbird
Double-crested cormorant
Northern oriole
Red-winged blackbird
Common grackle
Song sparrow
Yellow warbler
Herring gull
Mallard
American crow
American robin
Gray catbird
Osprey
Black guillemot
Great black-backed gull
*First-of-year bird.
 White Head, Monhegan, 30 May 2010.
Tags: alder flycatcher, American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, barn swallow, black guillemot, black-capped chickadee, black-throated green warbler, blackpoll warbler, blue jay, brown thrasher, Carolina wren, Cedar waxwing, chipping sparrow, common eider, common grackle, common raven, common yellowthroat, double-crested cormorant, eastern kingbird, European starling, golden-crowned kinglet, gray catbird, great black-backed gull, great blue heron, herring gull, house wren, laughing gull, magnolia warbler, mallard, mourning dove, northern gannet, northern oriole, northern parula, osprey, red-breasted nuthatch, red-winged blackbird, Ring-necked pheasant, ruby throated hummingbird, song sparrow, willet, winter wren, yellow warbler
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Saturday, May 29th, 2010
 Western Kingbird, Monhegan Island. Our morning routine fell apart this morning, Jack’s and mine. We didn’t hike Beech Hill early. Instead, we hung around the house until my friend Mark came to take Jack off for a weekend at his farm in the country and my friends Kristen and Paul came to take me and a couple bags down to Port Clyde. Then we all boarded the Elizabeth Ann and sailed off to Monhegan. It might even become a Memorial Day tradition.
 Black-throated green warbler. I’d planned the trip—my first spring visit to the island—to correspond with Kristen’s and Paul’s annual stay. We came to bird. But for whatever reason spring came early in 2010, and Memorial Day came late, and when we made our obligatory stop at Tom Martin’s place (to pay our respects to the 89-year-old grandfather of Monhegan birding), Tom said, essentially, the birds were gone aready. A few blackbirds hanging around his usually fruitful yard. Some nesting starlings. Reports of more than twenty warbler species by one birder friend—but that’d been a few days. Thus, we began with low expectations.
People should always begin things that way.
By nightfall, I’d personally listed 45 species (naturally, Kristen had listed about eight or ten more than that), including ten first-of-year birds—at least one of which was a lifer (maybe two, I’ll have to check). The lifer: a western kingbird.
Not a lot of electricity out here, and my laptop battery’s running low, but I’ll post a couple photos and a list of species.
(Note: now all is dark here, with the sound of the ocean out the window and a slowly-flashing blue-green light on the horizon. A magical place, this island.)
 Gray catbird. Monhegan List
(Not in order of listing.)
1. Ring-necked pheasant*
2. Common grackle
3. Red-winged blackbird
4. European starling
5. Song sparrow
6. Yellow warbler
7. American redstart
8. Common yellowthroat
9. Black-throated green warbler
10. Blackburnian warbler (voice)
11. Blackpoll warbler
12. Northern waterthrush* (voice)
13. Blue jay (voice)
14. Northern cardinal (voice)
15. American goldfinch
16. White-winged crossbill*
17. Eastern kingbird
18. Western kingbird**
19. Great crested flycatcher (voice)
20. Easter wood-pewee (voice)
21. Bobolink (voice)
22. Barn swallow*
23. Black-capped chickadee
24. American crow
25. Merlin*
26. American robin
27. Swainson’s thrush* (voice)
28. Eastern bluebird
29. House wren
30. Carolina wren* (voice)
31. Gray catbird
32. Northern oriole* (voice)
33. Osprey
34. Mallard
35. Double-crested cormorant
36. Herring gull
37. Great black-backed gull
38. Black guillemot
39. Common eider
40. Blue jay (voice)
41. Mourning dove
42. Red-eyed vireo
Elsewhere
43. Northern gannet*
44. House finch
45. Laughing gull
*First-of-year birds.
**Life bird.
 Sunset, Monhegan Island.
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, barn swallow, black guillemot, black-capped chickadee, black-throated green warbler, blackburnian warbler, blackpoll warbler, blue jay, bobolink, Carolina wren, common eider, common grackle, common yellowthroat, double-crested cormorant, eastern bluebird, eastern kingbird, eastern wood-pewee, European starling, gray catbird, great crested flycatcher, house finch, house wren, laughing gull, mallard, merlin, mourning dove, Northern cardinal, northern gannet, northern oriole, northern waterthrush, osprey, red-eyed vireo, red-winged blackbird, Ring-necked pheasant, song sparrow, Swainson's thrush, western kingbird, white-winged crossbill, yellow warbler
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| Bird Report is an intermittent record of what's outside my window in Rockport, Maine, USA (44°08'N latitude, 69°06'W longitude), and vicinity. —Brian Willson |
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