Maine birds And MOAC mountainbiking

Sunday, 10 June 2018

[Maine-birds] Maine Bird Atlas - Weekend Challenges, 6/9

Hi everyone:

Sorry for not getting these "weekend" challenges out on Friday but between Maine Audubon's Matinicus Rock trip Friday (report coming soon) and the Aroostook Birding Festival Saturday, the birds have been too good to stop at a computer!

Anyways, today (June 10th) finally gets us into the safe dates for all of Maine's breeding birds! This means that any bird you hear singing *should* be on its breeding grounds and can be entered as "S-Singing Bird". New confirmed breeders continue to roll in, putting us at 136 species (up from 122 last week) and a whopping 214 species (needing some review) when we include possible and probably records. For context, the first atlas had 201 confirmed breeders.

As usual, lets take a look at how we did with last week's challenges…

Indigo Bunting - A tough one if you don't have the right habitats around but nice to see a few people were able to increase possible records to probable! Check those power line cuts along your commutes.

Eastern Phoebe - Great work! There was a 18% increase in the number of blocks confirmed for this species over the past week, bringing the total to 123.

Brown-headed Cowbird - On a percent increase basis, BHCO blew away EAPH with a 400% increase in confirmed blocks (now up to 5). Remember that parasitized nests count as confirmed records for both the cowbird and the host. Same with an adult host feeding a recently fledged cowbird. On Thursday's bird walk at Gilsland Farm we saw an Eastern Phoebe feeding a noise and beefy-looking cowbird…

Honorary mention goes to European Starling, which continues to jump in confirmed blocks, now up to 107 (from 83 last week and 64 before that). I think Bill and I confirmed them in at least four blocks driving around Aroostook County yesterday morning - keep an eye out for food they are carrying or buildings they're flying into.

NEW CHALLENGES:

1) Common Eider - We've obviously got some bias of effort along the coast so we should be able to get more confirmed records for Common Eiders, only at 13 confirmed blocks right now. Look for females swimming around with their chicks, often forming large groups called creches.

2) Song Sparrow - For being such a common species, these need a little work on getting confirmed. 150 blocks have possible and 106 with probable records but only 55 confirmed. Spend some time this week watching for adults carrying food. They've got a fun map to look at because so many blocks have at some level of breeding documented: https://ebird.org/atlasme/map/sonspa

3) Bump a species up to confirmed - with 136 confirmed species, there are some obvious birds lacking confirmed records that shouldn't be too hard to track down. A scan of the list (https://ebird.org/atlasme/state/US-ME?yr=all) looks like Marsh Wren or Scarlet Tanager, among many others, are low hanging fruit.

Good birding and happy atlasing!

Doug Hitchcox
Maine Bird Atlas - Outreach Coordinator
Maine Audubon - Staff Naturalist
207-781-2330 x237
dhitchcox@maineaudubon.org

Saturday, 9 June 2018

[Maine-birds] Boreal grand slam

This has never happened before.

Seth Benz and I are co-leading a tour in and around Baxter State Park.
Today, we hit some of the hot spots off the Telos Road west of Baxter. We
had a male spruce grouse, a female spruce grouse, gray jays, a bunch of
boreal chickadees, a black-backed woodpecker, and an American three-toed
woodpecker...all before 1pm. 1pm! What do we do with the rest of the day?!
Usually we're still searching for a key miss right up until dinner. Today,
happy hour starts early at Big Moose Inn in Millinocket.

Scooped up most of the warblers, too, including a cooperative mourning
warbler, and a teed-up bay-breasted. Still missing Cape May and Tennessee,
though. But, plenty of moose to make up for it.

Bob Duchesne
Woodpecker Whisperer

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Friday, 8 June 2018

[Maine-birds] SMCC Campus: Northern Rough-winged Swallow & Common Eider ducklings

Early this evening (while light was still good) there was a circling NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW around the Fort Rd. ("Mr. and Mrs. Fish") Pier and adjacent beach. It was observed through binoculars for 15 minutes or so, at the same time as 7 Common Eider adults & 3 ducklings were near the end of the pier. Also, it appears that this year's Osprey nest on the nearby platform has been abandoned. The last time I saw the Osprey pair they were perched near the marina late in the day, both looking thin and chirping as if they were distressed. I'm guessing that a lack of food drove them away from the area.

A COMMON NIGHTHAWK was also seen & heard circling over Pillsbury St. a couple blocks away.

SMCC list: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S46406827

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[Maine-birds] Little Egret sighted today at Back Cove, Portland

This afternoon while running on the Back Cove trail I saw the LITTLE EGRET not far offshore across the street from the intersection of Vannah Ave. and Baxter Boulevard. I stopped and observed it for about 5 minutes before it flew off in the direction of Hannaford. One conspicuous long plume, slender build the size of a Snowy, moderately yellow but not bright yellow feet seen when taking off.

Jeff Webb

[Maine-birds] This Week's Highlights, 6/2-6/8

Hi all,

My observations of note over the past seven days included the following:

- 1 Upland Sandpiper, Bowdoin Sand Plain, Brunswick, 6/2 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).

- 7+ Grasshopper Sparrows, etc, Kennebunk Plains, 6/3 (with Birds on Tap - Roadtrip! tour group).

- 75 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 3 Ruddy Turnstones, 2 Least Sandpipers, 1 Black-bellied Plover, 1 Semipalmated Plover, 2 White-winged Scoters, 45+ Bonaparte's Gulls, etc, Pine Point, Scarborough, 6/4 (with Jeannette).

- 1 POSSIBLE LITTLE EGRET X SNOWY EGRET HYBRID, Eastern Road Trail, Scarborough Marsh, 6/5: Observed with clients, but too far to confirm, and I didn't have time to study it, or other nearby egrets, as we had other species on our agenda.

- 1 continuing male ORCHARD ORIOLE, Capisic Pond Park, Portland, 6/5 (with clients from Finland).

- 18 Surf Scoters and 13 White-winged Scoters, Simpson's Point, Brunswick, 6/7.

- 2-4+ RED CROSSBILLS, Wilson's Cove Preserve, Harpswell, 6/8 (with clients from Maine and ME/FL).

- 1 AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER, private property on Bailey Island, Harpswell, 6/8 (with clients).

-Derek

*****************************************

Derek and Jeannette Lovitch

Freeport Wild Bird Supply

541 Route One, Suite 10

Freeport, ME 04032

207-865-6000

www.freeportwildbirdsupply.com

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[Maine-birds] Spotted sandpiper chicks

I checked in on mother spotted sandpiper this afternoon on my bike ride along the Penobscot River in Old Town and she has three chicks...that I saw.

http://photosbychance.zenfolio.com/p432832521/had9b42e7#had9b42e7

Cheers,

Dave

[Maine-birds] ID help please-saltmarsh sparrow????

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143862779@N08/41775841365/in/dateposted-public/

I believe this is a salmarsh sparrow which I saw at Scarborough Mashes this morning, I know the pic is not great...lighting was not my friend. I was excited to see it is banded.

Thanks

Deb Powers

South Berwick Maine