Bay Bridge Landing, A Place to Bird

 Yellow Warbler at Bay Bridge Landing 6-12-15

Bay Bridge Landing in Brunswick, Maine is a sweet place to bird. Tucked in behind a mobile home neighborhood and a business you would never know it was there. A fellow birder told me about it last year and I have now birded here a few times, often taking my lunch along and sitting on one of the benches near the river to eat while I watch birds.

Bay Bridge Landing sits on a bend in the Androscoggin River at the south end of Merrymeeting Bay. It has a backwater cove that becomes a marshland providing excellent habitat for birds. In the summer I see blackbirds, warblers, flycatchers, cormorants, herons and gulls here. They are osprey nesting on the platforms provided for them. There is a little island with a trail that used to be connected by a couple of bridges but the bridges have fallen into disrepair, so you can no longer get to the island. You can follow the trail up one side, then double back and around to get to the other side.

Still, it doesn’t stop you from seeing the herons when they fly over!

 

This is the trail closest to the river and you can sit on this bench and watch birds.

 

I found this sweet Eastern Phoebe farther up the trail near the bridge.

 

Finding this male Yellow Warbler was also a delight!

As you can see, he was quite busy gathering food to feed his very hungry brood!

You can tell it is a male by the rusty streaks on its breast.

You can also find a few butterflies at Bay Bridge Landing!

As regular readers of this blog will know, I often like to bird around parking lots and on this particular day I needed to stop at the nearby Tractor Supply on my way home. While there, I also counted birds.

I found that a pair of osprey were building a nest on the utility poles. At a later date I actually saw parents with nestlings in this nest!

In some brush at the edge of the parking lot I found a Common Yellowthroat!

 

…along with a Song Sparrow to boot!

Bay Bridge Landing is found in Brunswick, Maine off the Old Bath Road near Cook’s Corner. Follow signs for Bay Bridge Estates. After entering the park on Driscoll Street, turn left at the stop sign and follow Bay Bridge Road Road past an industrial building to the end where there is a parking lot.

Follow these links to find out more:

• Bay Bridge Landing is an eBird Hotspot
• My eBird Checklist for Bay Bridge Landing 6-12-15 (26 species seen)
• My eBird Checklist for Cook’s Corner 6-12-15 ( 8 species seen)

Another Walk Along the Androscoggin in Spring

 The Androscoggin River Bicycle Path in Brunswick 5-8-15

May 8, 2015: After writing last week’s post I decided to take another walk along the Androscoggin River Bicycle Path with Gus on Friday afternoon. We decided to start from the north end of the trail, which has a parking lot off of Grove Street near Cook’s Corner. The trail itself is just over 2 1/2 miles and runs from Water Street at the south end in Brunswick, to Grove Street at the north. Parts of the trail run right alongside Route 1 and in the photo above you can see how it is squeezed between the highway and the river. It certainly has changed since the snowy pictures in the post below this!

It was a gorgeous day for a walk and it felt so good to get out in the spring air and sunshine. It felt good to walk and move my limbs and my body. I did not bring my Nikon, but simply enjoyed the birds and my husband’s company. I did not see many birds at first, but it became more active as the afternoon waned and drifted towards evening and sunset. At first, the only bird I saw was a small brown thrush-like bird is a wooded section of the trail just after we crossed the pedestrian bridge at the north end. The bird was in the shade alongside the trail and at first I thought it might be a robin. However, once I looked at it through my bins I could tell it was not a robin, even though it was backlit and its back was to me. I knew then it was another of the thrushes, but I needed to see the head and chest to figure out it it was a Hermit Thrush or a Swainson’s Thrush. I made Gus stop on the trail while I tried to creep closer for a better look in better light. Suddenly Gus warned me there were other pedestrians coming and they weren’t stopping! Just then the bird got into a patch of sunlight and turned 3/4 of the way towards me and I could see it was a Veery! It was rusty brown above with no contrast between the tail and back and no eye ring or “spectacles.” The faint spots were limited to the upper breast, unlike the other thrushes. I have only seen a Veery out in the open once before! Dang, how I wished I had my camera now!

Here is the Veery I saw in Andover, MA in May of 2012:

 Veery, Andover, MA 5-6-2012

You can tell the Veery is quite different than the Wood thrush and Hermit Thrush pictured below.

 Wood Thrush in Central Park 5-18-2012

Note the large, dark spots covering the breast and belly.

 Hermit Thrush in my Brunswick backyard this winter 1-18-15

Note the contrasting rufous tail with the olive colored back and the dark spots limited to the upper breast. Note also the complete and obvious eye-ring.

 Birch Bark Beauty!

While many of the trees were still without leaves, or just blooming with their tiny spring flowers, the white bark of this silver birch was so striking against the blue sky and blue river! I just had to stop and admire it!

 Blue Skies between the branches of a silver birch!

 

While we were standing at this bend in the river, we observed several osprey fishing in the cold, rushing water. I was amazed at their ability to plunge into the cold depths and come of with wet wings and a fish and start flying again. sometimes I would see them struggle to reposition the fish before gaining control and flying off to feed. At one point I saw all 5 osprey at the same time!  Initially, when I saw one osprey catch a fish and fly off across the highway to the east, suddenly a Bald Eagle appeared out of nowhere and went in hot pursuit of the osprey! I could tell it wanted to steal the fish, but I never saw how that contest turned out as the birds flew out of sight beyond the trees.

I just loved the view of the river through the branches of this birch tree!

 

By the time we had reached this section of the trail we had walked over 1 1/2 miles. We walked just as far as that bunch of pine trees there and I counted several Savannah and Song sparrows in this grassy section. I was hoping to find a few warblers or woodpeckers in the pines, but it did not happen. It was on the walk back that I started to see robins, cardinals, blackbirds and even a Black-and-white Warbler after crossing the pedestrian bridge.

Back near the parking lot the May flowers were in bloom. I love these delicate spring flowers that only grow in the highly acidic soil of the northeast. Also called bluets, these little beauties are only here for a brief time before they are gone.

After my birding here on Friday the birds seen at this location increased from 36 to 44! Since then another birder has birded here and added Belted Kingfisher as the 45 species for this location! Thanks, Delia! Despite the traffic, this is a good birding location.

Links:

• Androscoggin River Bicycle Path is an eBird Hotspot
• My eBird Checklist for this location on 5-8-2015
• Androscoggin Riverwalk-previous post
• Veery Photos from my Andover Backyard May 2012
• Town of Brunswick Androscoggin River Bicycle Path
• Topsham Androscoggin Riverwalk-I will have to check this section out next! Topsham is in Sagadahoc County while Brunswick is in Cumberland County. The Androscoggin River is the border between these two counties in this location.

 

Androscoggin Riverwalk

Follow the trail…

March 10, 2015: I have told you before that I like to count birds where no one else is counting them. When I first moved here last year I noticed this trail alongside route 1 in Brunswick and saw that it was an eBird Hotspot, but when I checked the data, very little had been submitted for this location. So, I made it my mission to go birding there and count the birds. While I have only managed to get there a few times, I feel that I have at least been able to contribute some data for this Hotspot. It is a pleasant walk along the Androscoggin River, but the one drawback is the sound of the constant flow of traffic along Route 1.

This winter the river was frozen for a very long time!

 

I found a hairy woodpecker searching for food on an overhanging limb!

 

 

 

Bald Eagles circled overhead.

 

Ring-billed Gulls resting on the ice shelf.

 

A female Common Goldeneye found a bit of open water!

 

 

“plook!”

 

A sweet little Red-breasted Nuthatch!

Here is a list of the birds I saw on this one mile walk on March 10:

1. Mallard, 2
2. Common Goldeneye, 1
3. Bald Eagle, 3
4. Ring-billed Gull, 60
5. Herring Gull, 1
6. Rock Pigeon, 6
7. Hairy Woodpecker, 1
8. American Crow, 30
9. Black-capped Chickadee, 5
10. Red-breasted Nuthatch, 1
11. American Robin, 1

So far only 36 species have been reported for this location, but I know there must be more! Now that spring has sprung, I need to go back and see what I can find along the Androscoggin Riverwalk in Brunswick, ME!

The Androscoggin River Bicycle Path is an eBird Hotspot

• Exploring the Androscoggin River Bicycle Path March 29, 2014
• Androscoggin Riverwalk September 23, 2014

Preparing for a Blizzard

 Saturday’s Snow in the yard 1-24-15

On Saturday I knew a storm was coming, so Gus and I got up early to go to the store for groceries and supplies. But since the snow was coming and I had been stuck inside all week except for doctor’s appointments, I decided I needed to squeeze in a little bit of birding on the way to the store.

So Gus drove me slowly along Rossmore and Mere Point Roads.

I asked him to pull over on Rossmore Road so I could get out and walk.

The marsh was gently quiet and I relished the sounds of birds.

it felt good to walk and breathe fresh air and smell the pines and spruces.

As a few flakes started to fall I knew we should get to the store.

By the time we were done shopping the parking lot looked like this!

 

By the end of the day our driveway looked like this!

 

By Sunday morning the newscaster were predicting the coming blizzard.

Yet the skies were so blue and my driveway looked like this.

So Gus filled all my feeders for me…

And then we did the most logical thing…

He took me birding again before the storm!

I saw on the MAINE Birds Facebook page that someone had seen a Northern Pintail Duck in West Bath. I had not seen a Northern Pintail Duck in the State of Maine yet, so off we went! We found the pond with loads of ducks.

And in the midst of over 100 mallards, I found my Northern Pintail taking a nap!

(unfortunately you cannot see him in this cell photo but I have a picture to post later)

The Northern Pintail Duck makes Species 199 for my Maine Life List! I wonder what species number 200 will be? Arizona is my only state with over 300 bird species. At the moment, Maine is the closest to reaching the 200 species mark for me!

Then, for a change of scenery, we decided to drive to Fort Popham in Phippsburg.

As we drove along the road we stopped to watch the waves roll in on Popham Beach! At Fort Popham I counted Common Eiders, Herring Gulls, Great Black-backed Gulls, Red-breasted Mergansers, Rock Pigeons, and a Common Loon, but nothing new for this year. Being the greedy birder that I am, I wanted to find one more bird! So, I put out a call for Hooded Mergansers sightings on Maine Birds. I chased down a lead that led me to a new eBird Hotspot that I had not heard of.

I found myself at Bay Bridge Landing off the Old Bath Road near Brunswick.

What a pretty spot!

Bay Bridge Landing Wetland Park

But the tidal pool where the mergansers were seen two days ago was totally frozen over. As the water shifted beneath the ice, I listened to it crack and shift.

I watched the late afternoon sun setting over the Androscoggin River.

The only birds I saw and heard, were chickadees and crows.

Time to head home and prepare for the worst!

The Sunday night news was filled with predictions of the worst blizzard of the decade!

With the sunlight streaming through my windows this morning,

it’s hard to believe it is coming!

Such a pleasant winter scene out my kitchen window!

But, I do take this seriously, so…

I am boiling eggs!

I need to get all my cooking done before we lose power!

At least we can eat hard boiled eggs, or make deviled eggs with them!

A half empty freezer is not good, so I am filling plastic containers to freeze.

 

It will stay frozen longer if the freezer is full of ice!

However, I still see some empty space I need to fill!

I am getting all my laundry done and tonight we will fill containers with water so we can flush the toilet. When you lose power in the country you cannot flush your toilets because the well pump runs off electricity. It is a different story when you live in town and have a town water supply.

In the backyard, I’ve had my eye on this leaning birch tree ever since we moved in here.

We’ve had plenty of snow, wind and rain storms in the year since we moved here and still it stands, but will it be able to stand 2 to 3 feet of snow and wind gusts upwards of 50 to 70 MPH?

Will I?

I’ll let you know when it’s all over!

Meanwhile, my sweet guy is keeping the feeders full for me and the birds!

 

That’s my Gus!

2015 Stats

	Life	Year	Month
2015 Year Birds	478	51	51
2015 Maine Birds	199	51	51
2015 Yard Birds	109	36	36
2015 Checklists	7451	77	77