Maine birds And MOAC mountainbiking

Thursday, 2 March 2017

Re: [Maine-birds] Peter Vickery, 1949-2017

One of the backbone of Maine Birding- truly will be missed- always enjoyed Peter's inputs in writing as well in person-

Skip Small

Rockport

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 2, 2017, at 07:37, Rich MacDonald <rich@thenaturalhistorycenter.com> wrote:

I am so greatly saddened by Peter's passing. I did not know him near as well as some, but he had enough occasions to reach out to me that I came to consider him a friend. I will miss our intermittent phone calls and emails. Few people contributed as much to birding in Maine. Peter, you will be missed.

Sadly and fondly,

Rich

Richard MacDonald
The Natural History Center
P.O. Box 6
Bar Harbor, Maine 04609
207/266-9461
Rich@TheNaturalHistoryCenter.com
www.TheNaturalHistoryCenter.com
www.facebook.com/TheNaturalHistoryCenter

From: Maine-birds <maine-birds@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Jan Pierson <jpierson@fieldguides.com>
Date: Thursday, March 2, 2017 at 7:27 AM
To: Maine-birds <maine-birds@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Maine-birds] Peter Vickery, 1949-2017

Dear all:

Peter Vickery died early Tuesday morning, at his home in Richmond and with his wife, Barbara, at his side. Although diagnosed with esophageal cancer in September 2015, Peter was able to manage his illness remarkably well, and with a spirit and optimism that have both inspired and sustained those who loved him. As recently as last week, he was making plans to visit Matinicus Rock in June.

Readers of this listserv are familiar with Peter from his many posts here over the years, and hundreds of you know him personally—as birding acquaintances, field trip participants, co-leaders, CBC counters, colleagues, co-authors, and close friends. I can hear Peter's voice in my ear as I write this, and so I want to share a few thoughts.

My wife, Liz, and I met Peter in the late 1970s while birding on Monhegan. We were complete newbies, full of energy and ignorance, while Peter was already an accomplished and experienced birder. He was leading a group, and our interactions were brief. He was seeing some pretty cool stuff, and we didn't have much to offer in return. You can imagine our amazement when he pulled the head of a freshly dead Sora from his pocket! He'd watched the bird fall prey to a cat, and in Peter's hands its remains were now a teaching tool.

Over the next 10 years or so, we would run into Peter intermittently at Scarborough Marsh, Popham, the Kennebunk Plains, Biddeford Pool, or elsewhere our birding paths crossed. For the most part, though, Peter on the one hand and Liz and I on the other existed in separate orbits, in large part because we lived in different parts of the state. Liz and I learned much about birds in Maine and elsewhere in that period, but little about Peter.

In 1981 Liz (mostly) and I co-authored A Birder's Guide to the Coast of Maine—limited to the coast because, well, there was still a big chunk of the state with which we had little experience. The book was carried by a lot of birders for many years, but I imagine Peter (though he never expressed it to us) might have been thinking we'd written from a relative paucity of experience and limited data points. He would've been right.

The 1990s arrived, the little coastal Birder's Guide was getting long in the tooth, and Liz and I began to ponder an update, one that would cover the whole state. We put feelers out to birders around Maine for preliminary information and suggestions, including Peter. One day out of the blue Peter called and asked if he could come over. He appeared carrying a box, and he offered its contents for our use, no strings attached. "It's all yours," he said. Inside were several hundred typed pages of detailed and nearly complete descriptions for dozens of birding sites around the state, clearly compiled from a continuing effort on his part that had spanned a decade, if not two. It was a remarkable gesture, representing months of fieldwork and research we wouldn't have to do.

That gesture on Peter's part opened the door to our relationship, ensuring success of our nascent book project, which the three of us published in 1996 as A Birder's Guide to Maine. It was a revelation of a generosity of spirit on Peter's part that Liz and I would see again and again over the next 25 years, from birding to work to family interactions with him and Barbara and their sons, Gabe and Simon.

Peter loved birds, and they were woven, inseparably and on a daily basis, into his life and his soul. I hold the joy of reminiscing over innumerable early mornings and long days with Peter in search of avian delights and discoveries: around the Ice Pond on Monhegan, on countless Maine Audubon fall pelagics, while scanning through peeps at Popham, when standing calf-deep in water at Scarborough Marsh, floating downwind of a waft of guano off Matinicus Rock or Eastern Egg, doing our dawn-to-dusk Maine Audubon Big Days, admiring the wash on the breast of a wispy-tailed Roseate Tern, freezing our tails off scanning for Dovekies from Cape Small (sharing some homemade eggnog as the reward), and walking the shore at his and Barbara's beloved Seawall Beach.

This love of Peter's never waned, even if it required, in the past year, a brief nap on the deck when we were out on the Friendship V or the Hardy III, or a snooze beside me in the car on a long drive. For many years now, Peter has always come to mind when a raptor's silhouette has passed overhead along I-95—he would never have missed it—or when passing an exit we've taken or a birding site we have visited many times together. These and many other fond memories will remain with me always—indelible, invaluable gifts from Peter.
Jan Pierson

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Re: [Maine-birds] Peter Vickery, 1949-2017

I am so greatly saddened by Peter’s passing. I did not know him near as well as some, but he had enough occasions to reach out to me that I came to consider him a friend. I will miss our intermittent phone calls and emails. Few people contributed as much to birding in Maine. Peter, you will be missed.

Sadly and fondly,

Rich

Richard MacDonald

The Natural History Center

P.O. Box 6

Bar Harbor, Maine 04609

207/266-9461

Rich@TheNaturalHistoryCenter.com

www.TheNaturalHistoryCenter.com

www.facebook.com/TheNaturalHistoryCenter

From: Maine-birds <maine-birds@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Jan Pierson <jpierson@fieldguides.com>
Date: Thursday, March 2, 2017 at 7:27 AM
To: Maine-birds <maine-birds@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Maine-birds] Peter Vickery, 1949-2017

Dear all:

Peter Vickery died early Tuesday morning, at his home in Richmond and with his wife, Barbara, at his side. Although diagnosed with esophageal cancer in September 2015, Peter was able to manage his illness remarkably well, and with a spirit and optimism that have both inspired and sustained those who loved him. As recently as last week, he was making plans to visit Matinicus Rock in June.

Readers of this listserv are familiar with Peter from his many posts here over the years, and hundreds of you know him personally—as birding acquaintances, field trip participants, co-leaders, CBC counters, colleagues, co-authors, and close friends. I can hear Peter's voice in my ear as I write this, and so I want to share a few thoughts.

My wife, Liz, and I met Peter in the late 1970s while birding on Monhegan. We were complete newbies, full of energy and ignorance, while Peter was already an accomplished and experienced birder. He was leading a group, and our interactions were brief. He was seeing some pretty cool stuff, and we didn't have much to offer in return. You can imagine our amazement when he pulled the head of a freshly dead Sora from his pocket! He’d watched the bird fall prey to a cat, and in Peter's hands its remains were now a teaching tool.

Over the next 10 years or so, we would run into Peter intermittently at Scarborough Marsh, Popham, the Kennebunk Plains, Biddeford Pool, or elsewhere our birding paths crossed. For the most part, though, Peter on the one hand and Liz and I on the other existed in separate orbits, in large part because we lived in different parts of the state. Liz and I learned much about birds in Maine and elsewhere in that period, but little about Peter.

In 1981 Liz (mostly) and I co-authored A Birder's Guide to the Coast of Maine—limited to the coast because, well, there was still a big chunk of the state with which we had little experience. The book was carried by a lot of birders for many years, but I imagine Peter (though he never expressed it to us) might have been thinking we'd written from a relative paucity of experience and limited data points. He would've been right.

The 1990s arrived, the little coastal Birder's Guide was getting long in the tooth, and Liz and I began to ponder an update, one that would cover the whole state. We put feelers out to birders around Maine for preliminary information and suggestions, including Peter. One day out of the blue Peter called and asked if he could come over. He appeared carrying a box, and he offered its contents for our use, no strings attached. “It's all yours," he said. Inside were several hundred typed pages of detailed and nearly complete descriptions for dozens of birding sites around the state, clearly compiled from a continuing effort on his part that had spanned a decade, if not two. It was a remarkable gesture, representing months of fieldwork and research we wouldn’t have to do.

That gesture on Peter's part opened the door to our relationship, ensuring success of our nascent book project, which the three of us published in 1996 as A Birder's Guide to Maine. It was a revelation of a generosity of spirit on Peter's part that Liz and I would see again and again over the next 25 years, from birding to work to family interactions with him and Barbara and their sons, Gabe and Simon.

Peter loved birds, and they were woven, inseparably and on a daily basis, into his life and his soul. I hold the joy of reminiscing over innumerable early mornings and long days with Peter in search of avian delights and discoveries: around the Ice Pond on Monhegan, on countless Maine Audubon fall pelagics, while scanning through peeps at Popham, when standing calf-deep in water at Scarborough Marsh, floating downwind of a waft of guano off Matinicus Rock or Eastern Egg, doing our dawn-to-dusk Maine Audubon Big Days, admiring the wash on the breast of a wispy-tailed Roseate Tern, freezing our tails off scanning for Dovekies from Cape Small (sharing some homemade eggnog as the reward), and walking the shore at his and Barbara's beloved Seawall Beach.

This love of Peter's never waned, even if it required, in the past year, a brief nap on the deck when we were out on the Friendship V or the Hardy III, or a snooze beside me in the car on a long drive. For many years now, Peter has always come to mind when a raptor's silhouette has passed overhead along I-95—he would never have missed it—or when passing an exit we've taken or a birding site we have visited many times together. These and many other fond memories will remain with me always—indelible, invaluable gifts from Peter.

Jan Pierson

--
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https://sites.google.com/site/birding207
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[Maine-birds] Peter Vickery, 1949-2017

Dear all:

My wife, Liz, and I met Peter in the late 1970s while birding on Monhegan. We were complete newbies, full of energy and ignorance, while Peter was already an accomplished and experienced birder. He was leading a group, and our interactions were brief. He was seeing some pretty cool stuff, and we didn't have much to offer in return. You can imagine our amazement when he pulled the head of a freshly dead Sora from his pocket! He'd watched the bird fall prey to a cat, and in Peter's hands its remains were now a teaching tool.

The 1990s arrived, the little coastal Birder's Guide was getting long in the tooth, and Liz and I began to ponder an update, one that would cover the whole state. We put feelers out to birders around Maine for preliminary information and suggestions, including Peter. One day out of the blue Peter called and asked if he could come over. He appeared carrying a box, and he offered its contents for our use, no strings attached. "It's all yours," he said. Inside were several hundred typed pages of detailed and nearly complete descriptions for dozens of birding sites around the state, clearly compiled from a continuing effort on his part that had spanned a decade, if not two. It was a remarkable gesture, representing months of fieldwork and research we wouldn't have to do.

Jan Pierson

[Maine-birds] FOY woodcock Back Cove, Portland

Heard at dawn this morning. Earliest record in my 15 years tracking....

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Wednesday, 1 March 2017

[Maine-birds] Looking for established bird feeders in the Greater Bangor Area!

Hey there fellow bird enthusiasts,
We are a group of four students at the University of Maine conducting an experiment of the effect of human settlement of bird community composition and behavior in the greater Bangor area, and are looking for locations to observe at. We are looking for properties that have established bird feeders. We would be coming out to observe the site at the end of March and early April to perform our experiment at the feeder. The experiment would consist of us first observing the birds as they are, then broadcasting a recording of a Cooper's Hawk call, then again observing their behavior to look for differences between the responses of communities spread across a rural to urban gradient. Two of us will be on the premises or parked on the side of the road for no more than two hours at a time. We would be observing at your particular location on two separate days, once in the morning, and again in the evening before sunset. If you are willing to participate, please contact Michelle Bassis at michelle.bassis@maine.edu. Thank you for your consideration!

Sincerely,
Michelle Bassis, Jackie W., Gerry V., and Joe C.

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[Maine-birds] Great Gray Owl Thoughts

I have to admit, what love about these debates is it makes me want to understand the birds more, so I dig. Like many of you, I am a birder, and like some of you, it is not my life calling (oh but if I had it to live over again…) My understanding comes from my limited experiences and grows as I am fortunate enough to have more. My list of meaningful interactions with this species consists of basically 45 minutes the other day. I am much more experienced with empty fields than with this bird. So I will let wiser people than me confirm any of this information, but in the limited research I have done of this species, I have turned up a few papers that discuss this topic that I thought I would share. By the way it is amazing what you can find with Google Scholar and raging insomnia. My soundtrack tonight just happens to be 2 Barred Owls conversing which only adds to the fun.

In the paper North American Owls: Biology and Natural History, the author concludes:

Great gray owls prefer to hunt in relatively open country where scattered trees or forest margins provide for suitable vantage points for visual searching. Winter (1987) found that about 90 percent of monitored birds' time was spent within 124 meters of an open meadow. In the winter the birds hunt primarily in early morning and again from late afternoon to dusk, with little or no nocturnal activity,judging from Brenton and Pittaway's (1971) observations. Oeming (1955) also reported that, prior to the nesting season, most hunting is done in late afternoon, but while feeding young both daytime and nocturnal hunting may be done. Similar observations during winter in Finland suggest that the birds prefer to hunt at dusk, but modify their crepuscular tendencies to include daytime during midwinter, when the day is very short, and especially during dull, overcast days. On the other hand, during the short nights of summer at high latitudes the birds concentrate their foraging around midnight, although the great need for food during the nestling period may force the male to be active throughout the daylight hours (Mikkola, 1983)

Similar conclusion was reached in this article Observations of the Great Gray Owl on Winter Range See page 320

Some more good info can be found here Review of Technical Knowledge: Great Gray Owls In here they reference a few studies that have shown the owls may prefer actually hunting in the “open forests”.

There are factors in these studies that refer to the height and distance from targets as well as so much more. It is worth a look if you are interested in rounding out your visit to this marvelous bird with some good reading material.

I welcome any thoughts or comments.

Cheers,

Rob O’Connell

490 Greely Road Extension

Cumberland, ME 04021

H-207-221-3462

M-207-450-4092

[Maine-birds] Re: Owl again

Hi-
I just would like to point out that the fact that people are seeing this bird hunt during the daytime IS exactly what is concerning me. As you point out, this species is primarily a nocturnal animal. If it is being forced to hunt outside of it's normal hunting times, I am *very* concerned that it is not obtaining much prey. Just as if I saw a Red tailed hawk take a flying squirrel off my feeder at midnight -- it would tell me "something ain't right here".
I think we need to look at unusual bird activity as a symptom that there may be a problem. I don't want to jump into the debate over respecting the bird's space - that has been well debated and I have my own opinions. I just want to point out that when we see something deviating form an expected pattern, it isn't necessarily something to be comforted by - it is more likely a sign of a problem.
The dense snowpack DOES cause a problem for rodent-eating animals, they have the opportunity to hide more readily under the snowpack. My sense is that this bird probably is experiencing some degree of hunger stress and that SHOULD play a role in what we consider "ethical" behaviour.
Just my 2 cents, on sale for a penny -- take it or leave it, but I feel that point has been overlooked.
-Sandra

On Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at 5:51:53 PM UTC-5, Seth Davis wrote:

Richard-

Though I'm inclined to do a point-by-point response but truthfully I'm getting tired of repeating myself (and I'm sure everyone else is sick of me too) thus I want to limit my response to your last point with regard to hunting. I just want to remind you that GGOW's are primarily nocturnal hunters, therefore a majority of their kills are going to be made when the gaggle of birders are not present. The fact that people have witnessed it feeding diurnally A.) is awesome, B.) indicates that the bird is not in a lack of food sources. So yes. Those couple of voles actually mean a lot. If it continues to hunt despite onlookers that suggests behaviorally that the bird is not in distress.

Seth

On Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at 5:15:30 PM UTC-5, Richard Harris Podolsky wrote:
I know some find this back and forth tiresome - or maybe even devisive. But we are all adults here and while opinions clearly vary - lets keep sharing and learning from each other! That is what a good and healthy forum like this is all about.

My beef was with the practice of leaving the road and entering into the field to watch and photograph the bird. And the ABA Code of Birding Ethics, posted by Kristen recommends, not doing that - specifically, "1(d) Stay on roads, trails, and paths where they exist; otherwise, keep habitat disturbance to a minimum." Good roads exist at both locales - lets use them even if the land owners permits you to enter the fields - just say not thank you.

I did some checking and in the Birds of North America it states that research has shown that wild, adult GGOW's consume up to 7 Microtus -sized prey items per day during the winter months. So, even if you see the owl catch a couple of voles during a few hours spent watching from within the fields - the owl may have caught more mice if everyone stayed on the road as ABA Code recommends. Clearly, we cannot be sure of that - but let us err on the side of caution. We want this bird to go home and breed successfully.

I personally respect everyones opinions and I welcome any chance to be enlightened from the research and field experience they have.

Richard

On Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at 11:08:43 AM UTC-5, BAB wrote:
I wonder if the controversy over the great gray might not be solved with an appeal to respecting comfort distances. While it's true a warbler can still find food in its immediate vicinity even with a photographer 25 feet away, it's quite different for an owl that needs a hay field to hunt over. Professional wildlife photographers don't harass their target species. What is the purpose of an amateur needing to get so close, especially with a 500mm lens? Is it for stock images? There are currently more than enough excellent stock photos of great gray owls, and any additional images would yield about $0.75 in that particular market. Or is getting close just a personal objective, sort of like Hemingway proving he can still shoot one more elephant? If you love the wildlife you are pursuing with a camera, why would you purposely harass the animal? If you don't love your wild photographic targets, perhaps it's time to move on to landscapes, architecture, or portraits.

BAB

--
Bruce Bartrug
Nobleboro, Maine, USA
bbar...@gmail.com
www.brucebartrug.com

•The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. - Albert Einstein
•In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. -Martin Luther King