I noted 132 species during 2011, but only 92 of the ones on our "99 common birds" checklist. These are the ones I missed:
- Lesser Yellowlegs
- Spotted Sandpiper
- American Woodcock
- Eastern Wood-Pewee
- Great Crested Flycatcher
- Red-breasted Nuthatch
- Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Associated People Scott Richardson
Yesterday's Lunch 'n Learn in Mather Auditorium drew over 20 people who were interested in learning more about the birds of York County. Marie Jordan of York County Audubon Society shared her vast knowledge of birds, as well as an impressive slideshow of her bird photographs. Following are just a few of the snippets of information that I documented in my notes from the program:
- Pine Siskens come through this area in November and March. They look like house finches, but have yellow on the wings.
- King Eiders can sometimes be seen off Marginal Way in Ogunquit. Harlequin ducks are common in this location in the winter, too.
- Cedar Waxwings and Bohemian Waxwings feast on the fruit from crab apple trees through the winter months.
- Saco Heath is a great place to find Prairie Warblers in the spring.
- At Kennebunk Plains, birders often see Upland Sandpipers, Grasshopper Sparrows, and Vesper Sparrows.
- Many birds have expanded their range into Maine. Birds like the Red Bellied Woodpecker and the Carolina Wren were not here 30 years ago.
- It is very important to manage fields for Bobolinks and Meadowlarks, waiting until after their nesting season to mow.
- Marie shared a statistic she had heard--that roughly one million birds in Minnesota are killed by cats each year. She encouraged all of us to keep our cats indoors for the sake of songbirds.
- Mockingbirds have their own song! In addition to all of the mimicking they do, they also have their very own "harsh sounding" song.
- When someone asks Marie what her favorite bird is she replies, "The bird I am looking at this minute!" She has too many favorites to name just one.
After the indoor presentation, the group ventured outside on a bird walk with Scott Richardson. Soon after leaving the auditorium, a Sharp Shinned Hawk flew overhead and Scott explained the flight patterns and wing differences of the area's most common raptors.
Following is the list of birds either seen or heard along the walk:
- Song Sparrow
- Sharp-shinned Hawk
- Blue Jay
- Red-tailed Hawk
- American Crow
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- American Black Duck
- Surf Scoter
- White-winged Scoter
- Northern Gannet
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Bonaparte's Gull
- Common Loon
- Ring-billed Gull
- Tree Swallow
Our first International Migratory Bird Day event was a big success on Saturday, with 200 people in attendance! Scott Richardson led a bird walk on the trails of the Reserve, where participants were treated to a white-eyed vireo sighting.
The avian community at the end of March is not dramatically different than the one that has been around for the past few months, but behaviors have changed. The birds are getting noisier.
2010 was not a good year for piping plovers on Laudholm Beach, though the overall Maine population held steady. Maine Audubon reports that 30 breeding pairs fledged 49 young along the state's sandy shorelines, with beaches from Kennebunk to Fortunes Rocks in Biddeford being the strongholds this year, but Laudholm put up zeros for nests and young.
An update of the Wells Reserve bird list has been overdue for some time. Now it's done.
Donald and Lillian Stokes attracted 68 people to the Wells Reserve at Laudholm last night for their presentation, "You, Birds, and Birding". The Stokes provided a behind the scenes account of the development of their field guides, and described the many features that are included in their latest guide, The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America, to help birders of all abilities. Following the program, Kennebooks of Kennebunkport sold copies of the guide, with Donald and Lillian on hand to sign books and chat with visitors. This program was co-hosted by the Wells Reserve and York County Audubon Society.
On September 17, 2009, this bird was caught in a mist net at the Wells Reserve and brought to the banding station under the copper beech. June Ficker, our highly knowledgeable and experienced bird bander, wanted photo documentation of this individual to share with other experts. Was she overly cautious or onto something? How would you identify this bird?
I fell short this morning. An unfamiliar song kept me following a skulker in the thick shrubs along the Barrier Beach Trail. Sweet sisiswit switchew ended up in my notebook. With a Chestnut-sided Warbler behind me and a Common Yellowthroat in front, I kept trying to convince myself this was an aberrant song from a resident, probably an inexperienced yellowthroat stumbling through its early attempts. Still, it was consistent, except for those occasions when immediately after finishing a song it would repeat itself once or twice as if mumbling an addendum.
It's a 20-year tradition: In each season of every year since 1989, birders from the York County Audubon Society have scoured the forests and fields, marshes and beach of the Wells Reserve, intent on counting all the birds they can see or hear in 3 hours. Teams spread out to cover four routes, never knowing what they'll encounter.
At yesterday's post-survey compilation, it was clear that the Muskie and Pilger trails were the hot spot. That's where most of the 127 warblers of 15 species were found.
Survey coordinator Joanne Stevens and data handler Nancy McReel have shared the full results from one of the birdiest quarterly surveys the Audubon team has done—75 species.…
"You never know what the day will bring!" That is especially true of my job as Natural Resource Specialist here at the Wells Reserve. For instance, last week my task was to walk down the length of Laudholm Beach with Nancy Viehmann in search of beached birds. This is part of a monthly survey for a nationwide program called SEANET.
The Seabird Ecological Assessment Network (SEANET), based at the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, is an ongoing project assessing seabird mortality along the eastern seaboard of the United States. Over 100 citizen scientists volunteer to walk an assigned stretch of beach once or twice a month, record environmental data and report both dead and live birds seen on the beach.
After our most recent snow fall, I had a visitor behind my home on the Alheim Property. I am not an Ornithologist by a long shot but I believe it is a Barred Owl. A beautiful bird and I thought I would share the Photo. Any birders out there think it's something else?
It's the 20th anniversary of bird banding at the Wells Reserve this year. The master bander who has been at the heart of the program all this time, June Ficker, recently looked back at her 1988 records and provided this summary:
Operated 6 12-meter mist nets from May 27 to August 31 for a total of 14 Wednesdays from 6 to 10:30 am.
Species banded: 19
Birds banded: 69
Gray Catbird: 18
Black-capped Chickadee: 8
American Robin: 8
Eastern Phoebe: 7Other species banded: American Redstart, Black-and-white Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Cedar Waxwing, Chipping Sparrow, Common Yellowthroat, Downy Woodpecker, Eastern Wood-pewee, Ovenbird, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Red-eyed Vireo, Rufous-sided (Eastern) Towhee, Song Sparrow, Tennessee Warbler, Veery
Visitors observing: 129
The pattern strengthens over time. Twice a year, in November and February, the Wells Reserve parking lot and adjacent grassy areas attract a small number of Snow Buntings. Without surveilling the area more regularly than I do, it's hard to say whether they're around every day. Whenever they do appear, it's a brightening experience.
The four that were pecking through sandy puddles and winter-worn weeds this morning provided a "life bird" for one lucky visitor. As spring approaches, I expect the opportunity for others to find them in the vicinity is getting short.
Time flies. It’s nearly a year since the last Winged Wednesday.
My 2007 quest for “99 Common Birds” has ended 19 species shy of the goal, even though I compiled a list of 112 species at the Wells Reserve during the year. It is an interesting coincidence that I also tallied just 80 of the 99 so-called common species during 2006.
Most of my misses in ‘06 were ticked in ‘07, but once again it is clear that had I gone afield specifically to find the 99 I would have been more successful than letting the ticks fall where they may.
The Wells Reserve Visitor Center has kept a wildlife sightings log for at least a decade. While updating the form today (it's now labeled Nature Observations), I pulled out the stack of sheets that have accumulated since May 1996.
Birds dominate visitors' sightings, though deer, weasel, garter snake, otter, praying mantis, mosquito, and other animals found their way in, too.
How reliable are those bird sightings? Hard to say. Not everyone who sees something knows exactly what to call it, but the report is probably okay; "blue hering" is a good example.
But what of the "yellow head blackbird" seen in the fields? It might truly have been a Yellow-headed Blackbird, but based on the misspelling Bobolink could be a better bet.
Cerulean Warbler? Prothonotary Warbler? Golden Eagle? All possibilities. Unfortunately, the wildlife sightings log holds no details for evaluating any of these rarities.
The vast majority of reports are expected species at expected seasons. Still, the collection of notes could bolster our knowledge of migrating, overwintering, and easy-to-see birdlife. These shared observations from scores of people may help us to better understand changes in the Reserve bird populations over time. Keep 'em coming!
Last week I came upon 15 species, usually in ones or twos, during an hour afield. Today, with a lot less time, I managed a single species, European Starling, but my "individuals" count was higher.
One-hundred-plus starlings perched in the shared crown of twin maples growing behind the old garages, silently congregated above a sagging shed, beaks windward.
I've made checkmarks on a copy of "99 Common Birds," our brochure listing the most expected species at the Wells Reserve, and although my Reserve bird list for 2006 contains 106 species, I only got 80 of the 99 "common" ones.
While I saw some tricky species — Snow Goose, Tricolored Heron, Laughing Gull, Fish Crow, Field Sparrow — I missed some that point to holes in my coverage and make me wonder if I simply forgot to write them down. How could I have missed Bufflehead, Broad-winged Hawk, Semipalmated Sandpiper, and American Redstart? By not being in the right place at the right time, I suppose.
I'll keep listing the birds I see at the Wells Reserve, where about 240 species have been recorded by scores of observers. By the end of 2007, I hope I can tally all 99 "common" birds and half again as many "less common" ones.
Weather permitting, I'll start my list on January 3 at 9 am. Join me?
UPDATE January 3: To the beach and back, an hour out, and 15 "common" species in the log.
Hundreds of swallows coursed over Laudholm Beach today, swarming to the dunes and back in a mass oblivious to an onlooker. They were mostly Tree Swallows, with a few Barns and fewer Banks/Rough-wingeds mixed in.
That was the bird of the day!
A woodland hawk hunting for breakfast found its course suddenly interrupted by the woven nylon of our bird bander's mist net. It was a Cooper’s Hawk, just a few months old, and with its 285 mm wing chord proved to be a female.
Too hot to move. That's what the birds must be thinking. The banders had the nets up soon after 5:30, by which time it was already over 80 degrees. Six hours later, they closed them down, having completed the requisite duration. By then it was 95.
Just three birds in those six hours, all hatch-year captives — two Black-and-white Warblers and an American Robin.
Three. That's the banders' lowest total ever. It's got to be cooler next week.
The intrepid banders caught 14 birds today; it has been a consistently modest summer for the nets so far...
| June 7 | rainout |
| June 14 | 16 birds |
| June 21 | 15 birds |
| June 28 | 15 birds |
| July 5 | 14 birds |
Eight more weeks to go… it's always a mystery what will happen on banding days.
[ Winged Wednesday VIII ]
Wednesday mornings throughout the summer, the Reserve will hold a bird banding demonstration in front of Laudholm Farmhouse. June Ficker began this program in 1988 at the Laudholm Trust office, which was housed at what is now Alheim Commons. Today an enthusiastic group of bird lovers gathered to watch the demonstration by June Ficker and others in hopes of learning more about birds and bird banding.
Several Least Terns were over the Webhannet marsh today, scanning for fish in the pools and salt-marsh pannes below and diving to snag them when the moment was right. Before long they will be gathering on Laudholm Beach and elsewhere along the Maine coast to begin their breeding season.
Bobolinks were back in force at the Wells Reserve today. Their song might be the craziest in the region — it's so much fun to hear them bubbling with enthusiasm! Today, at least four sang from fields near the main campus, sharing the space with Eastern Meadowlarks.
It's fortunate that the reserve's Resource Advisory Committee created a grassland management plan several years ago, recognizing the value of nearly 100 acres of open fields for birds like Bobolinks and meadowlarks. The mowing regimen, needed to keep shrubs from taking over, specifically avoids the nesting period for these birds.
Rain or shine meant rain. Not so much rain, perhaps, as drizzle, but the Forest Learning Shelter provided good cover for a meeting place and starting point for a half-hour walk.
Cool, damp, breezy weather kept bird activity to a minimum; no migratory burst in evidence, though a couple of "new" warblers have arrived and the morning list held 20-plus species.
We'll try again next week, same place, same time, and yes, rain or shine.
This morning in the rain sang a mimic, repeating phrases once or twice then moving on. The bird was by the pumpkin patch — or maybe in the stand of lilacs. I was on my routine approach to the big house.
I had to take a couple of steps toward the sound to enjoy it — and to be sure I wasn't hearing a mockingbird. No: Thrasher. First of the spring.
That's this Winged Wednesday. Next one starts at the Forest Learning Shelter at 9:30 on the 10th. Rain or shine.
More singing in the air today. The avian highlight of a brief noontime walk was a Merlin winging northward low over a field beyond the barns.
Piping Plovers returned to Laudholm Beach by today. They'll likely be with us into August. Let's hope for a productive year here and along the Maine and Atlantic coasts.
A flock of 45 Canada Geese flew north along the shoreline this morning. Below them, in the Webhannet Marsh along Wells Harbor Road, stood a solitary Great Blue Heron. Somewhere way up, a Tree Swallow scratched out a few notes. They're hints of spring movement that ought to start in earnest any day now.
Green-winged Teal, American Black Ducks, Canada Geese, and Mallards were the waterfowl close at hand. Red-winged Blackbirds and Song Sparrows were singing strongly, as was a sole Northern Mockingbird.
At mid day near the Wells Reserve campus, a Red-tailed Hawk got mobbed by crows and a Turkey Vulture rocked over the grasslands. The woods were mostly quiet — still mostly chickadees. American Robins, though, are hopping about by the dozens where the grass is packed down.
Midway through March, early signs of vernal reawakening appear at the Wells Reserve. Those most famous harbingers, the robins, actually drop in now and then throughout the winter, but their numbers certainly increase as migratory flocks from our south pass through or move in.
Today's Lunch 'n' Learn topic was turkey. Two dozen of us learned about jakes and jennies, as well as dewlaps, snoods, and caruncles.
A skein of cars migrated to the Laudholm barn today. They loaded up with bird seed and went on their way. It's the annual seed sale fundraiser for environmental learning programs run by Wells Reserve and York County Audubon.
The sale of seed, feeders, and accessories continues Saturday and Sunday. Preorders have priority, but we ordered extra.
Showing blog posts tagged birds: 1–5 of 33
