24 March 2023

Posts Tagged ‘common loon’

’Rumps

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2023
Yellow-rumped Warbler, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 22 March 2023.
Yellow-rumped Warbler.

This morning dawned hazy clear, with temps about freezing and hardly any wind. I expected some bluebirds maybe, but maybe not much else—and I was kinda wrong on both counts. For one thing, the number of species started rising quickly; for another, no bluebirds until we’d started back up over the hill.

Notable were junco, loon, and Red-shouldered Hawk, but most interesting was the number of yellow-rumps.

Yellow-rumped Warblers have been hanging around all winter. They seem to like to hang out with bluebirds. Today was no exception: returning over the summit, we encountered four bluebirds and four ’rumps. It’s fun for me to try to imagine how come these two species like to hang out together.

Otherwise, at home early, I heard (then spied) a gang of five redwings. Spring is most definitely here.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7:12 a.m. (8:12 stupid DST), I hiked all trails.

1. American Goldfinch** (v)
2. American Robin**
3. Northern Cardinal** (v)
4. American Crow*
5. Black-capped Chickadee**
6. Herring Gull* (v)
7. Dark-eyed Junco (v)
8. Downy Woodpecker** (drumming)
9. White-breasted Nuthatch (v)
10. Hairy Woodpecker (v)
11. Common Loon
12. Brown Creeper (v)
13. Pileated Woodpecker (v)
14. Tufted Titmouse (v)
15. Blue Jay** (v)
16. Eastern Bluebird
17. Yellow-rumped Warbler
18. Red-shouldered Hawk
19. Red-breasted Nuthatch (v)

Elsewhere

20. Mallard
21. Red-winged Blackbird

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

†First-of-year

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

Return from the Island

Wednesday, September 28th, 2022
Raven on a rock, Monhegan Boat Line, 28 September 2022.
Raven on a rock.

Monhegan–to–Port Clyde List

1. Herring Gull
2. White-throated Sparrow
3. American Crow
4. Northern Flicker
5. Blue Jay
6. Red-breasted Nuthatch
7. European Starling
8. Double-crested Cormorant
9. Great Black-backed Gull
10. Yellow-rumped Warbler
11. Carolina Wren
12. Gray Catbird
13. American Robin
14. Northern Cardinal
15. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
16. Black-capped Chickadee
17. Golden-crowned Kinglet
18. Sharp-shinned Hawk
19. Cedar Waxwing
20. Downy Woodpecker
21. Brown Thrasher
22. Song Sparrow
23. Red-headed Woodpecker
24. Common Yellowthroat
25. Mallard
26. Purple Finch
27. Peregrine Falcon
28. Merlin
29. Belted Kingfisher
30. Northern Harrier
31. Common Grackle
32. Mourning Dove
33. Ring-necked Pheasant
34. Ring-billed Gull
35. Common Loon

 
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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