Hi Folks,
While working in Cutler last week I picked up a nice array of warblers in spite of the weather which suppressed bird song, a handicap when working in open barrens next to the woods.
In regards to frequent comments on hermit thrushes, They were singing and calling in the AM and late afternoon 4 to 7 per day. They were also numerous in Machiasport.
Based on the combination of song activity and call note types and broods, they appear to have initiated a second brood. Same for white throated and savannah sparrows.
Quick Ant Question?
Has anyone noticed medium sized black ants harvesting something from young upper shoots and upper-lateral native larch or tamarack branches on shrubs ranging in height from less than a foot up to six or seven feet. If you grab the twigs to place surveyors flagging around them (the twigs, not the ants), your hand gets covered with ants that do not shake off easily (rain or shine). This activity has picked up over the last two weeks. I cannot recall if vireos were attracted to these trees.
Larches often attract migrating warblers and kinglets to their crowns just before leaf-out. I used to have a number of larch trees (30-35 ft tall) in the University of Maine Forest on the Stillwater Avenue extension each year that I would visit almost daily. Usually there were be up to twenty-plus birds comprising more than ten species on the tree while birds were hard to locate elsewhere. This sometimes lasted for two weeks.
Here in Augusta, I have a tall larch tree about 75 feet into the woods off our back deck that attracts many early migrants plus larger numbers of migrants during peak migration. I have picked up many relative early records for some of the more hard-core insectivores. I have no idea what they are chowing down on.
Don Mears and John help!
Norm from Augusta
Warblers in no particular order
Cape May warbler 2 (resident all season)
Blackpoll 2 (resident all season)
Bay-breasted warbler 2 (resident all season)
Black-throated green warbler 6 (resident all season)
Blackburnian warbler 2 (resident all season)
Black-and-white warbler 2 (resident all season)
Northern parula 5 (resident all season)
Magnolia warbler 4 (resident all season)
Nashville warbler 4 (resident all season)
American redstart 6 (resident all season)
Yellow-rumped warbler 6 (resident all season)
Palm warbler 3 (resident all season) Family group
Wilson's warbler 2 (resident all season)
Common yellowthroat 8 (resident all season)
Chestnut-sided warbler 2 (resident all season)
Yellow warbler 2 (resident all season)
Northern waterthrush 1 (resident all season)
Canada warbler 1 (resident all season)
Ovenbird 2 (resident all season)
The rest of the world
Hermit thrush max 7 (resident all season)
Swainson's thrush 2 (resident all season)
Veery 1 call note
Lincoln's sparrow 3 (family group)
Savannah sparrow 20+ vs. 3-5 (mass fledging on Wednesday; excessive new singing thereafter, probably the start of second brooding; there are usually new broods out late in the week of July on inland barrens where nesting starts a little sooner)
Song sparrow 5
White-throated sparrow 8
Chipping sparrow 1
Junco 2
Winter wren 2
Gray jay 1
Boreal chickadee 2
Golden-crowned kinglet 3 Becoming more conspicuous vocally
Black-capped chickadee 3
Purple finch Nice song
Gray catbird 1
Red-winged blackbird 2
Turkey 1
Northern harrier 1 male
Osprey 6 Feeding young
American robin 10 Including two dark northern morphs; handsome birds
American woodcock 2 birds
Black duck 1
Ruffed grouse 1
American goldfinch 2 or 3
Other goodies
Moose 2
Deer 2
Red squirrel 2
Porcupine 1
Fox 1
Coyote 1
Biting and sucking insects: Many of all flavors
Other pleasantries including Interesting plants
Arethusa bulbosa or dragon's mouth orchid Hundred growing in very low (6 inch high) barrens rather in the bog (plenty there as well).
Rose pogonia orchid growing in similar circumstances
Other plants mostly 2-3 weeks behind Augusta and Bangor and ten days behind Machias.
--
Norman Famous, Wetlands and Wildlife Ecologist
513 Eight Rod Road
Augusta, ME 04330
(207) 623 6072
-- --
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/groups/opt_out.
0 comments:
Post a Comment