New yard bird, new life bird!

As I dragged myself out of bed this morning after a fairly restless night [damned alarm cats went off at 5:00 a.m.!] and struggled to focus my vision, I went to the bedroom window that looks out over a couple of feeders and, as is my wont, did a check of the avian activity out there. "Hmm," I sez to myself, "nothing interesting, and things have been rather quiet lately." However, I was quickly--and happily!--proven wrong when I realized there was one very new visitor--a Fox Sparrow! I got a good, if short and somewhat bleary-eyed, look at him/her, and by the time I fetched a pair of binocs it was no more to be seen. I had a bit of doubt about it for awhile, given the shortness of my observation, so I was pleased when it came around again a bit later in the morning. Lovely bird, and quite distinctive, really, what with its large-for-a-sparrow size, reddish color, and grey on its neck and cheeks. Range maps show them as being only migratory in Maine. I'll be interested to note how long this one sticks around the 'hood--indeed, if it's even still here! This was my first-ever sighting, so we have one more for both the yard list and my personal life list.

In other news, some siskins are back again today. They've been quite sporadic in their visits and, of course, I have no way of knowing whether or not it's the same ones that keep returning every few days. I should perhaps get a little more systematic about my observations to see if there's any sort of pattern to their appearances.

Yard bird #68

There hasn't been a great deal of interest happening in the yard lately but I was surprised and pleased to see a Golden-crowned Kinglet in one of the feeder trees. We'd just noted our first Ruby-crowned Kinglet in October, and this was the first Golden-crowned that we'd noted. Kinglets are lovely little birds, "little" being the operative word. They sometimes hover a bit as they feed, often near the ends of branches. A too-hasty glance can lead one to at first think one is seeing a hummingbird. David Sibley notes that the two species of kinglet "differ in many respects." Not the least of the differences is that the crowns that give them their names are displayed quite differently. The gorgeous yellow feathers on the GCK are pretty much always visible, but a glimpse of the RCK's red top is a rare treat.

Both species of kinglet are peripatetic little guys, so they're very difficult to photograph. I managed a fair shot of a GCK in some grass along the Murfreesboro [TN] Greenway a few years ago:

The one this morning seems not to have hung around long, as I have not seen it again.

By way of updating yard status, the Pine Siskins have put in only occasional appearances since I first noted them a week ago. The number of Purple Finches has also gone way down. A Red-breasted Nuthatch that was around off and on for awhile has also not been in evidence lately. I do hope he/she comes back! Goldfinches, Juncos, Chickadees, and Titmice are still numerous, and a pair or so of Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers, plus White-breasted Nuthatches, spend a lot of time on the suet feeders.

Juncos and Finches and Siskins--oh my!

One of the delights of this time of year is observing the almost daily change in the natural world. We look out every day and see that the palette of colors in the trees is different than it was when we went to bed the night before. The two-month-long progression of changes from the greens of spring and summer; to the reds, yellows, and oranges of September; to the coppers of October; and finally to the greys of November, is always a pleasure to witness.

The bird life around the house changes as well, though I've been remiss about commenting on it. I noted exactly a month ago that Juncos had begun to appear, and that I expected their numbers to increase rapidly in the ensuing days. That certainly proved to be true, and we now delight in looking out at the trees on the edge of the woods and seeing a welcome assemblage of the small, handsome, grey-and-white birds eagerly feasting on the millet seeds that the Chickadees and finches scatter on the ground in their searches for the sunflower seeds in the mix. Flitting from tree, to ground, to bush, to ground, to brush pile, to ground, and back to tree, their constant activity is a joy to watch. Juncos were a familiar site growing up in Western Massachusetts--"junkets," my mother used to call them--but were rare visitors to my yard in Tennessee. It's great to be able to enjoy their company again!

They certainly are not the only new seasonal visitors. White-throated Sparrows are also in abundance, and they're at least as much fun to watch as the Juncos. The patch of lawn where many of the feeders are located is now covered with fallen oak leaves. When looking down onto this area from the bedroom window it's easy at first to think you're seeing only leaves...until some of them seem to start to move! The sparrows' coloring matches that of the leaves quite well and it becomes a bit of a game to see if I can pick out the birds before they begin to move.

Beginning in late August, if memory serves correctly, we began seeing numerous female Purple Finches in the yard. We had had only the occasional one before this so it was a pleasure to welcome a few more. I kept wondering where all the males were, but they eventually showed up as well, a couple of weeks after the females had arrived--again, if my memory is correct about the dates; I kept no notes about their appearance. They've been among the regulars at the feeders ever since. Prior to this I'd only ever seen a few Purple Finches in my life. I was inundated with House Finches in Tennessee, and there's no shortage of them here in Maine. But I'd seen few enough Purples that I was not even sure of my ability to distinguish them from their cousins who have moved in from the west. Now that I've had the chance to see many of them, and to observe both species together, I see that it's quite easy to tell them apart. Both male and female Purples have a very strong "eyebrow," and the patterning of color on the males is quite different. Also, Purples have fairly deeply-notched tails, while House Finches' tails are nearly straight across, with only a hint of notching.

The Juncos, WT Sparrows, and Purple Finches have now all been around for awhile...joining the usual crowd of Titmice, Chickadees, (many) Goldfinches, etc, and it had been some time since anyone new had shown up. That changed big-time this morning when we had a small invasion of Pine Siskins! While cleaning up from breakfast I looked out the kitchen window at the back deck where we have both sunflower and thistle (tube) feeders, and all the ports at both feeders were occupied by Siskins! There must have been at least a couple of dozen. As I write this they seem to be not much in evidence, so I don't know if they were just passing through, or if they ate their fill for the moment and will return when they again get hungry. I had hoped to get some photos of them to post here, but I'll have to wait for another time.

Brief western sojourn, Oct. 8-11, 2010

There's been a brief hiatus in posting to this blog because I made a quick trip to northern California over the weekend to attend my son's wedding. There was not much opportunity for avian observation, but I did note a few species. I lived in California throughout much of the 1970s, though was not a very active birder at the time. So, while this trip wasn't a matter of going into entirely new territory, it was still a treat to venture outside my normal sphere.

I flew into Sacramento on Friday, the 8th, and drove down I-5 to Stockton late in the afternoon. The Interstate here goes through largely open country, much of which is farmland, but there are also a number of rivers in the area. I saw quite a few water birds of some sort in the air, but was not able to identify them. Roughly the size of small ducks, but clearly some sort of wading birds. Not herons. Buff-colored, and often flying in small flocks. I really can't make even a good guess about what they were; accurate identification will have to wait until my next trip!

However, I also saw a few Sandhill Cranes. Seeing the migrating cranes at the Hiwassee Refuge in Tennessee was always one of the highlights of my birding year, and I will greatly miss the chance to see--and hear--them this winter.

The wedding was at Lake Tahoe, a very different environment from that of the northern Central Valley! For starters there's a huge difference in elevation. The Sacramento airport is at about 25 feet above sea level, whereas Tahoe is about 6,200 feet, high in the Sierras. The mountain forests must offer great opportunities for birdwatching, and I hope to go back sometime to do just that!

Steller's and Western Scrub Jays were numerous, the former moreso than the latter. I was able to note a couple of Nuthatches of some sort, but can make no more specific determination than that. There were also numerous Chickadees flitting around in the trees, and I'm reasonably sure that at least some were Mountain Chickadees, which are a new species for me.

There were several large hawks flying over fields along Route 99 as we drove from Stockton to Tahoe on Saturday. Unlike here in the east one cannot automatically assume that a buteo of a particular size is a Red-tailed Hawk, though these may well have been one of the dark morphs of Red-tails. On the drive back over Donner Pass from Tahoe to Sacramento, a very large raptor flew over the highway--a young Bald Eagle, I'm fairly sure. 

I look forward to future return visits to the Golden State, and the chance to expand my birding horizons.

New visitors

I was delighted to see the first Dark-eyed Junco of the season this morning in the trees on the east side of the house! Just the one, but I trust that he/she will be joined by a cohort of peers before long. They're one of my favorite winter birds, but were rare visitors to my yard in Tennessee. I have fond memories of my father, who was the person who instilled in me a love of birds in the first place, bringing pitchforks full of old hay off the barn floor and scattering the chaff around on top of the snow so the Juncos could pick out the seeds. [This in western Mass., where I grew up.] This made an unsightly mess on top of the white snow, but the rewards of watching the Juncos having such a good time feeding more than compensated for any aesthetic offense caused by the piles of strewn chaff.

An even better treat for the day was the first-ever sighting in our yard of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet! He or she was bopping around in the brush on the verge between the lawn and the woods. Kinglets are tiny, peripatetic little things, that are always fun to watch--though they rarely stick around in any one place long enough to give birders much of a show! I was a bit surprised to realize that we'd not seen any kinglets in the yard before now; they may well have been here without us having seen them. We saw a Golden-crowned on Plum Island last week, and had seen Ruby-crowns at Wells Reserve at Laudholm Farm in Wells back in May. I'm told that October is a good month to see kinglets at Laudholm--I'll have to venture there again soon!

"There's a reel I'd like to play for you..."

In case anyone's wondering about the title of this blog, this clip of the uilleann piping of the late, great Seamus Ennis should fill you in. I suppose there's also a bit of wishful thinking at work. Robins are the only thrushes who are around regularly, though we have seen Hermit Thrushes on numerous occasions, and were treated to concerts of their exquisite singing on many a summer's evening...if not the morning!

Whooosh!!!!

I never cease to be amazed at how many times when I'm out birding I decide to take One Last Look around before climbing in my truck and driving away, and with that Last Look I'm rewarded with the best sighting of the day. Take yesterday, for instance.....

I'd driven down to Wells in the afternoon to visit some friends. After leaving their place shortly after 4:00 I decided to swing out to the beach area to see if there were any interesting birds about. This wasn't a totally spontaneous move on my part; I'd brought along my good binoculars and my trusty Sibley field guide with the thought of making just such a foray.

From US1 I drove down Eldridge Road, turned off on Ocean Ave, and then onto Webhannet Drive that runs along the beach. I pulled over for a bit and enjoyed some good looks at a couple of female Common Eiders who were feeding in the surf, quite close to the surge line. One successfully came up from a dive with something in her bill--I couldn't tell just what it was--and was immediately set upon by two Herring Gulls who were trying to capitalize on her good fortune and hard work by stealing her plunder. She put up pretty good resistance, but in the end lost out to the gulls' superior numbers and bulk.

There wasn't a lot of other action out there so I headed for the parking lot at the mouth of Wells Harbor, which is usually a pretty good spot for, um, spotting birds. Seals often hang around there as well. No seals yesterday, but there was a largish flock of Double-crested Cormorants, a few Bonaparte's Gulls, several more Eiders, the usual Herring and Ring-billed Gulls, and--a bit of a treat--a Common Loon. We see Loons there with some degree of regularity, but it's always a pleasure when we do. The Loon and the Bonaparte's Gulls are in their off-season plumage now. I had hoped perhaps to see an Osprey or Northern Harrier over the marsh, but no such luck. They've probably mostly headed for warmer climes at this point, though an Osprey flew overhead while I was stuck in traffic on Rte. 128 outside Boston last week, and I did see three Harriers at Plum Island on Friday.

So, assuming I'd seen about all there was to see there I walked back to my truck. I'd unlocked the driver's side door when I turned around to scan the area one more time....and saw something flying very fast in pursuit of a smaller bird, out over the channel. Holy crap! Whazzat??? 

Even before I got my binoculars trained on it--no mean feat when the object of desire is traveling as fast as this thing was--I'd figured out that it must be a falcon, based on the wing shape. And, because of its size, it had to be a Peregrine!! Yup--with a quick look through the binocs I was rewarded with a glimpse of the unmistakable Elvis sideburns of a Peregrine Falcon! Woo-hoo! This was only the fourth one I've ever seen, but the third had been last Friday on Plum Island. Not a bad week for raptors.

Definitely worth taking that One Last Look!

Trip to Plum Island, October 1, 2010

Last Friday, after spending a night down in the Boston area, I stopped off at Plum Island, near Newburyport, Mass. Plum Island is home to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge and is recognized as one of the top birding hot spots on the New England coast, if not in the whole country. I've been there a few times and have thoroughly enjoyed every visit.

I got to the refuge about 7:20 a.m., and there were very few others around. In the summer, access to many of the parking lots is restricted due to the popularity of the beaches for swimming, but in the off-season birders and fisherfolk seem to be about the only ones who visit. Just after going through the refuge entrance, and paying the requisite $5.00 day use fee, I stopped off at parking lot #1 where I'd never had occasion to stop on previous visits. 

From the parking lot a short boardwalk trail leads up over the dunes to the beach. Upon reaching the top of small hill and getting a view of the ocean, I immediately saw a large bird that I knew was something I'd never seen before. A quick check of my Sibley field guide confirmed my suspicion of what it was: a Northern Gannet. I had, in fact, been hoping to see my first Gannets on this trip, since I knew they visit the New England coast in the fall. After sighting the first one I realized that there were numerous others around. All were flying southward, bucking a stiff southerly wind to do so. I ended up seeing quite a few--easily over 50 altogether. I'll admit to being a bit disdainful about birders who are obsessive "listers"--who seem to care more about racking up big numbers of species seen than in spending time actually observing birds and learning about them--but I'll also admit to getting a distinct charge out of seeing a bird I've not ever seen before, and making a new entry on my Life List.

I watched the Gannets for some time. They make spectacular dives into the water in search of food! They tuck their wings back and plunge straight down, head first, making almost no splash when they enter the water. They don't stay down for long, but pop right up, and often take to the air again right away.

As I headed back to the parking lot a few sparrows flew up out of the brush along the trail. One sat on the fence rail long enough so I could get a good look at it, and identify it with some confidence as a Savannah. I've been spending some time lately on the fine points of Sparrow identification but still have much to learn! A few others flew up around the restroom/info building there, and yet another small flock was in the bushes by the entrance to the parking lot. I love the way sparrows just seem to explode out of the brush or grass in front of you as you walk! You think there are no birds around and then, all of a sudden, half a dozen or more just blossom in front of you!

I continued to work my way down the length of the island, making stops at nearly every parking area and making forays both towards the ocean and towards the marsh. The day was very windy, and rain was expected. One of the treats of the drive was seeing three Northern Harriers working over the marsh. Two were fairly far away, but I got great looks at one of them! I saw only one other raptor all day, but it was a good one: a Peregrine Falcon! He flew past at about eye level when I was standing on a small rise overlooking the beach.

The day was fairly productive for songbirds as well. The habitat on the island is quite varied, and there is a lot of very favorable area for songbirds. Notable sightings included: Red-eyed Vireo; a couple of Towhees; a couple of Yellow-Rumped Warblers; Chickadees; lots more Savannah Sparrows; Cardinals; many, many Robins; Tree Swallows; a Red-breasted Nuthatch; a Golden-crowned Kinglet; and a Nashville Warbler. One real treat, and something I'd never seen before, was all three mimic thrushes--Catbird, Mockingbird, and Brown Thrasher--together in one location, and all visible at the same time! I was surprised to see some of these birds, like the Towhees, Tree Swallows, Thrashers, and Catbirds, still around, but I suppose they'll head south soon.

A light rain began in late morning and though I continued birding for a good while after it started, it eventually started to come down hard enough that I decided to call it a day about 1:30 in the afternoon. Altogether I logged 35 species for the day. Not a spectacular number, but quite decent. All in all a very enjoyable trip!

Roll call

I might as well begin by giving a brief survey of our regular and semi-regular yard birds, and then say a bit about some of the notable visitors we had over the spring and summer.

The Usual Suspects around here are the same that many other folks get at their feeders: Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, White-breasted Nuthatches, Hairy and Down Woodpeckers, American Goldfinches, House Finches, Robins, Blue Jays Mourning Doves. The Goldfinches are perhaps the most numerous, with Chickadees not far behind. There are a few other visitors that are not plentiful, but that are around most of the time, such as a pair of Cardinals. Tree and Chipping Sparrows were around much of the summer, and both White-throated and White-crowned have been seasonal visitors. I'll have to go through a full winter here before seeing which of these species qualifies for year-round residency.

Thankfully we are not plagued by those species that are widely considered to be junk birds. I've never so much as seen a Starling or English Sparrow in the yard. A few Brown-headed Cowbirds were around for the summer, but only a few. There are usually a couple of Grackles around, and we were briefly invaded by a largish flock of them a week or so ago, but they seem to have moved on. There's a murder of three or four crows [look it up!] that seems to like it here, but apart from sometimes eating too much of the suet we put out, they can't be considered much of a nuisance. A raptor that I'm pretty sure is a Cooper's Hawk is an occasional visitor. I've never seen him make a kill here, or even go after much of anything, though we did see him unsuccessfully chase a Mourning Dove in the air while flying over the front lawn one day in late summer.

Over the summer we hosted at least two, possibly three, pairs of Catbirds, and enjoyed a fairly steady parade of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at our nectar feeders. We also enjoyed the presence of at least one pair of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. They definitely nested around here somewhere as late in the summer young ones began appearing. Of course, I made no notes about when we stopped seeing them; one day I just realized that they had not been around for awhile, and I can't say if there were here into September or not. Other more-or-less regular visitors include a few Flickers and Turkeys--more on both of these in a later post.

Our house borders on some woods, and the trees that are right outside the office windows seem to be a popular spot with warblers, at least during the migrations. In early May we saw Chestnut-sided, Nashville [I think], Black-throated Green, Magnolia, and Northern Parula. Other warblers seen later in the summer and early fall include: Black and White, Yellow, Common Yellowthroat, Magnolia, and Blackburnian. We hear and see Red-eyed Vireos with a fair degree of regularity.

One of the biggest treats came back in early May. On the 10th I noted a total of 25 species in the yard in a single day. This included male and female Baltimore Orioles, male Scarlet Tanagers, male and female Cardinals, and male and female Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. The next day I noted only 21 species, but a male Indigo Bunting joined the fray, giving us five of the most colorful species we could hope to see, all at the same time!

I know I've left numerous species out of this overview. To date we have seen about 65 species of birds in the yard or in our woods, though this includes quite a few seen while on brief visits before moving here permanently.

Venturing into the Blogosphere

As a fairly avid birder, I've kept desultory notes on sightings, both in my backyard and on various outings, for several years. I've logged these notes in a series of small notebooks that cover anywhere from a few months to a couple of years. These notebooks sit on a shelf and are unlikely ever to be read by anyone, even me. When I moved from Tennessee to Maine in April of this year, I set aside a new, blank notebook with the intention of starting fresh with a new chapter in birding notes to go along with the new chapter of my life. However, never let it be said that I don't do my part to keep the road to Hell nice and smooth. The notebook still sits, with all pages empty, on my desk.

Nevertheless, I continued to make daily observations of avian visitors to our yard, and also to make frequent forays to the shore and elsewhere in the area in search of birds. I scribbled hasty notes about interesting sitings on random scraps of paper, still intending to, at some point, enter them in my new notebook in a more systematic way. I've finally decided that rather than sit down and enter a bunch of stuff in yet another notebook that will just sit on the shelf, I'll make a stab at maintaining a birding blog. I harbor no great fantasies that many, or even any, other people will ever read it, but if someone does, so much the better.

I don't necessarily have a clear vision of what I'll do with this space, and I'm sure the nature of the blog will evolve over time. One thing I am certain of is that it will not consist solely of dry lists of what I've seen. I do intend to log what I see each day, so as to have some sort of record of seasonal changes and whatnot, but I hope to make it something that is at least halfway interesting to read. I have much, much to learn about birds, and this blog will give me the chance to share what I learn, and perhaps also to engage in dialogue with others with similar interests who are at different points on their journeys than I am.