13 November 2024

Posts Tagged ‘ring-billed gull’

Late Hike

Monday, September 11th, 2023
Common Yellowthroat (immature male), Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 11 September 2023.
Common Yellowthroat (immature male).

This morning’s forecast rain arrived with a vengeance. Well, not a vengeance, exactly, but it postponed my hike with dog for a couple hours. Had no idea what to expect in the wake of the all that soaking rain—and yet there were birds.

Notable was the flyby of a croaking raven. Also a little flurry of species down in the woods again. Best photo was an immature male yellowthroat.

Beech Hill List
Starting at 8:55 a.m. EST (9:55 DST), I hiked all trails.

1. Black-capped Chickadee**
2. Tufted Titmouse (v)
3. Blue Jay (v)
4. Northern Flicker
5. Red-eyed Vireo
6. Red-bellied Woodpecker (v)
7. Black-and-white Warbler
8. Chestnut-sided Warbler
9. American Crow* (v)
10. Eastern Wood-pewee (v)
11. White-breasted Nuthatch (v)
12. Eastern Towhee
13. Hermit Thrush
14. Gray Catbird**
15. Song Sparrow
16. American Goldfinch
17. Downy Woodpecker (v)
18. Common Raven
19. Cedar Waxwing
20. Common Yellowthroat

Elsewhere

21. Herring Gull
22. Mourning Dove
23. Ring-billed Gull (v)
24. Osprey
25. House Sparrow (v)

Mammals

American Red Squirrel (v)

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

†First-of-year

Woodland Hawk

Tuesday, August 29th, 2023
Broad-winged Hawk, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 29 August 2023.
Broad-winged Hawk.

It was nice to have Jack with me again this morning. The weather as we ascended was gray and foggy, but as we hiked, the fog lifted, and the sun emerged. Few species still, and still a nervousness in the air.

Most notably, perhaps: Whereas as soon as we got out of the truck, I heard the call of a Pileated Woodpecker up above us in the oaks somewhere but I never could find it, later, in the woods, we spooked a hawk, which flew off in the canopy, but somehow I spotted it on distant perch. And got its photo.

Beech Hill List
Starting at 7:46 a.m. EST (8:46 DST), I hiked all trails.

1. Pileated Woodpecker (v)
2. Red-eyed Vireo (v)
3. Eastern Towhee
4. Gray Catbird
5. Common Yellowthroat
6. Song Sparrow
7. American Goldfinch (v)
8. Eastern Wood-pewee (v)
9. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
10. American Robin
11. Blue Jay (v)
12. Cedar Waxwing
13. Black-capped Chickadee
14. Broad-winged Hawk
15. American Crow (v)
16. Tufted Titmouse (v)

Elsewhere

17. Mourning Dove
18. Herring Gull
19. Ring-billed Gull (v)
20. Northern Cardinal (v)
21. Eastern Bluebird

(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

 
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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