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)

Osprey and other birds at Brunswick Landing

 Broad-winged Hawk on power lines 6-12-15

Over the course of the summer I birded Brunswick Landing several times. It is a massive property and was formerly the Brunswick Naval Air Station. Now it is being developed as commercial property and there are not as many wild areas as there were before. Some sections have been shut off that we used to have access to when I first moved here and learned about this property. Still, it is a good place to bird with many surprises to be found, but it involves a bit of driving. I usually cover 3 to 5 miles with various stops along the way. In summer Upland Sandpipers can be found on the airfield. As you drive around you can spot vireos, warblers and woodpeckers. Both summers I have been here I have found Pileated Woodpeckers when driving through.

I found this one climbing a utility pole on July 2nd of this year!

 

 

 

Finally up in the clear where I can see his gorgeous crest!

This massive woodpecker is the size of a crow and the one most closely related to the now (presumed) extinct Ivory-billed Woodpecker.

While I was looking up at the Pileated, this little male Common Yellowthroat was in the brush behind me.

Several pairs of Osprey nest on the Brunswick Landing Property. It is a short flight for them to the Androscoggin river in Brunswick or to Middle Bay to fish. There are also a couple of isolated ponds on the property that I have seen them fishing in as well.

This photo was taken on June 12th. You can just see the tiny head of the osprey chicks peeking up above the edge of the nest. The photos below were all taken just a 3 weeks later on July 2nd. Look at the difference in size!

Two offspring look like they are gobbling up some yummy fish!

 

Look at the size of those wings now!

 

The adult osprey is keeping an eye on me, but soon those youngsters will be flying and fending for themselves.

Please note that I was in my car and using a long lens to get these shots. At no point was I anywhere near these birds or their nest, which is actually atop a very tall pole in an abandoned baseball field that is fenced off with No Trespassing signs posted. However, you can easily see these birds from the roads and parking lots of Brunswick Landing. I would never disturb a bird to get a photo and these particular osprey are quite used to living in and around humans.

Brunswick Landing is a unique place to bird with many rarities showing up in the summer and the winter. Over 150 species of birds have been recorded here so far. Click on the links below to learn more.

Links:

• Brunswick Landing is an eBird Hotspot
• All my posts about Brunswick Landing
• My eBird Checklist for 6-12-15
• My eBird checklist for 7-2-15

Harpswell Yard Birds

 Black-capped Chickadee 8-31-2015 Harpswell, Maine

Though we moved into this new house in mid-August, it wasn’t until the end of the month that I started photographing birds, since first I took a trip to Connecticut to help my mom out and to pick up my cats and bring them back with me. My cats are strictly indoor cats so they can watch the birds but they cannot harm them. Here are just some of the 60+ species of birds I have seen since moving into this house. I have been amazed at how quickly the list has grown after a very slow start. Fall migration has helped a lot and I have seen several birds species only once as they passed by on their way through. Of course, since this is Maine, there are always chickadees!

Each species was seen in or from this yard and I have posted their pictures with the date each photo was taken beneath, though this is not necessarily the first date that species was observed. You can see the full list of species at the end of this post.

 Black-capped Chickadee 8-31-15

 Magnolia Warbler 9-1-15

 Red-breasted Nuthatch 9-1-15

 Song Sparrow 9-1-15

 Tufted Titmouse (juvenile) 9-1-15

 Blue Jay 9-1-15

 Ruby-throated Hummingbird 9-1-15

Since moving to Harpswell I have seen several stray cats in this yard hunting my feeders and the little critters that live here. Cats kill millions of songbirds each year and do not belong outdoors. I have noticed that this does affect the number of ground feeding birds in this yard. I photographed this one on September 3rd.

Black-and-White Warbler in the birch tree 9-4-15

 

 Northern Harrier flyover 9-7-15

 American Goldfinches 9-20-15

It is no secret that I love woodpeckers and I have seen several species in this yard. I do not have photos of the Pileated Woodpeckers or Northern Flickers I have seen here, but I was so pleased to have the following species drop by during migration!

 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in the bird tree 9-24-15

 

 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker trying to hide 9-24-15

 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Red-bellied woodpecker 9-24-15

 Two red-bellied woodpeckers and 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 9-24-15

 Tufted Titmouse 9-24-15

 Downy Woodpecker 9-24-15

 White-throated Sparrow 9-25-15

 Male House Finch 9-25-15

It was over a month before I saw a House Finch here. Now there is a pair that shows up sporadically.

 Red-bellied Woodpecker 9-26-15

 Downy Woodpecker 10-10-15

And just last week I had a big surprise when a pair of migrating Baltimore Orioles plopped down into the fruit trees in the front yard. I was sitting in my chair near a downstairs window and I was shocked, especially when I realized my camera was all the way upstairs! I was hoping they would stay there and they did. I managed to take these pictures through the upstairs window before they flew off!

 Baltimore Oriole 10-16-15

 Baltimore Oriole 10-16-15

Baltimore Oriole looking for insects 10-16-15

Harpswell Yard Life List

1. Herring Gull, 7-7-2015
2. Common Tern
3. Northern Flicker
4. Red-eyed Vireo
5. American Crow
6. Gray Catbird
7. Ovenbird
8. Common Yellowthroat
9. Song Sparrow
10. Ruby-throated Hummingbird, 8-14-15
11. American Goldfinch
12. Dobule-crested Cormorant, 8-15-15 (our first full day in this huse)
13. Red-shouldered Hawk
14. downy Woodpecker
15. Blue-headed Vireo
16. Blue Jay
17. Common Raven
18. Black-capped Chickadee
19. White-breasted Nuthatch
20. Tufted Titmouse, 8-16-15
21. Canada Goose, 8-17-15
22. Red-bellied Woodpecker
23. American Robin
24. Cedar Waxwing
25. Black-and-white Warbler
26. Osprey
27. Wilson’s Warbler, 8-18-15
28. Mourning Dove, 8-19-15
29. Belted Kingfisher
30. Eastern Wood Pewee (then I was gone for 9 days)
31. Pileated Woodpecker, 8-28-15
32. Red-breasted Nuthatch
33. American Redstart, 8-30-15
34. Black-throated Green Warbler
35. Great Blue Heron, 9-1-15
36. Magnolia Warbler
37. Hairy Woodpecker
38. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
39. Chestnut-sided Warbler
40. Cooper’s Hawk, 9-2-15
41. Carolina Wren
42. Brown Creeper, 9-3-15
43. Northern Parula
44. Northern Cardinal 9-4-15
45. Philadelphia Vireo
46. Northern Harrier, 9-7-15
47. Peregrine Falcon, 9-15-15
48. Broad-winged hawk, 9-16-15
49. Eastern Phoebe, 9-17-15
50. Nashville Warbler, 9-18-15
51. Bald Eagle, 9-21-15
52. Dark-eyed Junco
53. Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 9-22-15
54. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, 9-24-15
55. White-throated Sparrow, 9-25-15
56. House Finch
57. Red-tailed Hawk, 10-1-15
58. Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle), 10-2-15
59. Sharp-shinned Hawk, 10-3-15
60. Palm Warbler (yellow)
61. Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 10-4-15
62. Turkey Vulture, 10-8-15
63. White-crowned Sparrow
64. Common Grackle, 10-12-15
65. Merlin, 10-15-15
66. Baltimore Oriole, 10-16-15

It is interesting to note that in a little over 2 months I have seen almost as many birds in this yard as I did in 18 months in my Tucson Yard, where I saw 69 species of birds before I moved back here to Maine.

Here are how My Yards Lists Compare

Yard	Years	Number of Species
Sycamore Canyon	April 2007 thru August 2010	83
Andover Yard	October 2010 thru August 2012	65
Tucson Yard	September 2012 thru January 2014	69
Mere Point Yard	February 2014 thru August 2015	117
Harpswell Yard	August 2015 to present*	66

*I counted birds for 15 minutes on one day in July when we first looked at this house, but my actual day to day counting did not start until August 14th in the evening.

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)