Tuesday, 16 December 2014

[Maine-birds] Northern Pintails

Hi-
If anyone is interested, I had lovely looks at 3 Northern Pintails (I have photos) right near Route 1 in the Scarborough Marsh -- directly across from Anjon's Italian place.  They were quite cooperative.  Until the police officer pulled over behind me to see if I was ok and I had to explain I was watching the ducks which were no longer in sight.  :)
-Sandra

On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 3:38 PM, <maine-birds@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Doug Hitchcox <dhitchcox@mac.com>: Dec 16 01:09PM -0500

Hey everyone:
 
Having just read the National Audubon's "CBC Starts Today" email from the 14th, I wanted to make sure others don't delete it as quickly as I almost did. Because there is an awesome video on irruptive species - specifically highlighting a species that most birders in Southern Maine rarely see: Sheehanea vilhelmus
 
http://birds.audubon.org/videos/christmas-bird-count-irruptive-species <http://birds.audubon.org/videos/christmas-bird-count-irruptive-species>
 
Enjoy!
 
 
Doug Hitchcox
Staff Naturalist
Maine Audubon
207-781-2330 x237
dhitchcox@maineaudubon.org <mailto:dhitchcox@maineaudubon.org>
Sharon F. <sfinley111@hotmail.com>: Dec 16 03:13PM -0500

Doug-Thanks for the heads up-I did indeed hit the delete key too quickly! Sheehanea vilhelmus is quite an addition to the life list....(: Sharon in West K.
 
From: dhitchcox@mac.com
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 13:09:37 -0500
Subject: [Maine-birds] CBC: Irruptive Species video
To: maine-birds@googlegroups.com
 
Hey everyone:
 
Having just read the National Audubon's "CBC Starts Today" email from the 14th, I wanted to make sure others don't delete it as quickly as I almost did. Because there is an awesome video on irruptive species - specifically highlighting a species that most birders in Southern Maine rarely see: Sheehanea vilhelmus
 
http://birds.audubon.org/videos/christmas-bird-count-irruptive-species
Enjoy!
 
 
Doug Hitchcox
Staff Naturalist
Maine Audubon
207-781-2330 x237
dhitchcox@maineaudubon.org
 
 
 
 
 
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Michael Fahay <mfahay@gmail.com>: Dec 16 02:31PM -0500

A dark but windless & warm morning. Had the beach nearly to myself. A surprising Lesser Black-backed Gull was at the Morse River mouth, with a small gathering of other gulls, including 12 Great Black-Backed Gulls, a species that can be scarce or absent here at this time of year, it seems.
 
A Rough-legged Hawk was perched at the tippy top of a skinny, bare tree on the seaward end of Wood Island, and remained there, motionless, for many minutes. Vis from Fox Island.
 
No Snow Buntings, No Sanderlings, No Snowy Owls, and very few sea-ducks offshore.
Richard McWilliams <dick@harborfarmstore.com>: Dec 16 09:32AM -0800

*Beautiful immature male goshawk hanging out in our back yard this morning.
He jumped the doves and then decided to sit around in our apple tree for a
while before continuing on his way. *
Carol Muth <suzmuth@gmail.com>: Dec 16 12:23PM -0500

Since Dec 14 we have been watching a very aggressive Red-breasted nuthatch
at our feeder here (Roque Bluffs, Cow Point). This bird attacked the
chickadees on and near the feeder. Then yesterday another RBNU showed up.
We never saw the two together at the feeder, so I don't know how or if they
interacted. This morning a RBNU in a spruce tree with several Black-capped
chickadees was doing a call I have not heard before. It began with the
usual "hank" but increased in speed and volume until it was very loud and
sustained, with no breaks between the "hanks", like a machine gun (although
I've never heard a machine gun, except in the movies, thank goodness).
Then, around noon, I saw from our window a RBNU at the very top vertical
twig of a young spruce. It was sitting on the tip of that twig, very
straight and erect and flapping its wings rapidly up and down, as if it
were doing the arm movements for jumping-jacks, or exactly like the toy
wooden birds with a pull-string, which I always thought were impossibly
unrealistic.
Is this territorial behavior?
Joanne Stevens <joshawk@maine.rr.com>: Dec 16 10:11AM -0500

While doing the York County CBC yesterday our team (Pat Sanborn,
Ann Hancock and I) located two adult Red-shouldered Hawks. One was near
the intersection of Clay Hill Rd. and Logging Rd. in Qgunquit, as well
as a Winter Wren in the ravine at that same intersection. The other was
along Chick Brook, Emery's Bridge Rd. in South Berwick. Also 3 drake
Wood Ducks in the Great Works River at Emery's Bridge.
 
Beautiful day to be birding and have a picnic lunch at the top of
Mt. A.
 
J.
"Bill Hancock" <wph@maine.rr.com>: Dec 15 11:31PM -0500

The Greater Portland CBC took place this past Sunday, December 14. The
beautiful weather, moderate early-winter temperatures, and light winds made
for a great day of birding. The thirteen teams plus feeder-watchers tallied
104 species with an additional five so far for count-week. Seventeen
regularly occurring species set new high counts: Mallard (2070), Northern
Pintail (42--the previous record high was 7), Harlequin Duck (41), Black
Scoter (1704), Common Loon (332), Red-necked Grebe (153), Red-tailed Hawk
(52), Black Guillemot (51), Downy Woodpecker (85), White-breasted Nuthatch
(130), Brown Creeper (13), Eastern Bluebird (77--the previous high was 40),
Hermit Thrush (15--the previous high was 5); Song Sparrow (109); Swamp
Sparrow (6), White-throated Sparrow (191), and American Goldfinch (951--the
previous high was 616).
 

 
Notable other birds included: the ongoing Eurasian Wigeon at Grondin Pond;
five owl species, including 2 Snowy Owls and a Long-eared Owl; a Brown
Thrasher; 6 American Pipits; a single Bohemian Waxwing; ten sparrow species,
including a Field and a Lark sparrow; and a lone Common Redpoll.
 

 
Bill Hancock
 
Gray
Bill Sheehan <bill.j.sheehan@gmail.com>: Dec 15 09:42PM -0500

Hi all,
 
Though not all participant's have reported in yet and the numbers are still
changing, I thought I'd pass on a few highlights of Maine's northern-most
Christmas Bird Count which we ran on Sunday.
 
It was the fourth official running of the count and the warmest weather
yet. The temperature was over *60 degrees warmer* this year than last!
Most streams had flooded and had shed their ice overnight--it looked more
like April than December. Despite the warm temps, snow cover remained
across the area.
 
Preliminary results show we tallied 38 species, our best diversity yet and
a very good showing for a northern count. We set new high individual
counts for 16 species including 2 Northern Shrikes, 6 Gray Jays and 26 Bald
Eagles.
 
Four new species for the count were Wild Turkey, Iceland Gull, Cedar
Waxwing and Red Crossbill.
 
The finch show was pretty good with lots of Evening and Pine Grosbeaks,
Common Redpolls and American Goldfinches. There was also decent numbers of
Bohemian Waxwings and Ruffed Grouse.
 
So far, both Purple Finch and Pine Siskin are looking like they will be
Count-Week-only birds, but our most surprising miss was Snow Bunting.
 
Though none were found in the count circle, a Snowy Owl was enjoyed by many
of our participants at the PT Barn in Presque Isle at the end of the day.
 
All in all, a good day in the field.
 
Cheers!
 
Bill
 
--
Bill Sheehan
Woodland, Aroostook Co., Maine
http://northernmainebirds.blogspot.com/
Derek and Jeannette Lovitch <freeportwildbird@yahoo.com>: Dec 15 11:33PM

 Hi all,
Two lovely days of Christmas Bird Counting produced the following highlights for me:
- Portland CBC, 12/14:Portland peninsula (with Luke Seitz).
1 BROWN THRASHER (2nd count record), Spring St.6 HERMIT THRUSHES (previous count-wide high of 5), including 3 along the Eastern Prom.1 Swamp Sparrow, Eastern Promenade1 Swamp Sparrow, Mercy Pond2 Iceland Gulls, Old Port
-York County CBC, 12/15:Moody area (Wells-Ogunquit with Kristen Lindquist).
1 EASTERN MEADOWLARK, Furbish Rd (5th count record).8 DUNLIN with 188 Sanderlings, Ogunquit Beach (7th count record).1 COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, Seaview Drive.5 AMERICAN PIPITS, Eldridge Rd.1 Hermit Thrush, Moody Point.2 Northern Pintails, Moody Marsh.2 Swamp Sparrows.
I've posted section totals for all species, along with a photo of the Brown Thrasher, on my blog for those who might be interested:http://mebirdingfieldnotes.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/2-early-season-cbcs-in-2014/
-Derek
*****************************************
Derek and Jeannette Lovitch
Freeport Wild Bird Supply
541 Route One, Suite 10
Freeport, ME 04069
207-865-6000
www.freeportwildbirdsupply.com
 
****************************************
Ken DiBiccari <kendibiccari@roadrunner.com>: Dec 15 01:28PM -0800

Hi Everyone,
 
I went to the Cliff House area three times and finally I got to see the
King Eider. He was a long way out there so the
photos I took of him needed to be blown up to see a decent view of him. I
am thankful I was able to get any shots of him at all
after waiting 3 hours for him to show ! He is a life bird for me so I am
happy I got to see him.
You can see a few shots of him on my flickr account.
 
Ken DiBiccari
 
 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ken_dibiccari-nature_images/
Francesco Ticozzi <francescoticozzi@gmail.com>: Dec 15 04:26PM -0500

Three good birds today!
 
King Eider visible in scoping distance around noon from Cliff House — still in correspondence of the second cove north.
 
There was a snowy owl on top of the roof of building next to the lighthouse visible from East Point Sanctuary, Biddeford Pool, around 2pm.
 
The snowy owl at the Portland Jetport still present at 4 pm, where spotted before.
 
Good birding,
 
Francesco
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