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Posts Tagged ‘common eider’
Saturday, September 24th, 2011
Using technology is a little inconvenient here on damp, balmy Monhegan, so I’ll first simply publish a list of the birds I’ve seen each day, and later I’ll add photos and some commentary. So check back soon!
Monhegan List
I arrived on the island at 11:45 a.m.
1. Herring gull
2. Great black-backed gull
3. Double-crested cormorant
4. American crow
5. Blue jay
6. Song sparrow
7. Black-capped chickadee
8. Yellow-rumped warbler
9. Black-throated green warbler
9. Northern cardinal
10. Northern mockingbird
11. European starling
12. Mallard
13. Blackpoll warbler
14. Mourning dove
15. American golden-plover
16. Swainson’s thrush
Elsewhere
17. Common eider
18. Black guillemot
19. Common loon
20. Northern gannet
Also
Harbor porpoise
Tags: American crow, American golden-plover, black guillemot, black-capped chickadee, black-throated green warbler, blackpoll warbler, blue jay, common eider, common loon, double-crested cormorant, European starling, great black-backed gull, herring gull, mallard, mourning dove, northern cardinal, northern gannet, northern mockingbird, song sparrow, Swainson's thrush, yellow-rumped warbler
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Saturday, May 14th, 2011
 Ovenbird. I rose with the daylight to leave myself time for breakfast before my bird walk at Pleasant Point Nature Preserve in Cushing, a Georges River Land Trust property. I’d never been to the preserve—65-acres of mixed woodland donated by many landowners to keep it forever wild—and it was a nice little plot of land. Implausibly, a couple dozen people showed up, including (thankfully) my expert birding friends Don and Douglas (each, I daresay, more expert than I).
 Least flycatcher. En route down the peninsula, I saw several active birds, among them a (first-of-year) mockingbird in Thomaston. Arrived about a half-hour early to find Douglas and Don there already. A gray day. A couple of magnolia warblers were calling from the road. A junco trilling in the distance. A yellowthroat nearby.
Once everyone had gathered, we started down the freshly blazed trails. We heard the songs of a number of warblers—black-throated green, ovenbird, parula, black-and-white—and Don called a few in with his iPad, giving everyone some good looks. Blue-headed vireos also responded. A loon flew over, and an osprey. Also a raven. We caught a glimpse of a hermit thrush and heard a blackburnian warbler (my first of the year). We could hear geese. And we got a nice look at a hairy woodpecker. I think everyone enjoyed it. The GLRT has some great people doing good work.
Right away on my return, I grabbed Jack (who had waited at home), and we headed for Beech Hill. Despite the late hour, it proved a fruitful hike. Many warblers calling. Got a decent photo of a least flycatcher—and of a couple ovenbirds. I love ovenbirds. They’re declarative, but secretive. They’re feisty, but shy. You can hear them just about anywhere in the Maine woods in season, but it’s uncommon to see them.
 Common yellowthroat. The ringtone on my cell phone is the call of an ovenbird.
After our fruitful hike, coming back down the lower wooded trail, I heard crows harassing a raven. And I caught a glimpse of a large, lumbering shape off beneath the trees—a woodchuck, apparently leaping away from a trunk. I’d never before seen a woodchuck up there.
About half-way down, we’d stopped so I could look at a vireo (thinking it might be a first red-eyed, but it wasn’t), when both dog and I heard the soft beats of wings above us and looked up to see an osprey flying over from behind us, low to the canopy.
This evening, I stepped out before the rain for some air and spotted a couple small dull-colored birds hopping about the trunk of one of the big oaks out back. Sparrows? Thrushes? Ovenbirds? I snuck in for my binoculars and took a closer look: thrushes. But not hermit thrushes (no hint of rust on their tails, nor any tail-wagging) nor veeries (too many splotches on their breasts). They were a plain olive tone but had interesting facial markings with distinctive buffy cheeks. I had a thought and looked them up in Sibley’s. They were Swainson’s thrushes. A life bird for me.
 Woodchuck. In evening, after it began raining lightly, again I heard the flight song of a woodcock.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 11 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Ovenbird
2. Common yellowthroat
3. Black-throated green warbler
4. Eastern phoebe
5. American crow
6. Northern parula
7. Chestnut-sided warbler
8.Rose-breasted grosbeak
9. Song sparrow
10. Least flycatcher
11. Eastern towhee
12. American redstart
13. Black-and-white warbler
14. Herring gull
15. Veery
16. Yellow warbler
17. Black-capped chickadee
18. White-throated sparrow
19. Blue jay
20. Gray catbird
21. Savannah sparrow
22. Field sparrow
23. American robin
24. Hairy woodpecker
25. Blue-headed vireo
26. Mourning dove
27. Magnolia warbler
28. American goldfinch
29. Turkey vulture
30. Common raven
31. Hermit thrush
32. Great crested flycatcher
33. Nashville warbler
34. Osprey
Pleasant Point Nature Preserve List
Beginning at 7:30 a.m., I hung around the trails.
White-throated sparrow
Ovenbird
35. Dark-eyed junco
Magnolia warbler
Black-and-white warbler
Blue jay
Common yellowthroat
Nashville warbler
Osprey
American crow
Herring gull
36. Common loon
Black-throated green warbler
Mourning dove
Common raven
Northern parula
Chestnut-sided warbler
Hermit thrush
37. Canada goose
Blue-headed vireo
38. Blackburnian warbler
American robin
39. Hairy woodpecker
American goldfinch
Elsewhere
40. House finch
41. Northern cardinal
42. Common eider
43. Northern mockingbird
44. Double-crested cormorant
45. Common grackle
46. Red-winged blackbird
47. Ring-billed gull
48. European starling
49. Rock pigeon
50. Swainson’s thrush
51. American woodcock
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, black-and-white warbler, black-capped chickadee, black-throated green warbler, blackburnian warbler, blue jay, blue-headed vireo, Canada goose, chestnut-sided warbler, common eider, common grackle, common loon, common raven, common yellowthroat, dark-eyed junco, double-crested cormorant, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, European starling, field sparrow, gray catbird, great crested flycatcher, hairy woodpecker, hermit thrush, herring gull, house finch, least flycatcher, magnolia warbler, mourning dove, Nashville warbler, northern cardinal, northern mockingbird, northern parula, osprey, ovenbird, red-winged blackbird, ring-billed gull, rock pigeon, rose-breasted grosbeak, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, Swainson's thrush, turkey vulture, veery, white-throated sparrow, yellow warbler
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Saturday, May 7th, 2011
 Common yellowthroat. Sunlight streaming, up in a hurry, off to Beech Hill.
Nobody in the parking lot so early. As Jack and I hopped out of the truck, first thing I heard was a fog whistle. (Clear above, but it must’ve been thick out in the bay.) Then I heard, in quick succession, the voices of a titmouse, an ovenbird, and a black-throated green warbler.
 Savannah sparrow. Coming up the trail, the birds began to announce themselves: nuthatch, goldfinch, chickadee, towhee. A cardinal singing off somewhere. Then veery (second straight day), jay, white-throat, towhee, robin, crow—the usual, you might say. But in a nice change-of-pace, I heard fluty notes coming from the upper canopy: a rose-breasted grosbeak, first of the year.
Other typical birds sounded off as we ascended, including a couple of yellow-rumps. (They tend to diminish as spring progresses.) Toward the top, I heard a chestnut-sided warbler—they will soon become incredibly common—and a the call of a yellow warbler (an oddly aborted call). Another first-of-year bird.
They kept coming. As we reached the open fields, I heard crows hollering at something and had an idea I might see a hawk, but it turned out they were harassing a solitary raven.
A kestrel up top. The phoebes, of course. Song and savannah sparrows. A Nashville warbler calling. In fact, I’d had thirty species on my list by the time we reached the summit. Nice.
 Hermit thrush. Coming down the open trail, I heard a field sparrow (a species that didn’t appear on yesterday’s list, oddly) and the neighborhood chippy down toward Beech Hill Road. Mourning dove, robin, and another titmouse down that side, too. And as we started our return, I thought I caught the voices people in conversation—until I realized it was just a pair of Canada geese flying over, honking.
On our way back down the wooded trail, I heard a little commotion and watched as three hermit thrushes chased each other. Two males vying for the same female? Who knows—but it was a dramatic display. More ovenbirds on the lower wooded trail (many ovenbirds today), and chickadees, and woodpeckers.
We returned home and I had time to pull two ticks off each of us before Jack and I headed down to Owls Head, where we would meet my friend D and Jack’s friend, Boone, for some ball-chasing at Birch Point Beach State Park. A great day for it—the park’s still closed, but the tide was low and the flats were perfect for running dogs. (En route: starling, pigeon.) We watched an osprey fly over carrying nesting material, heard parulas and black-throated greens and black-and-whites, listened to a red-winged blackbird, and spotted two species of duck. And watched dogs play. (Jack took a high-speed face plant and wound up with a minor abrasion. No big deal.)
Returning home, I swung by Weskeag Marsh in South Thomaston, which was pretty quiet. However, I did see a goose, a greater yellowlegs, and a (first-of-year) barn swallow. Also a redwing and a brown-headed cowbird.
 Osprey. Today I had evidence that both the phoebes and nuthatches are for sure nesting out back. And tonight, thick fog moved in. We’re still supposed to get rain, albeit later than originally forecast. We shall see.
Note: had a tree swallow showed up on the hill, or had I confirmed the grackles in town, I would’ve had fifty birds on my list today. Oh, well!
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 6:45 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Tufted titmouse (voice)
2. Ovenbird
3. Black-throated green warbler (voice)
4. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
5. American goldfinch
6. Black-capped chickadee
7. Eastern towhee
8. Northern cardinal (voice)
9. Veery (voice)
10. Blue jay (voice)
11. White-throated sparrow
12. American robin
13. American crow
14. Rose-breasted grosbeak
15. Black-and-white warbler (voice)
16. Gray catbird
17. Hairy woodpecker
18. Yellow-rumped warbler
19. Common yellowthroat
20. Mourning dove (voice)
21. Northern flicker
22. Chestnut-sided warbler (voice)
23. Yellow warbler
24. Purple finch
25. Song sparrow
26. Common raven
27. Savannah sparrow
28. Herring gull
29. Eastern phoebe
30. Nashville warbler (voice)
31. American kestrel
32. Field sparrow (voice)
33. Chipping sparrow (voice)
34. Cedar waxwing (voice)
35. Canada goose
36. Hermit thrush
Elsewhere
37. House finch
38. European starling
39. Rock pigeon
40. Northern parula
41. Golden-crowned kinglet
42. Red-winged blackbird
43. Osprey
44. Common eider
45. Mallard
46. Double-crested cormorant
47. Greater yellowlegs
48. Barn swallow
49. Brown-headed cowbird
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American kestrel, American robin, barn swallow, black-and-white warbler, black-capped chickadee, black-throated green warbler, blue jay, Canada goose, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, chipping sparrow, common eider, common raven, common yellow-throat, double-crested cormorant, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, European starling, field sparrow, golden-crowned kinglet, gray catbird, greater yellowlegs, hairy woodpecker, hermit thrush, herring gull, house finch, mallard, mourning dove, Nashville warbler, northern cardinal, northern flicker, northern parula, osprey, ovenbird, purple finch, rock pigeon, rose-breasted grosbeak, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, veery, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow, yellow warbler, yellow-rumped warbler
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| Bird Report is a (sometimes intermittent) record of the birds I encounter while hiking, see while driving, or spy outside my window. —Brian Willson |
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