Black Scoters

By in Species Accounts

I got fooled again.  My wife and I were recently looking out over Johnson Bay, a small embayment in Lubec, that is a part of Cobscook Bay.  I looked out over the water and saw a long string of dark material.  I thought it was a line of algal wrack, carried offshore by the powerful tides in Cobscook Bay and caught at the interface between two currents.  But no, the wrack started to disappear before my eyes.  I was looking at a flock of about 150 Black Scoters.

Black Scoters outside of the breeding season are often gregarious, sticking close together on the water either in a snake-like conga line or in a tight circle.  I don’t know of any other ducks that engage in this behavior.  Perhaps you have seen Black Scoters in tight formations as well.  This linear arrangement is seen in flight as well.  A line of scoters will fly just above the sea, rising and falling as they pass over waves.

Black Scoters are one of three scoters that occur regularly in Maine from the fall until the late spring.  Surf Scoters and White-winged Scoters are the other two species.   Black Scoters were once called Common Scoters in North American field guides.  As a budding birder in North Carolina, I was perplexed by the name because Surf Scoters and White-winged Scoters were far more “common” than the Common Scoter.  I like Black Scoter better.  By the way, if you are wondering about the derivation of the word “scoter”, we don’t know; its origin is unknown.

Black Scoters are pretty easy to identify.  Adults males are entirely black except for a yellow-orange protuberance on top of the bill.  That protuberance can be seen from great distances through binoculars.  Females are dark brown except for a distinctive two-toned head (dark cap and whitish cheeks).   Both sexes are fairly to distinguish from the other two scoters.

Some controversy exists over whether the Black Scoters we have in North America are the same species as the ones occurring in Europe and Asia.  The Old World form (subspecies or species) is called the Common Scoter.

Black Scoters winter along both coasts of North America, from the Aleutians to  the Baja Peninsula on the west coast and Newfoundland to the central Texas coast in the east.  Despite the broad distribution, Black Scoters are one of our least known ducks.  The main reason for this lack of information stems from the highly disjunct and limited breeding range.  These scoters nest on lakes in northwestern Alaska and in northern Quebec.  Lots remains to be learned about their breeding behavior and ecology.

Black Scoters dive for their food but are not chasing fish as many birders assume.  Rather, they are bottom feeders.  In freshwater, Black Scoters feed mainly on aquatic insects with a particular fondness for caddisfly larvae.  In marine waters, the diet is mostly bivalves (clams and mussels) and snails.  Scoters usually feed in waters less than 30 feet deep.  Once at the bottom, they may take mussels or snails on the surface or excavate the sediment to extract buried clams.  It’s no surprise they need to be in fairly shallow water.

Black Scoters are powerful divers.  On the surface of the water with their wings closed, they seem to leap above the water and neatly slice into the water, disappearing in the blink of an eye.  Sometimes they propel themselves with their feet and, in some populations, they will use half-extended wings to help propel them to the bottom.

Which brings us back to the beginning.  Why arrange yourself in tight lines or circles?  If scoters were fish-eaters, perhaps they could herd fish into a tight ball.  But no one needs to herd sessile mussels or slow-moving snails.  We have to simply accept that fact that Black Scoters are sociable creatures.

[Originally published on May 27, 2012]

Four Book Reviews

By in Book Reviews

May and June are excellent times of year to introduce people to the birding fraternity.  Males are dressed in their best finery.  Birds fill the air with their beautiful songs.  The frenetic activities of courtship, nesting and feeding young make it easy to observe birds.  And, of course, our bird population here in Maine soars as so many migratory breeding birds return from their wintering areas to take advantage of the long days and productive habitats of Maine.

Two bird guides have been recently published that are geared to beginners.  A gift of one of these along with the sharing of your enthusiasm and knowledge of birds may hook another person on birds.

The first book has a local flavor.  It is written by Jeff and Allison Wells of Gardiner, Maine.  Jeff is a Senior Scientist for the International Boreal Conservation Campaign and Allison is the Senior Director of Public Affairs at the Natural Resources Council of Maine.  Their book is called Maine’s Favorite Birds and covers just over a 100 of the most common species in Maine.  Each species has a short paragraph giving identification features, voice description and size (length and wingspan).  On the facing page, one or more color illustrations are presented.  The illustrations by Evan Barbour  I are life-like, accurate and very pleasing to the eye.

The limited coverage of Maine’s diverse bird fauna in this guide is an asset for a beginning birder.  Most of the species a novice is likely to see will be in this guide.

The book ends with a short section on good spots to go birding in Maine and a list of ways a person can take action for bird conservation.  Several opportunities for citizen-science are listed.

Bill Thompson’s The Young Birder’s Guide is explicitly designed for kids.  A Peterson Field Guide, this book has the standard field-guide size so is portable into the field.

The book begins with the standard material in most field guides: bird identification features, choosing the right optics, birding etiquette, participating in bird counts, ways to help conserve birds and other wildlife, and the importance of habitat for bird-finding.

About 300 species are covered with one page devoted to each species.  The top of each account has a photograph or two.  A line drawing is provided in the middle of each page.  A map is in the lower right with some information in a Find It box that gives the habitat for that species.

The text provided is in three blocks.  Look For gives visual identification skills.  Listen For provides descriptions of the vocalizations.  I particularly like the prominent depiction of the voice because so many beginners do not realize that one’s ears are often more important than one’s eyes in bird identification.  A Remember section gives an interesting fact about the species.

Each account also has a Wow! circle of text that gives an amazing fact about each bird.

Thompson writes that this guide is likely not the only guide anyone will need but should be a very fine first guide.

The latest addition to the Peterson Field Guide series is an exciting contribution to moth identification. This guide, Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America, is written by David Beadle and Seabrooke Leckie.

I suspect you will be surprised at the diversity of shapes and sizes of all the moths in our area.  You have to be enchanted by many of the common names too such as The Beggar, Four-lined Chocolate, Forgotten Frigid Owlet, The Hebrew, Green Marvel, The Laugher and the Slowpoke!

The guide is arranged with identification features and maps for several species on the left pages with excellent photographs of those species on the right.

Most moths are nocturnal and the authors discuss several ways to attract moths where they can be seen and photographed.

[First published on May 13, 2012]

Brown-headed Cowbirds

By in Species Accounts

One of the many birds returning to Maine for the breeding season is the Brown-headed Cowbird.    The male is a striking bird with a brown head on a sleek black body.  The female is a drab gray. Cowbirds feed on items as varied as insects (especially grasshoppers), seeds and grasses.

The Brown-headed Cowbird is a relatively recent arrival in eastern North America.  Before Europeans colonized the east, forests were the general rule in the landscape.  Cowbirds were restricted to the west where they followed the huge bison herds, feeding on insects be disturbed by the bison.  Cowbirds are much more likely now to feed among flocks of cows rather than bison, hence the common name.

Cowbirds have had an insidious negative impact on many species of songbirds in North America.  Cowbirds are brood parasites, meaning that females lay eggs in the nests of other species of birds.  Host parents are tricked into accepting a cowbird egg as one of its own.

Cowbirds are called obligate brood parasites because they rely totally on other species of birds to do their parenting.  Cowbirds never form nests, brood their eggs or feed their nestlings.

The embryo inside a cowbird egg develops at a faster rate than the host’s eggs.  A female cowbird retains an egg in its uterus for about 18 hours before it is laid, giving the developing chick a head start.

Since the cowbird chick hatches before the eggs of its hosts, the cowbird chick gets all of the food brought by the host parents until the other chicks hatch.  By then, the cowbird chick has a size advantage and succeeds in getting more than its share of the food brought by the host parents.  In some cases, cowbird chicks are known to push the unhatched eggs out of the nest by instinct; the cowbird chicks are blind when they push the eggs out of the nest.

Cowbirds parasitize over 200 species of breeding birds in North America.  Sometimes, the prospective host parents detect the presence of the cowbird egg and will remove the egg or abandon the nest.  Lots of host species can’t distinguish the cowbird eggs and accept them readily.  In part, this lack of discrimination arises because cowbirds have only been present in the east for the last 150 years.  Host species have not had time to evolve the ability to discern a cowbird egg among their own eggs.

It is heart-rending to see a pair of Yellow Warblers feeding a cowbird chick that is larger than the host parents.  But, we have to remember that nature is not always kind.  Brood parasitism represents an effective way for one species to perpetuate itself at the expense of other species.

[First published on April 29, 2012]

Review of How to Be a Better Birder; Wind Map Website

By in Book Reviews, Weather

A new book on birding with a strong Maine flavor has arrived in bookstores.  The book is “How to Be a Better Birder” and the author is our own Derek Lovitch.  Derek is a professional bird guide and with his wife Jeannette runs Freeport Wild Bird Supply.  Many of the photographs in the book were taken in Maine and many of the examples Derek uses to illustrate particular points were based on Maine observations.

Published by Princeton University Press, this paperback book is about 200 pages long and is a bargain.  The book is intended for intermediate to advanced birders who wish to hone their field skills and to better appreciate the ornithological spectacles around us.

The first chapter is on Advanced Field Identification based on what Derek calls the “whole bird and more” approach.  This chapter is not a discourse on subtle field marks to distinguish confusing flycatchers, fall warblers or gulls but rather a presentation of an approach that will allow you to identify more of the birds you seen, even those seen from the rear as they fly rapidly away from you!

To become proficient at any activity, we all know the mantra: practice, practice, practice.  Derek urges us to really study all the birds we see, including the most common birds around us.  He also suggests that a more holistic approach to bird identification may be a more fruitful way to go about the process of identifying a bird.  Focus on the whole bird, not just the critical identification feature (the feature that has an arrow pointing to it in the illustrations in some bird guides).  This holistic method is the basis of the “whole bird and more” approach to bird identification.

Derek argues that we should not throw out the field-mark approach but rather add to it the admittedly more subjective yet powerful holistic approach.  By becoming intimately familiar with birds, we can often recognize them at a glance without seeing a particular field mark.  It’s the same process as picking out people you know in a crowd; you just know them when you them.

Derek discusses the value of this holistic approach to the identification of migrating hawks and pelagic birds.  He urges us to work on identification of warblers and sparrows by silhouette.  Fellow Maine birder Luke Seitz provides some great line drawings of the outlines of different genera of sparrows.

The chapter on Birding by Habitat shows how being a better botanist can make you a better birder.  Knowing the particular grasses particular sparrows prefer makes it possible to find Nelson’s Sparrow and Saltmarsh Sparrow in Scarborough Marsh or a Lincoln’s Sparrow at the Dragon Field in Portland.

Birding with Geography gives great advice for finding migration hotspots for birds.  Monhegan Island figures prominently in the examples.

In Birding and Weather, Derek shows that knowledge of basic meteorological principles and an eye on the weather map can make us better birders.

In other chapters, Derek discusses birds at night and their identification by using radar images, freely available on the web, and by identifying the distinctive nocturnal vocalizations of migrants.

One chapter is a case study at Cape May, New Jersey where Derek used the skills and techniques he describes in the book to better appreciate the migration in October.

Wind map

You have to check out this unbelievably cool website: http://hint.fm/wind/  This site is a dynamic map of the wind direction and strength across the United States.  Moving lines indicate the direction the wind is blowing and the rate at which the lines move is proportional to wind speed.  This website will be of great use to birders in deciding when a good time to go birding during spring or fall migration.  This website provides a tool to put into practice the information Derek Lovitch provides in his book.

[First published on April 15, 2012]

Maine Bird Festivals

By in Birding and Birders

Spring birding in Maine is phenomenal.  Many birds like warblers and flycatchers return to Maine from more southerly wintering areas to nest.  Other birds like most sandpipers and plovers are passage migrants; we get to enjoy them briefly as they migrate through Maine to more northerly breeding grounds.

Birding festivals have become popular in North America over the past decade.  These festivals are scheduled to maximize the diversity of birds present or to enjoy an ornithological spectacle like the staging of Sandhill Cranes on the Platte River in Nebraska.

This year, I am aware of three birding festivals in our state scheduled for this spring.  The first, Feathers over Freeport, is scheduled for April 28 and 29.  This festival is advertised as a bird watching weekend for all ages.  Bird walks for experienced birders, for beginners and for children will be offered.  A workshop on bird feeding is planned.  You can hone your skills in hawk identification and then put them to good use by participating in the Bradbury Mountain Hawk Watch.

Presentations with live hawks and owls will be popular as well as an evening talk on April 28 on Project Puffin by Sue Schubel.  The Saturday activities will take place at Bradbury Mountain State Park in Pownal and the Sunday activities will occur at Wolfe Neck State Park in Freeport.

You can find the complete schedule at http://maine.gov/doc/parks/feathersoverfreeport.shtml

The eighth annual Downeast Birding Festival will be held over Memorial Day weekend (May 25-28).  This festival is centered around Cobscook Bay, taking advantage of the great birding at West Quoddy Head State Park, Shackford Head State Park, Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, Campobello Island and a number of conservation properties in the region like the Boot Cove Reserve in Lubec.  Trips are planned to Machias Seal Island to see Atlantic Puffins, Razorbills and Common Murres.

Several talks and workshops are planned.  I’ve been a regular participant in this festival and will lead a field trip and give a talk this spring.  To see the full schedule and find details on registration, visit http://www.downeastbirdfest.org/

The diversity of birds in the Cobscook Bay is amazing. The cumulative species list of birds seen on the seven festivals to date is an eye-popping 221 species.  The Cobscook Bay area is a great place to see boreal species like Spruce Grouse, Gray Jays, Boreal Chickadees and Black-backed Woodpeckers.  The peak of shorebird migration will be past but one can still expect a nice diversity of plovers and sandpipers.

The Acadia Bird Festival will occur between May 31 and June 3 on Mt. Desert Island.  The list of trip leaders is impressive in number and in expertise.  A participant can be exposed to all of the many birding habitats on Mt. Desert Island.  A seabird trip is scheduled for June 2 to see pelagic species like Great Shearwater and Pomarine Jaeger.  The cruise will stop at Petit Manan Island where nesting Atlantic Puffins, Razorbills, Arctic Terns, Common Terns and Roseate Terns will be easy to see and photograph.

Two birding celebrities from New Jersey, Kevin Karlson and Pete Dunne, will give evening talks.  Karlson will give a talk entitled Visions: Birds and Nature.  Karlson’s photographic skills will be on display with the images he will show.  Dunne will give a talk on the life, accomplishments and lasting impacts of Roger Tory Peterson. Both will serve as guides on the seabird trip.

The variety of field trips and workshops is impressive.  Marshall Iliff from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology will give a workshop on using eBird to record your bird sightings and keep track of your life lists while contributing at the same time to our knowledge of the distribution and abundance of birds.  Activities are on a pay-as-you-go basis.

[Originally published on April 1, 2012]

Irruptive Finches

By in Migration, Species Accounts

In the fall, I had high hopes for a winter with tons of northern finches.  Red spruce, balsam fir, tamarack and eastern hemlock trees were producing bumper crops of cones.  These so-called mast years occur sporadically and different tree species do not necessarily have mast years in the same years.  This winter was shaping up as a marvelous smorgasbord for the finches that depend on conifer cones for their main food.

As a baseball fan, I can’t help but think of the movie Field of Dreams where Kevin Costner’s character builds a ballfield in his Iowa cornfield because a voice told him ”If you build it, he will come”.  Sure enough, the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson and other members of the Chicago Black Sox show up to play baseball.

But with our finches, the presence of a bumper crop of food is not enough to guarantee their presence.  If trees build large number of cones, the northern finches may or may not come. Obviously, these nomadic birds are finding sufficient food elsewhere.  The absence of all of these seed predators is good news for the trees of course because many seeds will find their way to the ground and germinate.

Pine Siskins, Common Redpolls, Pine Grosbeaks, Purple Finches, Evening Grosbeaks, White-winged Crossbills and Red Crossbills were all pretty scarce on Maine Christmas Bird Counts.  On a recent trip to the Cobscook Bay area, I found very few northern finches despite the many conifers heavily laden with cones.  However, a recent trip to the Flagstaff Lake region yielded sightings of good numbers of both crossbill species.  Perhaps we will see a late-winter irruption of some of these species into more southerly parts of our state.

Of the northern finches, the crossbills are perhaps the most erratic in their appearances in Maine.  Watching crossbills feed is to marvel at their skill in extracting conifer seeds with their peculiar bills.  The hallmark of the crossbills is the odd overlapping arrangement of the upper and lower bill. When observing a crossbill from above or below, one can see that one bill curves left and the other curves right. Sometimes, the upper bill is the left-curving one and in other birds the lower bill curves leftward. Why such a strange bill?

This bill turns out to be an efficient took for extracting conifer seeds.  Everyone knows what the cone of a pine, fir, spruce or other conifer looks like. The cone has a number of scales. At the base of each scale, the seeds of the conifer can be found. Most birds have a difficult time negotiating the scales to get to the seeds deep within the cone.

Not crossbills however. A crossbill inserts its bill between two scales of a cone. The crossed points of the bill act as a wedge, increasing the distance between the two scales.  One bill pushes to the left and the other to the right. The strong tongue of the crossbill can then be inserted to the base of the scale and the nutritious seed removed and gobbled up.

Although the crossed bill serves these birds marvelously in feeding on cones, the specialization comes at a cost. Crossbills are quite awkward in handling food that other finches readily eat such as thistle or birch seeds. A crossbill beak is not a generalized tool.

Usually crossbills feed on cones that their bills can handle with greatest efficiency. The Red Crossbill has a larger and longer bill than the White-winged Crossbill. Red Crossbills feed on white pine, balsam fir and sometimes hemlock cones. White-winged Crossbills feed on smaller cones like those of larch and red spruce.

Here’s hoping the crossbills will come further south this March so we can all admire the skill with which they extract conifer seeds.

[Originally published on March 18, 2012]

Crow Roosts

By in Behavior, Species Accounts

It’s thrilling to see an unusual bird.  Who is not excited about the chance to see a Snowy Owl or an American Oystercatcher in Maine?  Yet there is the potential to experience wonder in watching our common birds.

My case in point today is the American Crow.  Here in Waterville, we are treated to an amazing spectacle late each afternoon.  Hundreds of crows fly in from all directions to converge on a patch of forest behind the shopping center at Elm City Plaza in the fading daylight.  The river of crows seems endless.  No doubt, you have seen such behavior in your neck of the woods as well.

Why do the crows congregate to spend the night together?  We don’t have a definitive answer but some intriguing suggestions have been proposed.

Aside from humans with guns, the major threat to American Crows is predation by Great Horned Owls.  Perhaps you have seen American Crows mob a roosting Great Horned Owl during the day.  The crows are brutal, swooping down on the owl and pecking it.  Usually the owl is forced to fly to find a more peaceful place to sleep.

Roosting might therefore offer protection from owl predation.   It is awfully hard for an owl to approach when a thousand or more crows are keeping a vigilant watch.

Another possible explanation comes from a somewhat controversial idea called the information-exchange hypothesis.  The premise is that crows can learn about good food sources from each other.  We have to be careful to avoid ascribing a human perspective to this information sharing.  In the natural world, behavior that appears to be altruistic turns out to be selfish behavior.  In nature, individuals that watch out for themselves and their kin fare better than altruists.  How does helping unrelated individuals survive increase the chance of getting your genes into future generations?

Honeybees through their remarkable waggle dance let other members of a hive know where good nectar sources are.  But all individuals in the colony are related to each other so sharing information indirectly benefits all colony members.

A roost of crows consists mostly of unrelated individuals.  Crows are not so kind-hearted as to somehow share the location of a food bounty with unrelated individuals.  However, it may be possible for crows to discover the whereabouts of good food.  Crows may be able to assess the nutritional status of a crow as it comes back to the roost.  Perhaps it is full of energy.  If so, a crow in need of a good meal may follow the well-fed crow in the morning.  This behavior can be seen as a type of parasitism.  The definitive study to test for this type of information sharing in crows has yet to be done.

One other explanation for crow roosts is the patch-sitting hypothesis.  This explanation entails roosting near a site where there is a reliable source of food.  The food does not need to be the most nutritious food but will provide roosting crows with a breakfast to get them going in the morning in search of more substantial food and a snack in the evening before they go to sleep.  Like the information-center hypothesis, this hypothesis needs more study as well.

Crow roosts are seasonal, occurring in the fall and winter.  Some of these aggregations must be truly spectacular.  I know of one report from Oklahoma of two million crows in a single roost!  Roosts from 100 birds to tens of thousands are much more common.

We are seeing a trend of American Crow roosts occurring in urban environments rather than in more rural or undeveloped habitats.  Some have speculated that the crows are taking advantage of the slightly warmer temperatures found in cities.  Just a few degrees of warmth can make a big difference.  Plus the lights of a city make it easier to see Great Horned Owls at night.

[Originally published on Mar 4, 2012]

Snowy Owls

By in Species Accounts

A suite of birds reside year-round on the Arctic tundra or on the taiga, the habitat of sparse trees just south of the treeless tundra.  These birds include Great Gray Owls, Snowy Owls and Common Redpolls.

If food is in sufficient quantity, these hardy birds can survive the deep cold of these northern habitats.  However, food availability varies from year to year.  Common Redpolls depend heavily on the seeds of birches.  When birches fail to have an abundant seed set, the redpolls move southward to find food.  In some years, we Mainers are graced with abundant redpolls at our feeders.

Snowy Owls feed primarily on lemmings on their arctic tundra habitat.  Like many rodents, lemmings undergo dramatic shifts in abundance from year to year.

One Snowy Owl may eat 1,600 lemmings in a year.  When lemming populations crash, some Snowy Owls move southward to find food.  Apparently the lemming populations on the tundra are poor this winter because a major invasion of the lower 48 states by these owls is occurring.

I know of at least 30 sightings of Snowy Owls in Maine this winter, ranging from northern Aroostook County all the way south to coastal York County.  A Snowy Owl has been regularly seen at the Nubble Lighthouse in York.    Most of the sightings have been made along the coast.  However, this apparent preference for the coast may be more of a function of the density of birders rather than the density of the owl.  Regardless, in most years we see no or just a few Snowy Owls in the state.

A dynamic map of the Snowy Owl invasion is available on the eBird site (http://tinyurl.com/6wdc9qa).

The map shows that Snowy Owls have been sighted in the southern portions of all the Canadian provinces.  All of the northern tier of states have some Snowy Owl sightings although more birds have been found in the Midwestern states eastward to Maine.  Birds have been found as far south as Missouri and Oklahoma, absolutely delighting birders there where Snowy Owls are truly rare.   Amazingly, a Snowy Owl appeared at an airport in Hawaii in January.  Sadly, airport officials shot the owls, fearing the owl would interfere with the planes.

Snowy Owls are strikingly beautiful birds.  They stand about two feet tall with a wingspan of nearly five feet.  As the name suggests, the birds are mostly white.  Most Snowy Owls show some blackish-brown streaking and spotting on their backs and lower breast.  First-year females show the most dark streaking with the barring extending to the crown and the upper breast.  Adult females and first-year males show less dramatic dark coloration and are difficult to tell apart in the field.  Adult males are paler yet, often nearly immaculate white.  Males are distinctly smaller than females.

Often exposed to cold temperatures, Snowy Owls have legs feathered all the way to the claws of the toes.  Most of the bill is concealed by feathers as well.

A Snowy Owl is difficult to misidentify.  Snowy Owls are the only white owl found in North America.  The only possible confusing species is the sub-arctic race of  the Great Horned Owl.  These birds are quite pale with brown streaking but the prominent ear tufts easily distinguish these Great Horned Owls from Snowies. The distinctive appearance of Snowy Owls makes them easy to recognize in primitive art.  This species is probably the oldest species of bird that can be identified in prehistoric cave art.

The preponderance of invading Snowy Owls are young birds, probably less skilled in finding food than adults. The eyes of Snowy Owls are yellow.  We think of owls as nocturnal predators.  However, Snowy Owls hunt during the day for rodents.

Recent DNA studies indicate that Snowy Owls are closely related to Great Horned Owls, Great Gray Owls and other owls in the genus Bubo.

[Originally published on February 19, 2012]

Highlights of Maine Christmas Bird Counts – III

By in Christmas Count Summaries

This column is the last of three reviewing the results of the most recent Christmas Bird Counts in Maine.  We’ll jump all around the state today.

Two counts were conducted in Aroostook County, one in Presque Isle and a new count in the Caribou region.  The Presque Isle count produced a fine list of 38 species.  A bit of open water yielded 11 Mallards, 52 American Black Ducks and seven Common Goldeneyes.  Two Great Black-backed Gulls were the only gulls found.

The 38 Bald Eagles were a new record high for the count as were the seven Northern Cardinals, a species continuing to expand northward in Maine.

Aroostook County has lots of open countryside so the 461 Snow Buntings and a Horned Lark were not surprising.

Only two lingering species were found in this colder part of the state: a Northern Harrier and a Common Grackle.

Northern Finches were scarce with a pair of Pine Siskins and a pair of Evening Grosbeaks being found along with higher numbers of Purple Finches and American Goldfinches.

A bit further north in Limestone, counters amassed a list of 26 species in the inaugural count for this area.  Rain through most of the day certainly depressed the totals.  Four species of ducks were found (Mallards, American Black Ducks, Common Goldeneyes and Common Mergansers).

A Sharp-shinned Hawk was the only diurnal raptor.  Five Northern Shrikes made for a nice total.

The only lingering birds were a pair of hardy American Robins.  Two species of finches were found with the highlight being 27 Common Redpolls along with the more numerous American Goldfinches.

The Misery count near The Forks rivals the Aroostook counts in the severity of the winter.  This year, participants found 22 species.  As usual, no lingering species were found.

Eighteen Ruffed Grouse and 12 Gray Jays were both all-time highs for the count.  For the fourth year in a row, no Boreal Chickadees were found.

This count had the best finch diversity of any count in Maine this year with 46 American Goldfinches, 340 Pine Siskins, 34 Purple Finches, four Red Crossbills, 17 White-winged Crossbills and four Pine Grosbeaks.

The Orono and Bangor counts are within ten miles of each other so I find it interesting to compare these two counts each year.  The Orono count produced a list of 48 species while the Bangor count had 50 species.

Let’s focus on the differences.  Bangor had an excellent raptor count with one Cooper’s Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Merlin and Peregrine Falcon to go along with the 13 Bald Eagles.  In Orono, eagles were found along with a Cooper’s Hawk, two Sharp-shinned Hawks and a lingering Northern Harrier.

In Bangor, six Northern Mockingbirds were braving the winter. Orono highlights were a fine count of 28 Barrow’s Goldeneye and a couple of lingering species (one Common Loon and two Northern Mockingbirds).  Red-bellied Woodpeckers were found on both counts.

Four Pine Grosbeaks and five Pine Siskins were found in Bangor while 105 Pine Siskins and seven Common Redpolls were tallied in Orono.

The Schoodic Peninsula count had 50 species.  The 137 Common Loons was an excellent high count.  Ten species of waterfowl were found with the 30 Harlequin Ducks being the most remarkable.

A Black-backed Woodpecker was an excellent find.  Lingering birds included Belted Kingfisher and two Yellow-rumped Warblers

Four species of finches were found with 37 White-winged Crossbills and 23 Pine Siskins representing the irruptive species.

Portland usually has the highest number of species of any CBC in Maine and took pride of place this year with 96 species found by the 47 observers.

Rarities included a Greater White-fronted Goose, a King Eider, two Ruddy Turnstones and a Lark Sparrow.  Lingering species included Double-crested Cormorant, Black-crowned Night Heron, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Field Sparrow and Savannah Sparrow.

[Originally published on February 5, 2012]

Highlights of Maine Christmas Bird Counts – II

By in Christmas Count Summaries

This column is the second of three reviewing the results of the most recent Christmas Bird Counts in Maine.  Let’s visit some coastal count circles together, working our way from York County downeast to Eastport.

The Biddeford/Kennebunkport count produced a nice count of 85 species.  One expects significant numbers of sea ducks and other seabirds and that expectation was met.

Horned Grebes outnumbered Red-necked Grebes, 123 to 47.  There were also 47 Northern Gannets found along with 83 Great Cormorants.

In looking over the totals for each species, I was struck by the number of species that were represented by just a single individual.  Good spotting by the observers!  A single individual was found for the following species: Brant, Northern Pintail, Barrow’s Goldeneye, Hooded Merganser, Ruffed Grouse, Great Blue Heron, Bald Eagle, Merlin, Ruddy Turnstone, Iceland Gull, Eastern Screech-Owl (an excellent find), Snowy Owl (another great find), Northern Flicker, Carolina Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Snow Bunting and Red-winged Blackbird.

The 14 Red-bellied Woodpeckers and 260 American Robins were impressive high counts.

The Thomaston-Rockland Count yielded 73 species.  The Rockland area is a good area for American Coots in the fall and early winter but this year’s count of 601 was spectacular.  A flock of 1,300 Common Eiders in Tenants Harbor was impressive.

This year’s count was extraordinary for the number of lingering species.  Counters found two Great Blue Herons, five Northern Flickers, 111 American Robins, one Carolina Wren, one Northern Mockingbird, one Yellow-rumped Warbler, 29 White-throated Sparrows, four Savannah Sparrows, a Baltimore Oriole and three Common Grackles.

Other highlights were a pair of Merlins and both species of scaup (ten Greaters and one Lesser).  Two unusual species, a pair of Fish Crows and a White-winged Dove, were seen locally around the count day but managed to avoid the observers on the day of the count.

The North Penobscot Bay count, in the Belfast area, produced a nice list of 61 species, a little above average for this count.  Highlights included an American Coot, three Red-bellied Woodpeckers and a Clay-colored Sparrow.  Three Red-bellied Woodpeckers were nice finds.

Lingering birds included a Green-winged Teal and a Belted Kingfisher.  It’s quite odd for Hermit Thrushes to outnumber American Robins on a Maine Christmas Count but that happened on this count.  The single Hermit Thrush was the only member of the thrush family found this year.

The owl count was a good one with two Barred Owls, two Great Horned Owls and a Northern Saw-whet Owl.

Continuing eastward, the Moose Island/Jonesport count yielded a fine count of 69 species.  An American Woodcock was the most unexpected lingering species.  Irruptive finches found the area to there liking as counters found Pine Grosbeaks, White-winged Crossbills and Red Crossbills.  Bohemian Waxwings, scarce so far this winter, were found as well.

A Thick-billed Murre was a good find.

The Eastport count produced 62 species.  Highlights included a Gadwall in Eastport, a single Wild Turkey, two Red-bellied Woodpeckers in Lubec and a Northern Shrike.

Cobscook Bay and Passamaquoddy Bay are great places for gulls and this year did not disappoint.  One Black-headed Gull was a nice find and the 30 Iceland Gulls were an impressive count.  This count usually has the highest number of Black-legged Kittiwakes in the state; 1,888 were tallied this year.

Lingering species included 43 American Robins and a Red-winged Blackbird.

Red-necked Grebes put in an impressive showing with the 199 individuals greatly exceeding the counts of 7 Horned Grebes, 15 Common Loons and two Red-throated Loons.

Finches were scarce with six House Finches and 80 American Goldfinches providing the total count.

The Calais count circle is slightly inland from the Eastport circle and unsurprisingly had a lower species count.  Highlights included a Red-bellied Woodpecker, a lingering Belted Kingfisher.  A lone Pine Siskin was the only irruptive finch found.

[Originally published on January 22, 2012]

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