[Maine-birds] Common Grackle and Swamp Sparrow @ Capisic Pond

Fellow birders,

 

I made a BIG mistake. I'm not sure what happened to my two replies (they are jumbled up), but the bird that I posted as a Brewer's Blackbird is a Common Grackle. I apologize to any birders who made a trip out to Capisic in hopes of finding the bird that would have ended up being a Grackle, which is a good January bird, but by no means a 1st confirmed state record of a species. My less than four years of birding experience showed through here by breaking the rule of "ID rare birds with caution". I chose to ID the bird with adrenaline instead.

 

It was a rather short-tailed and smaller billed (from some angles) COGR that could create some confusion, but it was my mistake of using it's call or song as a clincher, which with most bird species, seems to be the most reliable form of ID. In the case of certain blackbird species like COGR and BRBL, similar sounds can be produced and the sound I heard today matched the first sound recording from the Cornell website for a Brewers, which made me forget the Grackle sounds that I know and convinced me that I 100% had "sealed the deal". I thought something was suspicious when I described the sound in my notebook as a "squeaky door opening or closing". I have used that same description for certain COGR calls and with good reason, because those birds and this bird are COGR's. My thrill for discovery made me ignore and bypass some of the many pieces to the puzzle.

 

To sum this up, I have learned yet another lesson in the world of birding which is to slow down, take a breath, and make sure everything adds up before jumping to conclusions. This all ties in to Derek's "The whole bird and more" approach. I only used the pieces that I wanted and ignored the rest.

 

Last and not least, don't let the fact that this was not a Brewers Blackbird stop anyone from birding Capisic Pond this weekend. Obviously I can't guarantee that it will be birdy tomorrow, but it was great today. Not Brewers Blackbird great, but it was Swamp Sparrow, Common Grackle, Pine Grosbeak, Cedar Waxwing, and lots of Robins great. I apologize again for getting any ones hopes up. I know I got mine up!

 

Bird haahd and smaaht,

Noah Gibb-Portland