Maine birds And MOAC mountainbiking

Friday 28 February 2014

[Maine-birds] Waxwings Bangor

Just at 3 o'clock, on the corner of West Broadway and Union Streets, there was a large flock of Cedar Waxwings lunching on berries from a tree on West Broadway, and across Union there was a second tree that provided a second course, or something, as the birds flew from one to the other. I would guess at 50 or thereabouts, and they were gone an hour later, as were the berries. I could not find a Bohemian among them.

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[Maine-birds] Re: Eagles, Ravens and Snowy

Forgot to add on Chebeague Island

On Friday, February 28, 2014 6:03:55 PM UTC-5, Bev Johnson wrote:

Today there were five eagles (2 mature and 3 immature) on the Golf course eating what looks like a bird. A couple of ravens showed up and then one of the immature flew off with the carcass. The following website shows photos:
http://www.chebeague.org/chebeague%20birds/baldeagle/022814golfcoursefive/
I saw the Snowy Owl today on the Hook where she hangs out - I see her just about every day.

[Maine-birds] Eagles, Ravens and Snowy

Today there were five eagles (2 mature and 3 immature) on the Golf course eating what looks like a bird. A couple of ravens showed up and then one of the immature flew off with the carcass. The following website shows photos:

http://www.chebeague.org/chebeague%20birds/baldeagle/022814golfcoursefive/

I saw the Snowy Owl today on the Hook where she hangs out - I see her just about every day.

[Maine-birds] Additional Highlights This Week, 2/22-28

Hi all,

Just a few more sightings of note from me over the past seven days, in addition to what I have already posted:

- 1 drake Northern Pintail and 1 Red-necked Grebe (rare here), Winslow Park, Freeport, 2/22 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).

- Four 1st-winter Glaucous Gulls and 14 Iceland Gulls (12 1st-winter and two 2nd-winter), Old Port, Portland, 2/24.

- 1 overwintering drake Northern Pintail continues along the Westbrook Riverwalk as of 2/24.

- 1 drake Barrow's Goldeneye, Webster Park, Orono, 2/25 (with Jeannette).

- 1 adult Lesser Black-backed Gull, two 1st-winter Iceland Gulls, one 2nd-winter Iceland Gull, and one 1st-winter Glaucous Gull, Hatch Hill Landfill, Augusta, 2/28. Photo of the LBBG is here:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=785288861501070&set=a.764276326935657.1073741835.198877036808925&type=3&theater

- We seem to be down to 1 drake Barrow's Goldeneye in the Lower Harraseeket River here in South Freeport as the first wave of waterfowl migration is underway.

-Derek

*****************************************
Derek and Jeannette Lovitch
Freeport Wild Bird Supply
541 Route One, Suite 10
Freeport, ME 04069
207-865-6000
www.freeportwildbirdsupply.com

****************************************

Re: [Maine-birds] NOGO (OMG!) Bar Harbor/Town Hill

The Goshawk looks like it's thinking, "I'll just sit here. No one will notice ME."

On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 4:07 PM, Carol Muth <suzmuth@gmail.com> wrote:

Northern Goshawk. Flashed into the yard and landed on a branch right in front of my window while I was eating breakfast. Go here to see photo: http://acadiabirds.wordpress.com/

    If you scroll down you can see the Rusty Blackbirds. I try to take a photo every day that they present themselves in a good spot (visible from my window, so I don't scare them). My good neighbors fed them for me while we were away. All six of the RUBLs were still here when we returned, thanks to the Sanborn family.

    You can always find the birds on the blog by looking for the Category list in the right-hand side-bar, if you don't see them immediately.
     Carol in Town Hill

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[Maine-birds] NOGO (OMG!) Bar Harbor/Town Hill

Northern Goshawk. Flashed into the yard and landed on a branch right in front of my window while I was eating breakfast. Go here to see photo: http://acadiabirds.wordpress.com/

If you scroll down you can see the Rusty Blackbirds. I try to take a photo every day that they present themselves in a good spot (visible from my window, so I don't scare them). My good neighbors fed them for me while we were away. All six of the RUBLs were still here when we returned, thanks to the Sanborn family.

You can always find the birds on the blog by looking for the Category list in the right-hand side-bar, if you don't see them immediately.

Carol in Town Hill

[Maine-birds] Phippsburg pintail etc

Phippsburg, Me Map 6 Totman Cove

Impressive flock of ducks in here right now 263 all counted of which 6 are American Black ducks,
One Northern Pintail drake and possibly one hen, too much glare on the water to be sure at this point
The remainder are ALL mallards, over 250 which is really a huge number to have in here. The birds are moving around in the cove, flushing and settling as there are three Bald eagles cruising around making all the water fowl fidgety.
Also, the usual
Common goldeneyes
Buffleheads 30 or so
Red Throated loons
Common loons
Surf Scoters
White Winged scoters
Red Breasted mergansers

Robin R Robinson

[Maine-birds] Owls Head owl

On of the airport's multiple snowy owls was on the ground in a grassy area behind the green link fencing about 100 yards from RTE 73 end of the airport runway (this is to the right side of the runway, but just behind the fencing.) Having seen so many SNOWs this winter has given me a better sense of better knowing these birds as a species. One thing I've noticed is the tendency for certain owls to remain on the same small patch of ground for several days at a stretch.

Don

[Maine-birds] Re: mega zoom cameras - long review

I bought the Canon SX50 this year after missing too many birding photo ops because I didn't want to lug around the DSLR. I like it a lot for birding, but it has its limitations. On the plus side is the zoom lens (1200mm equiv) with image stabilization. It also has a button that lets you temporarily zoom out to locate the bird, then when you release the button, it zooms back. This takes a little practice but works fairly well when the bird isn't moving around too much. I haven't had much luck with fast-moving birds (either in the air or flitting around in foliage), but then I haven't practiced too much. Image quality from the small sensor will not ever be as good as a DSLR. But for documenting sightings, it's hard to beat this camera.

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Thursday 27 February 2014

Re: [Maine-birds] mega zoom cameras - long review

Robin,

Yes, your second point is exactly what I was trying to express when I used the incorrect term "shutter speed". For my purposes the speed that matters most is the amount of time it takes between pressing down the button and capturing the image. Also the LCD viewfinder on my old Fuji Finepix was very user-friendly and had few glare issues, so I don't think it's a lot to ask for any newer camera that's truly "birder-friendly" (and in the $400-$500 range) to have one at least as good as the budget digital I bought 10 years ago.

Sean Smith

From: Robin R Robinson

Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 7:40 PM

To: Sean Smith ; Maine Birds List Serve

Subject: RE: [Maine-birds] mega zoom cameras - long review

HoodMan makes a 'loupe' for LCD's that blocks out the peripheral light and enlarges the image for about $50, a 'must' if one really wants to use the LCD to 'see' what one has captured while still in the field. Perhaps most importantly in considering a point and shoot camera is the delay time between when the shutter is depressed and the image captured is imperative for photographing any moving subject. It can be maddening to press the shutter and have a delay while the bird is zooming away, in the hand or the bush.
RRR

From: therefromhere168@gmail.com
To: maine-birds@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Maine-birds] mega zoom cameras - long review
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2014 13:02:26 -0500

I caution potential buyers to carefully sort through consumer reviews re. digital cameras. Several years ago I purchased a Panasonic Lumix DMC-F27 with 12x optical zoom... at the time pretty high-powered. The reviews were glowing and numerous (something like 4.5 out of 5 stars on average as I recall), but it's the worst birding camera imaginable. For me the single most important feature on a digital camera, for birding, is a viewfinder that's large and easy to use...so that for example a warbler hopping around in a bush can quickly be differentiated from its surroundings and caught in frame before it zips away. Zoomed image quality, followed by shutter speed are other important things to consider. While the Lumix I bought had great reviews on Amazon in general, I probably should have taken into consideration that very few were from birders and most were by people who use their cameras for other purposes. The camera was just lousy on all these points and is practically useless for taking photos of birds (thus I feel extremely lucky whenever I get a decent bird photo with it). It takes wonderful clear shots of still scenery, but that's not why I bought it.

Thanks, Peter, for the information. It may be helpful in finding a replacement camera that I can actually use for photographing birds.

Sean Smith

From: Peter Vickery

Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 10:39 AM

To: Maine Birds

Subject: [Maine-birds] mega zoom cameras - long review

High quality, but fairly inexpensive ($400 - 500) small cameras now zoom to 50 and 60 power and apparently deliver good pics. I haven't used one personally.

I pulled this from the Massbird site and thought it might be of interest to Maine birders. Paul Roberts, a seriously afflicted hawk enthusiast and expert wrote the piece.

Best, Peter

The December 2014 issue of Bird Observer contained an article I wrote
entitled, ŒThe Rise of the Megazoom Camera: A New Era in Birding. Or ŒHoney
Do We Really Need a Scope?¹ The article described how the recent development
of the megazoom digital Œbridge¹ camera (esp. 30X optical and above) changed
what I could photograph and how I birded. I no longer carry a large digital
SLR camera with a 300 mm digital lens with me. I now carry only a 1.25 lb
Nikon Coolpix P510 with a 42X optical lens (24-1000 mm) and a 100X digital
zoom and am able to take photos of eagles a quarter mile or more away. Or
take photos when it is too dark for me to be able to identify individual
hawks I¹m tracking, but I can photograph them, blow up the images on the LCD
screen, and identify the birds easily.

I love my P510, which has dramatically affected how I bird. The article also
described the Canon SX50, introduced about half a year after the P510. The
SX50 has a 50X optical zoom (1200 mm), a better view finder, and a better
screen than the P510. Those features are why it is now probably the most
popular megazoom in Massachusetts.

I¹ve received a number of inquiries about purchasing megazooms since the
article appeared and, as I indicated in the piece, the megazoom market is
changing quickly and dramatically. For anyone interested in acquiring a
megazoom, this week Nikon is shipping the 42X (optical) P530, marketed as a
significantly improved version of the P510 for $450 list. Of far greater
interest to me, Nikon has also introduced the P600 60X optical (24-1440 mm)
lens with an ED glass element, lens-shift image stabilization, a larger LCD
screen, and an improved electronic view finder for $500. Both new models
have brand new ³Bird Mode² control, which tells you how popular the cameras
are becoming with the birding community worldwide.

Sony has the 50X Cyber-shot H300, which recently dropped from $500 to $400
because Sony announced the 63X Cyber-shot H400, which should begin shipping
in April. Canon has not yet announced a successor to the SX50 ($430 list).

In the second half of 2013 Panasonic Lumix came out with a 60X optical zoom
(1200 mm equivalent), the DMC-FZ70. Lumix has an enviable reputation, but
the reviews of this model have been mixed, especially regarding the quality
of images at high magnification. This model has not had time to form a
reliable user base like the P510 and SX50, so check out the camera and
reviews carefully before buying. Panasonic also has an older model, the
LUMIX FZ200 12.1 megapixel camera. The camera¹s optical zoom is ³only² 24X
(600 mm) but it has a fast F2.8 aperture across the entire zoom range. At
least one photographic professional recommends this as her favorite
³megazoom² because of the aperture and the quality of the lens. She believes
it provides the closest megazoom experience to a high-end professional DSLR
because you can shoot at 24X and crop more extensively to yield a better,
higher quality image than you might achieve with larger optical zooms by
other manufacturers. The camera, listing at $599, is somewhat more expensive
than most megazooms.

One other model might be worth examining. At the January 2014 Consumer
Electronics Show, Samsung introduced a 60X (1200 mm) 16 megapixel WB2200F
megazoom for $499. The camera, which will begin shipping in about a month,
has received favorable industry reviews. (Earlier models of the same basic
camera with lower optical zooms have been well received.)

I would encourage anyone interested in a megazoom camera to buy or borrow a
copy of the December Bird Observer to read how the cameras can change your
birding experience and to review descriptions of some of the other megazooms
on the market. I am not a photographic expert, but if I was going to buy a
new megazoom a month ago, I would have purchased the SX50. However, I am
really excited about the new P600 with 60X and will look at it very
carefully.

Whatever, I would encourage anyone interested in megazooms to examine user
reviews online. I read reviews for two years while the field evolved until I
was confident the new P510 was an extraordinary bridge camera. Upgrades can
drive manufacturers to make significant tradeoffs that you should carefully
evaluate before you buy.

Best,

Paul
- See more at: http://birding.aba.org/message.php?mesid=633899&MLID=MASS&MLNM=Massachusetts#sthash.z60Uqs0x.dpuf

RE: [Maine-birds] mega zoom cameras - long review

From: therefromhere168@gmail.com
To: maine-birds@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Maine-birds] mega zoom cameras - long review
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2014 13:02:26 -0500

I caution potential buyers to carefully sort through consumer reviews re. digital cameras. Several years ago I purchased a Panasonic Lumix DMC-F27 with 12x optical zoom... at the time pretty high-powered. The reviews were glowing and numerous (something like 4.5 out of 5 stars on average as I recall), but it’s the worst birding camera imaginable. For me the single most important feature on a digital camera, for birding, is a viewfinder that’s large and easy to use...so that for example a warbler hopping around in a bush can quickly be differentiated from its surroundings and caught in frame before it zips away. Zoomed image quality, followed by shutter speed are other important things to consider. While the Lumix I bought had great reviews on Amazon in general, I probably should have taken into consideration that very few were from birders and most were by people who use their cameras for other purposes. The camera was just lousy on all these points and is practically useless for taking photos of birds (thus I feel extremely lucky whenever I get a decent bird photo with it). It takes wonderful clear shots of still scenery, but that’s not why I bought it.

Thanks, Peter, for the information. It may be helpful in finding a replacement camera that I can actually use for photographing birds.

Sean Smith

From: Peter Vickery

Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 10:39 AM

To: Maine Birds

Subject: [Maine-birds] mega zoom cameras - long review

High quality, but fairly inexpensive ($400 - 500) small cameras now zoom to 50 and 60 power and apparently deliver good pics. I haven't used one personally.

I pulled this from the Massbird site and thought it might be of interest to Maine birders. Paul Roberts, a seriously afflicted hawk enthusiast and expert wrote the piece.

Best, Peter

[Maine-birds] Gilsland Farm Birdwalk & Digital Birding Workshop TONIGHT

Hey everyone:

The recent drop in temps seemed to also drop a few birds from Gilsland Farm during the walk today. Ice has taken over most of the river again, limiting us to 22 species for the morning - down from 29 during last Saturday's heat spell. Any day now we will break 30 again; both temperature and species would be nice...

The variety of songs have certainly increased and the first real drumming we've heard this year from Downy Woodpeckers was welcoming. The best sign of spring though was the emergence of a solo groundhog (Marmota monax) in the West Meadow. Chris Maher reported seeing the first signs of this individual two days ago.

Avian highlights are hard to come by in late February but a Common Raven calling from Gilsland Farm airspace was a bit of a surprise. They are not rare from Gilsland but usually stick to the west side of 295. I did want to mention that we put a bit of effort into relocating the Marsh Wren that appears to be overwintering in the stand of phragmites between the West and North Meadows - no luck with the wren but it certainly doesn't appear regularly. My sightings have been: 7 Dec 2013, 18 Jan 2014, and 22 Feb 2014 all in the same stand of phrags.

A complete checklist from today's birdwalk is available at: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17222676

And I wanted to make one extremely last minute reminder that I'll be giving part 4 of my 'Birding in a Digital Age' workshop tonight. We will focus on creating and reading spectrograms, learning some online resources for using weather to your advantage in birding, and of course more fun with eBird as time allows. More details are online at: http://maineaudubon.org/events/birding-in-a-digital-age-part-four/

Good birding,

Doug Hitchcox
Staff Naturalist
Maine Audubon
207-781-2330 x237
dhitchcox@maineaudubon.org

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[Maine-birds] Lincoln Hawk Owl this am

I observed the Hawk Owl from about 10:30 to 11 am today, at the northwest corner of Highway 2 and 116. Thanks to those who have continued to post about it!

A flock of about 60 Snow Buntings was also seen north of Albion on 202, just north of the Kennebec County line.

Kyle Te Poel

East Winthrop

Re: [Maine-birds] mega zoom cameras - long review

Thanks, Peter, for the information. It may be helpful in finding a replacement camera that I can actually use for photographing birds.

Sean Smith

From: Peter Vickery

Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 10:39 AM

To: Maine Birds

Subject: [Maine-birds] mega zoom cameras - long review

High quality, but fairly inexpensive ($400 - 500) small cameras now zoom to 50 and 60 power and apparently deliver good pics. I haven't used one personally.

I pulled this from the Massbird site and thought it might be of interest to Maine birders. Paul Roberts, a seriously afflicted hawk enthusiast and expert wrote the piece.

Best, Peter

[Maine-birds] FW: Evening Grosbeak Vocalizations

Forwarding this request that came to me via Dept. of Conservation… he’s looking for folks willing to record, or who have recordings of, Evening Grosbeaks.

PS plz don’t respond to me, connect with Aaron directly…

Mike

From: Aaron Haiman [mailto:anhaiman@ucdavis.edu]
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 10:39 AM

I am a graduate student at the University of California, Davis where I am working on my PhD in Animal Behavior. My work focuses on the vocalizations of Evening Grosbeaks and the social effects these vocalizations may have. One really interesting thing about Evening Grosbeaks is that they have 5 different flight call variants. These variants are generally found in different parts of the country, but there is also a fair bit of overlap. No one knows how these variants are maintained or if they are important in mate choice, socialization, or anything else, and that is what I hope to learn. One of the first important steps is to determine where these different variants occur, and that is why I am emailing you. Evening Grosbeaks occur in Maine, at least occasionally, and I was wondering if you might be willing to help me. What I am looking for are recordings of Evening Grosbeak flight calls. They do not have to be high tech recordings, almost anything will do including a smart phone! If anyone at any park in Maine is willing and able to make any recordings of birds they encounter and email me the files, I would be very thankful. Also, if you know of anyone else (birding groups, Audubon chapters, etc.) who might be interested in participating, I am trying to spread word about my project and so collect as many recordings as I possibly can, so please feel free to pass my info along to them.

--
Aaron N. K. Haiman
Animal Behavior Graduate Group
University of California, Davis
anhaiman@ucdavis.edu
http://abirdingnaturalist.wordpress.com/

[Maine-birds] mega zoom cameras - long review

High quality, but fairly inexpensive ($400 - 500) small cameras now zoom to 50 and 60 power and apparently deliver good pics. I haven't used one personally.

I pulled this from the Massbird site and thought it might be of interest to Maine birders. Paul Roberts, a seriously afflicted hawk enthusiast and expert wrote the piece.

Best, Peter

Re: [Maine-birds] Song Sparrows - Winterport

John;

Interestingly, I found two Song Sparrows yesterday down around Fort Popham, where I haven't been seeing them all winter. Maybe there's something to this early movement. Be interesting to hear whether others had FOY birds recently. And you're right about playing around with eBird maps.

(None at our feeders in West Bath, however. But we're not in a particularly good sparrow location.)

mike

On Wed, Feb 26, 2014 at 9:25 AM, John Wyatt & Debbie Ryan <birdsnbeads@roadrunner.com> wrote:

After having one Song Sparrow at our feeders most days this winter, this morning there were three. Perhaps a sign of early spring migrants? I checked on eBird's "Explore Data" and saw that there is indeed an uptick in abundance, frequency, etc... in Maine starting around March 1st. I thought that was rather neat. There are a number of fun, informative tools on eBird.

Good Birding,
John

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Wednesday 26 February 2014

[Maine-birds] Bremen Woodpeckers

For the past hour have been watching 4 Hairy Woodpeckers (3m;1f), 2 Downy (1m;1f), 2 Red-Bellied (1m;1f) - 8 woodpeckers playing tag around 2 tree trunks in the yard - all with an eye on the discarded suet I threw on the ground. While I was changing the suet, heard a Pileated. Great fun.

Juanita Roushdy

Bremen, Me

[Maine-birds] MACHIAS SEAL ISLAND REPORT

Like everyone else, we are grasping for each hint of spring.
Out here it's the daily appearance of RAVENS (more than the regular pair), increasingly vocal LONG TAILED DUCKS and GREAT CORMORANTS sitting around and showing their big white spots.

GRAY SEAL pups are on the island daily in small numbers. I saw one on Monday with a shark bite. The wounds were just begining to heal but the wounds were severe, leaving its survival in doubt.

EAGLES have been hunting the surrounding waters most days; typical winter behaviour.

PEREGRINES are appearing several times each week, PURPLE SANDPIPERS being their frequent targets. The only other small targets seem to be SNOW BUNTINGS which have dwindled from a high of >100 to a bare handful over a period of about 2 weeks.

Stray single ROBINS and one STARLING were here this week past.

Good numbers of Long Tailed Ducks, Common Mergansers, Harlequins & Common Eiders, as well as all 3 Scoters continue.

A couple modest flocks of BRANT have been seen passing towards Grand Manan in recent days.

Alcids, especially RAZORBILLS are building slowly and some are showing new breeding colours.