Hi Folks,
I stopped at the Hatch Hill Landfill in Augusta yesterday to eat some lunch and try out my new moon roof for vertical viewing and acoustic range, a risky endeavor at a landfill. I went down the road along the fence behind the landfill for landbirds and sat in the recycling area across from the active dump to view gulls. The active dumping area is in full view from this vantage point and far enough out of the way of soaring and escaping gulls to use a moon-roof (no direct hits) to listen to nearby vocalizing bald eagles. This is a very pleasant setting if you like to scan gulls and listen to vocalizations.
Behind the landfill
Rough-legged hawk 1 Dark phase
Common redpoll 6 Two separate groups of three; good views on fence
Hoary redpoll 1 Very frosty female with petite beak sitting on the fence about ten feet from my window. I even heard it vocalize as it took off over my car.
Pine grosbeak 1
Dark-eyed junco 5
Song sparrow 1
Tree sparrow 1
American robin 2
Horned lark 1
Landfill area
Iceland gull 1 Light first winter bird
Herring gull 400 Probably conservative as there were about 300 roosting on the large 'capped' landfill and about 200 feeding in the active dumping area. I was not able to get simultaneous counts of both groups
Great black-backed gull ~25 Hard to get a good count
Ring-billed gull ? Did not notice numbers but saw one out of my moon roof
Common raven 4
American crow 50+ I could not get a good count because there were many out of view
European starling ~300 Another rough count in that they were usually out of view with the crows
Bald eagle adult 1
Bald eagle 'immature' 4 I did not try and age them; lots of vocalizing from their perch tree behind the wood and metal recycling area
Good birding,
Norm Famous from Augusa
--
Norman Famous, Wetlands and Wildlife Ecologist
513 Eight Rod Road
Augusta, ME 04330
(207) 623 6072
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