Still a lot of wind today, continued high seas and moderate spray so birds still didn't show real well.
Nonetheless, I ventured to circumnavigate the island early this afternoon.
Less than a dozen HARLEQUINS were spotted and only a handful of PURPLE SANDPIPERS.
GANNETS & GULLS were active again today, spying out whatever the turbulent waters produced.
CANADA GEESE put in appearances: 1st a loner honking westward into the wind, followed by two flocks of some 20 each.
COMMON EIDERS were scarce with only about 30 for the day and likely a good few of those were re-sightings.
The land bird activity picked up by mid-day. Not as many individuals or species as Thursday, ahead of the storm, but respectable for the late date.
JUNCOS led the list with perhaps 2 dozen, followed closely by SONG SPARROWS and WHITE THROATED SPARROWS.
A couple late immature WHITE CROWNED SPARROWS, a couple SWAMP SPARROWS and 2 or 3 CHIPPING SPARROWS
competed for millet on the patio, along with 3 GRACKLES that have been here since earlier in the week.
A handful of ROBINS continued to benefit from the unfrozen ground and the group of some 20 SNOW BUNTINGS foraged widely.
New, or at least a 1st sighting, was a single HORNED LARK foraging around the fore-shore.
Also new was the Bird Of The Day: a nice male BLUE WINGED TEAL briefly observed in an intertidal puddle.
We seldom get this species and almost never so late.
We do expect Green Winged Teal (usually as singletons) most every Spring & Fall but not while water is frozen.
I had a brief sighting of a PEREGRINE coming in from off-shore carrying prey. Circumstances precluded investigation so I'm left wondering whether it found some small seabird or pushed a land bird out over the water where it couldn't dive into cover.
It's also interesting to speculate as to whether today's falcon was the same one seen on Thursday, a local bird or a migrant.
Quite a few GREY SEALS were around today. One would suppose that they haven't found their usual haul-outs particularly comfortable with recent waves running to 4 or 5 metres and more.
Less than a dozen HARLEQUINS were spotted and only a handful of PURPLE SANDPIPERS.
GANNETS & GULLS were active again today, spying out whatever the turbulent waters produced.
CANADA GEESE put in appearances: 1st a loner honking westward into the wind, followed by two flocks of some 20 each.
COMMON EIDERS were scarce with only about 30 for the day and likely a good few of those were re-sightings.
The land bird activity picked up by mid-day. Not as many individuals or species as Thursday, ahead of the storm, but respectable for the late date.
JUNCOS led the list with perhaps 2 dozen, followed closely by SONG SPARROWS and WHITE THROATED SPARROWS.
A couple late immature WHITE CROWNED SPARROWS, a couple SWAMP SPARROWS and 2 or 3 CHIPPING SPARROWS
competed for millet on the patio, along with 3 GRACKLES that have been here since earlier in the week.
A handful of ROBINS continued to benefit from the unfrozen ground and the group of some 20 SNOW BUNTINGS foraged widely.
New, or at least a 1st sighting, was a single HORNED LARK foraging around the fore-shore.
Also new was the Bird Of The Day: a nice male BLUE WINGED TEAL briefly observed in an intertidal puddle.
We seldom get this species and almost never so late.
We do expect Green Winged Teal (usually as singletons) most every Spring & Fall but not while water is frozen.
I had a brief sighting of a PEREGRINE coming in from off-shore carrying prey. Circumstances precluded investigation so I'm left wondering whether it found some small seabird or pushed a land bird out over the water where it couldn't dive into cover.
It's also interesting to speculate as to whether today's falcon was the same one seen on Thursday, a local bird or a migrant.
Quite a few GREY SEALS were around today. One would suppose that they haven't found their usual haul-outs particularly comfortable with recent waves running to 4 or 5 metres and more.
Maine birds mailing list
maine-birds@googlegroups.com
http://groups.google.com/group/maine-birds
https://sites.google.com/site/birding207
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maine birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to maine-birds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
0 comments:
Post a Comment