Yesterday I saw the first young birds of the year here in northern Maine.
-- On the Beaver Brook Road in T13 R 5 (north of Ashland), I got to watch a mother American Woodcock herd her fresh and fuzzy chicks across the logging road. These were the earliest woodcock chicks I have seen in northern Maine. I got a photo of the family you can see here: http://ebird.org/ebird/me/view/checklist?subID=S23574267
Yesterday evening, a Mourning Dove appeared at my feeder with a youngster in tow. The juvenile seemed old enough to have been out of the nest for a while, but its fresh feather edges were still giving the bird a scaly look. This dove parent would have been snowed on while incubating, if its a local bird, as I presume.
Last night was the last of a spring series of Aroostook Birder/Caribou Recreation Dept. birdwalks. We were billing the outing a Night Sounds/Owl Prowl and visited the Connor unit of the Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge.
We were light on the owls, with only one very distant possible Barred Owl, but made up with it with fabulous late, breeding displays of male American Woodcock, winnowing Wilson's Snipe and Veery, Hermit and Swainson's Thrush's evening chorus. A Ruffed Grouse buzzed our group on the way to its night roost and the earliest Common Nighthawk I have seen in Aroostook County made a close pass by as it hunted in the gloom.
The Spring Peepers, Wood Frogs and a few American Toads were still doing their thing in the vernal pools along the trail.
All well worth staying up way past my normal bedtime...
Good Birding
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