Re: [Maine-birds] Gilsland Farm Birdwalk and Goose Trip on Saturday

Walks are THURSDAY and Saturday...

Sorry

On Nov 07, 2013, at 03:39 PM, Doug Hitchcox <dhitchcox@mac.com> wrote:

What a difference an hour (or technically two) makes. We are now starting the Wednesday and Saturday walks at 8am, which luckily meant we avoided all precipitation today! Diversity is still dropping off, I only tallied 29 species but had to leave before covering the North Meadow. The rest of the group added another 6 or so species in the North Meadow. Here are a few highlights:

Despite the low tide, duck numbers keep increasing. For what little water was left in the river it was packed with returning waterfowl. Buffleheads galore, Common Goldeneye numbers still climbing, and a hen Hooded Merganser looked out of place with a group of American Black Ducks. 'Best' bird of the morning was probably a Greater Yellowlegs foraging along the mudflats. It isn't quite late for GRYE yet but still nice to see in November.

Passerines were lacking, probably because of weather, but finches seem to have gone through a bit of an uptick lately. A good mass of House Finch and American Goldfinch were dominating the trees around the West Meadow.

Here is a complete checklist from the walk: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15599154

Also, this Saturday I will be leading a van trip to some of the agricultural fields around Yarmouth and Cumberland to count through the geese and hopefully turn up something unusual. For more information, go to: http://maineaudubon.org/events/2013/a-wild-goose-chase/

Good birding,

Doug Hitchcox

Staff Naturalist

Maine Audubon

207-781-2330 x237

dhitchcox@maineaudubon.org