I managed to get some birding time in the last few days on Mount Desert Island. A bunch of FOYs (First Of the Years for those that are acronym challenged) and a few just plain good birds.
12 April:
- The bird (or birds) of the day was a raft of about 40 Ruddy Ducks at Hadley Point! Not a record high count for MDI, but it is up there. They were far off but scoped well.
- A count of about 1,100 Common Eider at Hadley Point was one of higher counts I have had in a while, as were the 276 White-winged Scoter.
- A pair of Eastern Phoebe at the MDI High School, along with a Common Grackle (neither particularly unusual but they were FOYs for me).
- 4 Green-winged Teal and Greater Yellowlegs at the Babson Creek Preserve at the head of Somes Sound.
- 3 Common Merganser on Northeast Creek were among the first I had seen this year.
- A Blue-winged Teal and a Pied-billed Grebe were both good sightings on Hamilton Pond.
- An American Kestrel and an Eastern Bluebird at the College of the Atlantic farm fields on Norway Drive were both FOYs for me.
For the past ten years, I have reliably found Great Blue Heron on Mount Desert Island on 01 April, give or take a day. People have been seeing them locally for about a week now, but it has been my nemesis. I have visited several local expected haunts, only to be skunked. FINALLY, yesterday (12 April), I saw one near the head of the island.
Today, a pair of Wilson’s Snipe at the Mount Desert Island High School, observed with my friend Rob Packie and two birders from Massachusetts, was an MDI first for me! YAY! Rob diligently tells me when he finds them, but I had struck out until today. (Thank you, Rob!).
Richard MacDonald
The Natural History Center
6 Firefly Lane, "On the Village Green"
P.O. Box 6
Bar Harbor, Maine 04609
207/801-2617 (store)
207/266-9461 (mobile)
Rich@TheNaturalHistoryCenter.com
www.TheNaturalHistoryCenter.com
www.facebook.com/TheNaturalHistoryCenter
0 comments:
Post a Comment