Storm Birding and Photos, Aythya Update, and Bradbury Mtn Hawkwatch Week 4 Update.
As I have often mentioned in this blog, bad weather can often produce good birding. Spring-time Nor’Easters are no exception. Reports of rarities like a Sooty Tern in West-central Connecticut, 3 Sooty Terns in Rhode Island, a Painted Bunting on Nantucket, and American Golden Plover and Franklin’s Gull in Eastern Mass, along with numerous Leach’s Storm Petrels along the Massachusetts and New Hampshire coasts proved far too tempting for me not to go birding in the rain and wind yesterday.
Besides, we were without power, again (and still) so we were not going to be a whole lot colder outside than in! At least there’s heat in the car! Obviously, Jeannette and I did not have to be up on the Hawkwatch yesterday, so we spent most of the day birding Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth.
Although we didn’t find any rarities, or many storm-blown birds (a Great Cormorant in Massacre Pond and Green-winged Teal in the soccer fields of the Wainright Farm Recreation Area were the only seemingly storm-related sightings of the day), we actually had a very productive day of birding.
We began by walking the Eastern Rd Trail, seeing if anything unusual had been forced to the raised trail by the flooding in the marsh (highlights were our first two Savannah Sparrows of spring, 3 Gadwall, and a fly-over Eastern Meadowlark). We then birded Dunstan Landing (flooded), Pelreco (flooded), Pine Pt and Pine Pt Beach, Seavy’s Landing, Prout’s Pond (about 10 Tree Swallows and 71 Double-crested Cormorants, but not a single duck – pure-bred or not!), Wainright Farm (4 Green-winged Teal and 10 Killdeer), Grondin Pond (a female Canvasback, which has been here for a few days, was a great bird for spring in Maine, and likely our “best” bird of the day), Ferry Beach (lots of Common Loons and Horned Grebes), Massacre Pond (subadult Great Cormorant and 2 Greater Scaup), Higgins Beach (more surfers than birds), Kettle Cove (8 Brant and our first 4 Laughing Gulls of the year), Dyer Pt (1 adult Northern Gannet), Great Pond (72 Double-crested Cormorants and 1 Common Merganser), Spurwink Marsh, and finishing up at Mill Creek Cove in South Portland. If nothing else, we were thorough, as we scoured the area, searching every nook and cranny that we could think of!
The Dunstan Landing section of the "marsh"
Pine Point Beach:
The "B" has been missing for some time, but the "T" took off in this storm. We're simple enough to have been amused by this!
Dyer Point:
Although we did not see the Prout’s Pond Franken-Aythya, an interesting turn of events have unfolded in the discussion of this bird’s identity. After consensus was reached on this bird being a Ring-necked Duck x Redhead Hybrid, Luke’s photos showed a white wing patch. Now, the prevailing thought seems to be that this is a Tufted Duck mixed with either a Redhead or a Common Pochard. Go figure! If this is true, the question becomes is this a genuine vagrant (or offspring of a wild vagrant), or is this part of whatever happened (like a waterfowl collection with a damaged fence) that produced the fall’s Red-crested Pochard and last week’s Ruddy Shelduck – two species not known to occur as natural vagrants to North America. Personally, I remain far from convinced about the bird's parentage. I see too much Ring-necked Duck-like features in there somewhere, and of course, no one said that this has to be a mutt of only two species! Hmmmm . . . . .
And finally today, here is the Bradbury Mountain Week 4 Update:
It was another rough week for the Bradbury Mountain
Spring Hawkwatch. A snowstorm and a ferocious
Nor’Easter this week hampered coverage. In fact, only
38 of the possible 56 hours of coverage were manned
due to snow or rain. However, even on the mediocre
conditions in between, birds were definitely on the
move. The next 2-3 weeks should be our busiest, so
once this mess clears, things should really get going!
The following totals are for Week 4 (Tuesday, April 10
through Monday, April 16). The First number is this
week’s tally, the second number is the season-to-date
total.
BLACK VULTURE: 0, 1
Turkey Vulture: 1, 70
Osprey: 42, 58
Bald Eagle: 2, 31
Northern Harrier: 8, 21
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 48, 90
Cooper’s Hawk: 0, 20
Northern Goshawk: 0, 4
Red-shouldered Hawk: 2, 24
Broad-winged Hawk: 0, 0
Red-tailed Hawk: 10, 170
Rough-legged Hawk: 0, 3
American Kestrel: 4, 31
Merlin: 1, 7
Peregrine Falcon: 0, 1
Unidentified: 1, 10
Total Week 4: 119
Total, Season to Date: 541
Good questions, Ed.
1) It is quite likely that your nuthatches, Titmice, and chickadees would gather together in a "mixed-species flock" for the winter. It's thought to be a safety in numbers thing. Each species has a slightly different foraging niche, so they don't compete very much. The Dark-eyed Juncos of the "Slate-colored" Eastern Subspecies, to be technical, are unlikely to actually join that mixed-species flock, but would be very likely to wait for that flock to visit the feeders before they come out into the realtive open to feed.
2) The simple answer is "no." The full answer is "there could be." Because we are bringing an artificially high concentration of birds to one area (our feeding station), there is the very real potential to spread significant disease. However, cleaning and maintaining your feeders, raking up empty shells underneath, and keeping an eye out for sick birds will mitigate this threat.
It has been scientifically proven that feeding birds does not cause dependency (with some exception granted for non-native or injured birds). It is only a supplement (I wish I could say birds were dependent on my store!)
No seeds that should be put in a bird feeder are from invasive plants (although if it really is "thistle" seed you're using, and not "Nyjer" seed, this is a problem), so we shouldn't be causing a problem with any seeds that germinate - outside of a little extra weeding.
There are a few other myths out there worth dispelling, but I'll save it for now. However, it is worth mentioning that Bird Flu (H5N1)has NEVER been found in North American and had NEVER been
found ANYWHERE in passerines (the groups of birds that include all of our regular seed-eaters).
-Derek
Posted by Derek
April 18, 2007 01:04 PM
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