The Summer Birds of Wharton Point

 Song Sparrow 7-9-15

In Summer you can always count on seeing Song Sparrows at Wharton Point in Brunswick, Maine. It is a well known eBird Hotspot with over 200 species of birds seen at this location. I first started birding Wharton Point when I moved here in the winter of 2014. Since then it is a place I regularly visit to watch birds and I usually take all my birding friends here as well.

At high tide the water comes up to the marsh grass and last year I saw and heard Nelson’s Sparrows here on a regular basis. This year, no matter how many times I visited or what time of day it was, I did not see or hear a single Nelson’s Sparrow. I do not know why there was a change. Nelson’s like to nest in this tidal marsh grass between the mudflats and the meadow beyond.

Common Eider’s are reliably seen here year round. In the summer you can see the hens with ducklings swimming into the coves and across the bay.

Here you can see the mothers with the smaller ducklings all in a row.

Do not underestimate the humble Common Eider. One day this summer when I was here I was watching a small flock of mothers with ducklings when a Bald Eagle flew overhead. Suddenly the eagle dropped low over the water and the mother ducks called out. Plop! all the babies disappeared beneath the surface of the water. The eagle made pass after pass over the water. Each time the ducklings disappeared beneath the surface. On its final pass as the ducklings disappeared I was shocked and amazed to see one of the female eiders raise herself up out of the water and lunge at the passing eagle! What a brave mother, I thought! After that the eagle gave up and flew off without a duckling dinner! I wrote about this back in July. You can read the original story here.

Eider’s have a very different flight profile from mallards.

Notice the short necks and the sloping bills.

Though you can’t see much of this bird, this silhouette is unmistakable!

The long, de-curved bill, kinked neck, and medium length trailing legs tells you this is an ibis. And since this is the northeast it is most likely a Glossy Ibis!

In the summer, I love to see the Common Terns fishing in the bay.

They are all gone now and will not return until next summer.

Note the slender red bill tipped in black, the long pointed wings and tail and the black cap. All of this tells you it is not a gull, but a Common Tern instead.

Wharton Point does have its share of gulls, however and this little Ring-billed Gull is just one of the many species I have seen here.

 

More Common Eiders and ducklings cross the bay on July 9th.

The males have done their part and have nothing further to do with them!

So, I guess you could say that Common Eiders are all single moms!

Snowy Egrets are also reliably found at Wharton Point during the summer.

Great Egrets can be found here as well, but they are much taller and have long, yellow bills and black legs and feet. Snowy Egrets have yellow lores in front of their eyes, with a black bill and black legs with yellow feet. In the series of photos below you can clearly see the yellow feet as one egret flew in and chased the first egret off this point of land that stuck out into the bay. It was fun to observe the interaction and see how it all ended.

 

 

 

I’m King of the Bay, he seemed to say!

Click on the links below to see more blogposts or read the eBird info on this Hotspot. It is well worth your stop if you are ever in Brunswick, though timing can be everything when looking for birds. Be sure to check the nearby meadow for bobolinks in the summer and the marshland beyond the parking lot as well.

Links:

• Wharton Point is an eBird Hotspot
• All my Wharton Point blogposts

Ibises on the mudflats of Wharton Point 7-15-15

Birds in the Mist at Scarborough Marsh

 

When you go to the marsh on a misty morn,

 

and follow the trail into the rain,

you don’t know what you’ll find

and you know you won’t be the same,

 

Then the shorebirds fly as you pass by,

thick as fleas against the mud,

as the marsh land grasses winnow and sigh,

 Least Sandpiper

When shorebirds land under stormy skies,

and the Witch over the marshland flies

casting her spell over all who dare

enter her land and breath her air

 

 Least Sandpipers

then birds careen in a wild dance,

in this wild place of sweet romance,

and sandpipers pipe their flute-like songs

 Semipalmated sandpiper

Over the mudflats, over the shores,

over the places they’ll leave before long,

piping their sandpiper migration song,

 

When Autumn’s touch starts to show,

 

that’s your cue; it’s time to go,

 before the ghost birds start to fly,

 

before you start to wonder why,

 

Little Blue and Great Egret too

 

hiding in wait, looking for you,

 

 

sneaking around in the tall grass,

 

 

while the tide rolls out as you walk past,

 

Concealing dark mysteries hidden in mud,

 

 

gray morning waits for the returning flood,

bringing the water that feeds all with wings,

 

 under the watchful eye of the Fisher King.

Notes: I had a little fun with this post today. This is the second place that Cynthia and I stopped to bird on August 21st when she came to visit me. We wanted to get near the shore and see all the shorebirds that were migrating through. My biggest surprise was finding the Little Blue Herons in the marsh! I expect them in Florida, I did not know we had them here in Maine! They were new to my Maine Life List and I was glad to add them, though at first they threw me off! We saw at least five of them here, with two full blue adults, two white juveniles, and one in transitional plumage. Juvenile Little Blues hatch white and then molt to their adult blue plumage. You can tell the juveniles are Little Blues and not one of the other white herons/egrets because they have a pale bluish bill tipped in dark bluish gray! We saw flocks of shorebirds here, as well as a few sparrows and other birds, but the shorebirds, egrets, and herons were the highlights, as well as the Belted Kingfisher we saw as we were leaving. We were really here in the afternoon, but I took a little poetic license and set the poem in the morning. Onward to Pine Point Beach next!

Links:

• Birding with Cynthia Part 1-Return to Wharton Point
• Living in Brooklyn, Longing for Maine-Cynthia’s blog
• Our eBird Checklist from this location
• Scarborough Marsh-an eBird Hotspot-Eastern Road

Del Prado Linear Park and What I Saw There

 Eurasian Widgeon 3-5-14

After birding Yellow Fever Creek Preserve I still had a bit of time left to go bird the Del Prado Linear Park. Ever since my arrival in Florida two weeks ago I had been searching for the Mottled Duck, but even though I searched the canals in my brother’s neighborhood and the mangroves swamps of Ding Darling on Sanibel island I had yet to see even one Mottled Duck! After checking the eBird Bar Chart for Florida I discovered that some were being seen at the Del Prado Linear Park Ponds In Cape Coral. I found the spot on the map and soon drove there only to discover there was no public parking lot. I drove around the neighborhood at NE 10th Lane across from Lowe’s and finally decided it was okay to park along the street. Though I went looking for Mottled Ducks, the first duck I saw was actually a Eurasian Widgeon! This was a nice bonus bird fro me since I had only seen this species once before at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge near Tacoma, Washington! The Eurasian Widgeon was a new Florida Species as well as a new 2014 Year Species for me! Unlike the American Widgeon, this bird sports a Rust-colored head with a pale yellow crown stripe instead of the iridescent green and gray head with a white stripe of the American species.

The cattail lined pond had a variety of other species.

Look closely and you will see:

• Boat-tailed Grackle (in flight on the left)
• Ring-necked Duck
• Muscovy Duck (Florida Feral type, on the right)
• Common Gallinule (also known as a Common Moorhen, dead center along the shore)

Common Gallinule Swimming

 

Muscovy Duck and American Coot

This was the only location where I saw Coots while on this trip to Florida and my first time ever seeing this species in Florida, so they were a Florida Life Bird for me! Muscovy ducks are countable in Florida, so this was a Life Bird as well as a Florida Life Bird! Already it was worth my trip to this location! But I was not done yet!

Female Boat-tailed Grackle.

To me, this looks a lot like the female Great-tailed Grackles I would see in Tucson!

The ever present Ring-billed Gulls!

 

The Great Blue Heron and the White Ibis increased my bird count!

 

The darker birds seen here are immature White Ibises and are not to be confused with Glossy Ibis which are solid and shiny brown!

Then, finally I found them!

 Mottled Ducks!

While these might look like mallards, they are not. See the pale buffy cheeks and the distinct line between the mottled bodies and the plain necks?  Mottled Ducks are one of the only puddle ducks to nest regularly in Florida and on the Gulf Coast (Kaufman Field Guide to the Birds of North America).

And then I spotted a Mystery bird. Actually, I thought it was a pipit. Then I thought it was a palm warbler, then I wasn’t sure, so I took a few pictures.

This is what I saw at first as the bird walked along the shore wagging its tail.

I tried to stay calm and quiet while also trying to get into a position to get a better photograph of the bird. I finally got a few more shots and studied them all afternoon yesterday. Was it a pipit? Was it a palm warbler? Was it perhaps a Waterthrush?

American Pipit

I went back and forth so many times, but the posture was not right for a waterthrush, which is more horizontal. Also, both waterthrushes have shorter tails and pink legs. This bird has a long tail and dark legs. Another thing that ruled out Northern and Louisiana Water thrush was the two faint wingbars. I could not find any photo in any bird guide that showed wingbars on a waterthrush. So, what a about Palm Warbler. I had been seeing that species all over Florida everywhere I went. It likes to walk on the ground and wag its tail, but it has yellow under-tail coverts. This bird does not have any yellow undertail coverts! So, by process of elimination, this must be a pipit! Still, I would say that it looks different from some of the photos in some of the field guides, yet it does look like birds I have observed in the field and it was my first impression when I saw it! Thus it is that I have added this bird to my list for Del Prado Linear Park which increased my Florida List to 103 species for this year! (If you disagree with me about this I.D. please say so in the comments and tell me why.)

I was as happy as a moorhen in mud!

(This species has been renamed Common Gallinule.)

Then, to brighten my day, a couple of killdeer flew in and landed on a nearby lawn!

I would say my most unusual sighting of the day was a species that is common elsewhere but this is the only location where I saw it. In a driveway across the street from one of the ponds someone had put out seed for the ducks and birds. It was here that I saw my one and only House Sparrow in all of Florida! I did not see any hanging around parking lots and restaurants like I do in so many other states. I did not see House Sparrows anywhere else!

Del Prado Linear park proved to be an easy and profitable spot to count birds and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. If I had more time and it wasn’t about to rain, I would have liked to walk along the 2 mile stretch, but as it was I mostly stayed right around the three ponds at NE 10th Lane. Below is a list of the birds I saw.

Birds Seen at Del Prado Linear Park 3-5-14:

1. **Muscovy Ducks, 3
2. *Eurasian Widgeon, 1
3. Mallard (Domestic Type), 2
4. Mottled Duck, 6
5. Ring-necked Duck, 7
6. Great Blue Heron, 1
7. White Ibis, 20
8. Turkey Vulture, 4
9. Common Gallinule, 4
10. *American Coot, 6
11. Killdeer, 2
12. Ring-billed Gull, 3
13. Eurasian Collared-dove, 4
14. Mourning Dove, 5
15. Northern Mockingbird, 3
16. European starling, 3
17. *American Pipit, 1
18. Palm Warbler, 2
19. Common Grackle, x
20. Boat-tailed Grackle, x
21. *House Sparrow, 1

**Life Bird, * Florida Life Bird

Birding Notes: I counted bird for 44 minutes starting at 11:05 a.m. I did not count all the crackles as it would have taken me too long to try to separate them all out from each other. An “x” in eBird means the species was present.

White Ibis Flock in flight 3-5-2014

These Autumn Evenings

 

These Autumn evenings

when the light is soft and low

and birds wait in the trees

for that clarion call, that inner urging

to move on, fly south, fly free…

 

In dark silhouettes they settle in silver water

black capes, long beaks, long legs

at rest for tonight

at rest for now,

yet always inner restlessness

denying them permanent peace.

 

I see the ducks take to the sky,

I hear the rustle of their beating wings,

I feel my own restless heart pulling me onward

to some unknown place I have not been,

or a return to one I have loved before.

These autumn evenings bring restlessness

and sunsets of such wild beauty

to break your heart.

Photos taken at Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson, AZ on September 17, 2013