16 February 2025

Posts Tagged ‘bufflehead’

Christmas Count Day

Sunday, December 18th, 2022
Dunlin, Rockland Breakwater, Rockland, Maine, 18 December 2022.
Dunlin at the Rockland Breakwater.

Today was a special day that only happens once a year: Audubon Christmas Bird Count Day. It’d been four years since I’d participated, and I was really looking forward to it. It did not disappoint.

In fact, among the birds we spotted at the Rockland Breakwater (which I hadn’t walked since Jack’s and my return from Salt Lake City back in April) was a lifer for me: Dunlin. Fact is while heading out across the great granite blocks, I nearly stepped on the bird. (OK, it was maybe eight or ten feet away.) There were a pair that I saw (although my birding pals saw a third). Not every day you get a lifer.

Brown Creeper, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 18 December 2022.
Brown Creeper.

Many other species also (see below), and then I returned home for Jack and right away we hiked Beech Hill—albeit a little later than usual.

Notable at the hill were a posing Brown Creeper and the call of an Evening Grosbeak in overflight. Snow up there (not much here, a mile and a half away).

I kinda like the end of the year but, to me, every day is a holiday.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 10:02 a.m., I hiked all trails.

1. Blue Jay (v)
2. American Crow* (v)
3. Golden-crowned Kinglet (v)
4. Downy Woodpecker** (v)
5. Brown Creeper
6. Evening Grosbeak (v)
7. Black-capped Chickadee**
8. Red-breasted Nuthatch** (v)
9. Northern Flicker
10. Tufted Titmouse (v)

Elsewhere

11. Mallard
12. Herring Gull
13. Great Black-backed Gull
14. Ring-billed Gull
15. House Sparrow
16. House Finch
17. Common Goldeneye
18. Common Loon
19. Horned Grebe
20. Long-tailed Duck
21. Black Guillemot
22. Purple Sandpiper
23. Canada Goose
24. American Wigeon
25. Surf Scoter
26. Bufflehead
27. Red-breasted Merganser
28. Dunlin‡
29. Common Eider
30. Ring-billed Gull

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

†First-of-year
‡Lifer

Duck Weather

Friday, March 22nd, 2019
Mallard in the rain, Rockport Harbor, Maine, 22 March 2019.
Mallard in the rain.

Rain for a change. Thirties (F), windy as heck, rainy. Super high tide, too, what with the solsticial full moon. Encountered a solitary redpoll on the hill, but not much else, so I took dog to the harbor and saw quite a few birds—most of them ducks.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 10:45 a.m., I hiked the open trail.

1. Black-capped Chickadee
2. Common Redpoll
3. Herring Gull*

Elsewhere

4. American Crow
5. Mallard
6. Common Loon
7. Bufflehead
8. Rock Pigeon
9. House Sparrow

v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere

Early Birds

Thursday, March 21st, 2019
Robin on takeoff, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 21 March 2019.
Robin on takeoff.
European Starling, Rockport, Maine, 21 March 2019.
European Starling.

Chilly early but warmed up quick. Plenty of birds around. Singing cardinals everywhere, and a little falcon at the harbor.

Many spring robins on the hill this morning. Pair of bluebirds again. And a solitary starling on a utility pole.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 8:15 a.m., I hiked the open trail.

1. Tufted Titmouse** (v)
2. American Crow*
3. Northern Cardinal*
4. American Robin*
5. Dark-eyed Junco**
6. Eastern Bluebird
7. Herring Gull*
8. Black-capped Chickadee** (v)
9. Downy Woodpecker (v)

Elsewhere

10. White-breasted Nuthatch (v)
11. Mourning Dove
12. Mallard
13. Common Loon
14. Bufflehead
15. Merlin
16. Rock Pigeon
17. House Finch (v)
18. European Starling

v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

Merlin, Rockport, Maine, 21 March 2019.
Merlin at the harbor.
 
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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