Brunswick Town Commons

 Common Yellowthroat 7-9-15

Brunswick Town Commons is a town Nature Preserve located on Route 123 or Harpswell Neck Road in Brunswick, Maine. It is a mixed forest with lots of Eastern White Pine as well as mixed hardwoods and a Pine Barrens. Trails run off in several directions and some lead to nearby neighborhoods. There is a loop trail I like to hike, but often I will just grab my lunch and go sit at one of the picnic tables near the parking lot and watch birds for about 20 minutes. This past summer I was only able to get there about two or three times. I brought my friend, Donna Simonetti here when she visited me in June, and I went back to bird watch again in July.

 In June we found a large patch of Lady’s Slipper’s in bloom!

Farther down the trail we heard Blue-headed Vireos calling. We strained our necks to look up into the crowns of some very tall pines and finally spotted the birds briefly before they flew off again! When I go birding at Brunswick town commons, I never know what I will find, though usually I can count on seeing Chickadees, titmice, red and white breasted Nuthatches, and often Hermit Thrushes or Crows. If I time it right, I usually have the place to myself, but late in the day the runners start coming through. It is their favorite place too!

 

 

 In July I found this Chipping Sparrow in a pine.

 But this was the first time I had seen a hairy Woodpecker here!

 Common Yellowthroat with a Daddy longlegs 7-9-2015

I also found a whole family of Hermit Thrushes, but I could never get one to turn around for me, so all I got were tail shots!

 Young Hermit Thrush with down 7-9-15

Links:

• My eBird Checklist 6-4-15
• My eBird Checklist 7-9-15
• Brunswick Town Commons is an eBird Hotspot
• Brunswick Town Commons-(all posts on this subject)
• Town of Brunswick Trails
• On Finding Monument E-Bowdoin College Article 11-11-2011       (a brief history of The Commons)

 

 

Notes From My Nest: Hello Again

Mere Point Bay 4-20-15

Hello Again! I know it has been a very long time since you have heard from me. So much has been going on and my Physical Therapy takes up so much of my time. In the past three weeks my daughter has had surgery on her elbow and my son came to visit from Arizona. He brought along my grandson and they stayed with us for a week while we visited family and celebrated Xavier’s birthday. Meanwhile, the snow has finally melted and the migrating birds have started to return! I feel like a person let out of jail for it is finally warm enough and dry enough to get out and go for walks!

Family 4-22-15

In spite of being so busy, I have managed to go birding in a few places. I birded the Brunswick Town Commons on April 17^th. No one had counted birds there since I had last fall, but on this day it seems another person decided it was finally nice enough to count birds and we both submitted eBird checklists for that day! While I only counted 12 species there in the almost two hours I walked the trails, I did get to see my Lifer Red Crossbills! No, I did not get a photo because they were too quick for me. One of the birds got out in the open at the top of a small pine tree but when I raised my camera for a shot it and the other birds flew off deeper into the pine forest.

Brunswick Town Commons 4-17-15

My Physical therapy is progressing well, but never as fast as I would like. I can now raise my arms above my head and out to the side, but am still having trouble getting my left arm behind my back. I don’t notice this too much until I try to tie my apron on. I am not in pain most of the time but once in awhile I feel a small twinge. At this point, it does not keep me from doing most of the things I want to and I almost feel normal, but it will be awhile until I get my strength back. We cannot work on building strength until we regain more flexibility.

Every day that I go to my Physical therapy I usually count birds in the parking lot. My physical Therapy is located next to the New Meadows River and sits on a small hill overlooking a valley and a ridge. Thus I have been able to witness firsthand the return of the Ospreys. I have seen them flying over the valley with fish and nesting material in their talons.

I have also been birding at Reid State Park, Popham Beach and Scarborough Marsh. I am so behind with all my photo processing that it could be awhile before I have pictures to show you! But the good thing is, the birds are returning!

The dock is finally back in the water on the New Meadows River 4-3015

I have had Yellow-rumped, Palm, and Pine Warblers in the yard. I have seen greater yellowlegs down at Wharton Point. Red-winged Blackbirds, common Grackles, and brown headed cowbirds have all returned, along with starlings and sparrows. I have had Savannah sparrows, song sparrows and white-throated sparrows all in my yard, along with Fox Sparrows back in March. The Woodcocks also returned in March but I did not get to see or hear them as much as I did last year as it was much colder this year. No warm, misty nights to stand in the yard and watch their displays. I did poke my head out the door a few times and hear their calls and wing beats, but it was too dark to see them and none seemed to fly right over my head like they did last year, except for one evening when I opened the door to let Gus in with a load of groceries and a bird flew right over his head in the light of the back door!

Below is a photo montage of events and places over the past month or so. I hope to get some more bird photos up here soon!

On April 9th there was still snow and I counted 36 Bohemian Waxwings in these trees on Brunswick Landing!

On April 12th I counted 17 species at Reid State Park.

One of the trails on Brunswick Town Commons 4-17-15

My footprints on a footbridge at Brunswick Town Commons

 Charlie Brown forgot his Christmas Tree 4-17-15

(seen alongside the trail on Brunswick Town Commons)

 Trail sign on Brunswick Town Commons 4-17-15

 Finally some Flowers in my yard!

 

 My precious grandson, Xavier 4-20-15

 Teaching Xavier to bird 4-20-15

 Popham Harbor 4-21-15

 The Androscoggin River at the Brookfield Recreation Area 4-24-15

(I saw my First of the Year Spotted Sandpiper at this location on this day!)

 Saying good-bye: Father and Son

 Saying Good-bye: Mother and Son

Poem I Wrote: A Seaside Goodbye to My Son

Scarborough Marsh 4-26-15

 Pine Point Beach 4-26-15

 

Gus and I took a ride to Winslow Memorial Park in Freeport on Tuesday night. While I knew it was an eBird Hotspot, I had never been there yet until this night. What a pretty place. The wind was pretty fierce, so I did not see many songbirds, but the water was full of Common Eiders!

Oh, and this is the car we were riding around in!

Gus just got the windows tinted on this day so we had to take a ride to check it out!

As we drove back into town on Pleasant Street in Brunswick there was such dramatic storm lighting that I kept snapping pictures through the windows of the car. We even saw a rainbow!

Cormorants on the Rocks at Sawyer Park in Brunswick, Maine 4-30-15

After whining about not being able to see many birds in the first part of this year, I am finally up over 100 species for the year! However, this still pales in comparison to the 126 species I saw in all of January last year before I moved away from Tucson! Here are my current stats and a comparison of species I have seen each month. You can easily see the huge spike in bird species in April and I only expect May to get even better! One of my birding goals this year is to count birds in every county in Maine. Currently I only have one state where I have counted birds in every county, and that is Connecticut. While Connecticut has only 8 counties, Maine has 16. I have counted birds in 14 of those counties. Piscataquis County and Washington County are the two I have yet to tackle. It is my mission to get to them both before this month is over!

2015 Bird Species Totals	Life	Year	Month
January	479	53	53
February	479	60	55
March	479	70	58
April	480	107	98

 

Meanwhile, the Month of April was National Poetry Writing Month and while I tried my best to write or publish a poem every day, things just got too hectic, but, if you are interested, check out my poetry blog, Kathie’s Poet Tree to see all my latest poems! Thank you for stopping by and reading my blog and saying Hello whenever you can!

Birding Brunswick Town Commons

 

Ever since moving to Brunswick, Maine I have driven past the Brunswick Town Commons. Though it’s name seems to suggest that you would find it in the center of town, it is not. It is on Route 123 heading south towards Harpswell. When I first moved here in February it was covered in snow. Then Spring came and the trails all looked like mud. Then summer came and so did the humidity, ticks, and the mosquitoes. Again, I stayed away. But finally at the beginning of September, I decided to take a walk there one Sunday afternoon while Gus was watching football. I had no idea what I would find or how far I would go, but I was up for the adventure, and so I struck out.

This is the parking lot and entrance to the commons.

 

Information sign with trail map.

 

Tall pines towered over me as I headed down the trail.

At first I could still hear traffic on the road and no birds, but as I got farther in, the traffic noise faded and the birds began to call.

Then I came to a fork in the trail and read this sign.

Interesting stuff!

I found the Maine State Bird-a Black-capped Chickadee!

 

I gave myself warbler neck always looking up trying to identify these small birds!

I did find a few warblers in one area of the trail where there were some saplings in sunlight. But, many areas of the trail were dark and damp and quiet.

I loved this moss covered tree!

 

To walk in the Brunswick Town Commons is to walk in sunlight and shadow.

 

Breakfast in the forest 9-24-14

I had such a good time on September 7th that I went back on September 24th when I had to go to town early for some errands. When I was done I bought myself some breakfast and drove to the commons to dine in the forest with the birds. I remember there were sparrows, chickadees, warblers and nuthatches calling as I ate. When I was done eating I put my trash in the car and headed down the same trail as last time, but when I got to the fork, I went the other way.

Sun dappled moss beside the trail.

 

I came to this marker alongside the trail, but after reading it I saw the trail went further, so I followed it. It went behind some houses and ended at a stone pillar in the woods. Then, to my astonishment, I saw a pair of Winter Wrens in the brush! I froze in my tracks and tried to quietly raise my camera to take a picture, but the birds saw me and disappeared into the thick undergrowth!

This is the view from the spot where I saw the wrens!

The trail did not go on from there, so I turned and headed back. As I rounded the corner on the main trail, I saw something in the middle of the path.

At first I thought it was some dry leaves blowing across the trail…

 

But no…it was a bird!

Actually there were four of them! A whole family of thrushes!

But which kind?

Rufous tail and wings with speckled breast=Hermit Thrush!

The American Robin is really a thrush and you can see the similarity in their eyes and posture. When robins are newly fledged, you can still see their spotted breast for a time until they reach adult plumage. I really liked Brunswick Town Commons and will probably go back to walk here again, at least until the snow flies! While I did not see a lot of species on my walks, I did see some really good birds, and the Winter Wrens were my First of the Year and my first sighting of this species in Maine!

Click the links below to see my ebird checklists for both dates:

• Kathie’s September 7 Checklist
• Kathie’s September 24 Checklist

Brunswick Town Commons is an eBird Hotspot