A Race, Some Birds, and a Birthday

 The Lake 6-27-15

On a cold day in June we gathered at the lake in Colchester, CT where every summer my family has a sort of mini family reunion centered around a road race. It is known as the Annual Adams Family Road Race and those of us who can, either walk or run our old 3 mile high school cross country course. Every one of my siblings and some of my nieces and nephews have been on the Bacon Academy Cross Country Team at one time or another. My middle brother, Stephen, came up with this idea as a way to keep us all in shape as we get older. Nice try, Stephen! One by one we have dropped out for various health reasons, but there are still a few of us who still can walk or run. I have mostly walked the last few years, but this year I declined to even walk as I was still healing from an injury. Instead, I stood at the finish line and manned the stopwatch and the camera, as well as watching birds.

I am always watching birds.

First there is the waiting for someone to round the bend…

 

Then my youngest brother appears!

 

My sister, Mary Grace, my daughter, and my Mom all watching and keeping time as they shout words of encouragement!

 

Then, my brother Stephen rounds the bend and burns it up towards the finish line!

 

Can you believe he is in his 50’s!

We are all in our 50’s now. Except for my oldest brother, who is the first one of us siblings to cross into his 60’s! There were not many runners today, so I did not get many pictures of runners. But, I did see some birds!

After the race was over everyone headed back to the Lake House. Most went in their cars, but I decided to walk and count birds.

I found some Cedar Waxwings gobbling up dog berries alongside the road.

 

Overhead a Tufted Titmouse investigated a crevice on a limb.

 

As I neared the north end of the lake I found a female Red-winged Blackbird in the brush near the swamp on the other side of the road. Female Redwing Blackbirds trip so many birders up, even experienced ones at times, because they can look like some sort of weird sparrow with their streaky plumage.

The amount of yellow-orange can vary in their faces.

But notice their overall body shape and bill shape. This is a blackbird’s bill.

 Two Red-winged Blackbirds in a small tree.

 

 The swamp on the north side of the road.

 

 Water lilies cloak the surface of the water.

 

 Such pretty blossoms!

 

 Song Sparrow and a spider’s web!

 

 Song Sparrow at Lake Hayward 6-27-15

This date was also my mother’s 79th birthday! After surviving two separate battles with breast cancer, we are all so happy she is still here to celebrate her birthday. Her hair was just starting to grow in after her recent chemo treatment earlier this year. She is pictured below with her young friend, Alexis, who is also a breast cancer survivor! They went through chemo together the first time around and have remained friends every since! It was so nice of her to stop by. It made my mom’s birthday ever more special!

Happy Survival you beauties!

A Few Surprises at Brunswick Landing

 Great Horned Owl 4-7-15 Brunswick Landing

In April of this year I drove through Brunswick Landing several times during the peak of Spring Migration. Winter was just ending but the birds were were retuning and some of them were already nesting. Brunswick Landing is a funny place because in some ways it is abandoned and wild, but moves are underway by Midcoast Regional Development Authority to bring new life to this place. I, however, like the wildlife more than the business aspect of things, and while I do believe that some of the land will be left wild, much is being developed and places I had access to last year have now been blocked off. Still, it is a good place to bird if you know where to look and this year I found a few surprises! The Great Horned Owl Pictured above is one of them. While I missed out on seeing the Snowy owls that were reported to be hunting the airfield at the Brunswick Executive Airport which is part of Brunswick Landing, I was surprised to find this Great Horned Owl nesting in an abandoned osprey nest near the same airfield! This was my first and only Great Horned Owl in Maine!

While I was watching the owl this raven flew by pursued by a couple of crows!

Notice the wedge-shaped tail!

Notice the fan-shaped tail of this crow.

 

In the north pond I was pleased to find Wood Ducks and Ring-necked Ducks!

 

This American kestrel was perched atop this light pole at the far end of the abandoned ball fields off Line Road. Osprey like to nest on the platforms in the middle of the field.

One of my best surprises of birding Brunswick Landing this winter was the discovery of Bohemian Waxwings on Brunswick Landing. I found them in the crabapple trees near the Brunswick Rec center on Neptune Drive in February. But when I stopped to examine this flock of birds in the trees at the edge of the parking lot off Admiral Finch Road on April 9th, I was shocked to find a flock of more than 30 Bohemian Waxwings! Last time I had only seen 3 of them!

Bohemian Waxwings in fruit tree 4-9-2015 Brunswick Landing

 

The birds flew between the fruit tree and this non-fruiting tree.

 

Some would be in this tree and some would be in the other tree.

I stayed in my car to photograph them. I did not want to scare them away.

Close-up of Bohemian Waxwings 4-9-2015

Notice the cinnamon wash to their faces and their Cinnamon colored undertail coverts! Bohemian Waxwings are much bigger than Cedar Waxwings and are highly nomadic. You never know when or where they will turn up, but we only see them here in winter. This was a very late date to see them here, but we still had so much snow on the ground!

Bohemian Waxwings in tree on Brunswick Landing 4-9-15

 

American Kestrel on pole 4-9-15

In April everyone was awaiting the return of the ospreys. I finally saw a pair on their nest in the ball field off of Line Drive (photo below). They are still there now with young in the nest!

Osprey Pair on April 17, 2015

 

Eastern Phoebe on fence 4-17-15

 

Brunswick Landing is a great place to bird and is an eBird Hotspot!

(Be sure to click on any of the labels below to see all posts related to that subject)

Birthday Birding at Biddeford Pool

 Snow Covered Rocks at Biddeford Pool 2-22-15

Ever since moving to Maine I have heard of Biddeford Pool on eBird and the Maine Birds Facebook page. It is a legendary birding hotspot and is well known as THE PLACE to go and see snowy owls in winter. I had been here for a year now and have never birded Biddeford Pool. So, when my birthday rolled around that was my birthday wish…to bird Biddeford Pool!

 This was my first look at the ocean from along Ocean Avenue in Biddeford Pool. Biddeford Pool appears to be a neighborhood of fancy homes along Maine’s rocky coast near Saco. The roads are narrow with no parking signs everywhere. The haze you see at the bottom of this photo if from me trying to shoot a photo over the very high snow banks that lined the road. Gus found a small parking spot and I got out of the car and walked down the road that was covered with rapidly melting snow. This was the first warm day in a very long time and the temperature went to the mid 30’s to 40 degrees! I had to dodge or wade through quite a few puddles.

 Common Eiders are indeed Common along the coast of Maine!

 

 I love the snow covered rocks!

 

 I first heard and then saw this small flock of waxwings.

 Cedar Waxwing in a fruit tree.

 On a bit of a rocky island or sandbar I spotted these great Cormorants.

Is that perhaps a seal on the right between 2 cormorants?

 More beautiful rocks!

 Rocks and Waves at Biddeford Pool 2-22-15

 Canada Geese between the rocks at Biddeford Pool.

 Finally we drove over to the actual pool of Biddeford Pool where I spotted this Horned Grebe.

 American Black Ducks napping on the ice at Biddeford Pool.

There is an inlet where water flows in and out of the pool and there is a public parking area here called Vine’s Landing where one can launch a small boat or kayak. Here the water is flowing swiftly and I spotted another horned grebe diving and fishing. I am not sure what it is that it came up with, but I captured this series of photos of the bird with food in its beak.

 

 

 

 

I never did find a snowy owl here, but now that I know my way, perhaps I will go back again. Biddeford pool is a little over an hour south of where I live and I hear there is an Audubon site there where one can hike out to a point along the ocean. A very rare Surf Bird has been spotted there lately, the first ever seen in Maine, but I have not had time to go see it for myself. Though, hopefully all this snow is melted by now!

Great Black-backed Gull with a White-winged Scoter in the background.

Gus took me out to breakfast in Westbrook on my birthday, then we went shopping at the Wildbirds Unlimited store in South Portland where I bought a new bird feeding platform to go with my feeder pole system. We finished the day at Biddeford Pool where I counted all these birds. The Great Cormorants and the Horned Grebes were my First of the Year for those species!

Below are just a couple of the numerous eBird Hotspots for Biddeford Pool:

• Biddeford Pool—an eBird Hotspot
• Biddeford Pool—East Point Sanctuary
• Biddeford Pool—Ocean Ave
• Biddeford Pool—Vine’s Landing

 

My birthday feeder platform with Common Redpolls 2-23-15

Bohemian Waxwings on Brunswick Landing

 Bohemian Waxwings 2-11-15 Life Bird number 480!

Yesterday was my first day out driving by myself since I dislocated my shoulder on January 16th. I drove to my first Physical Therapy appointment on the Bath Road. Thankfully the sun was shining and the roads were finally clear of snow. I still have limited range of motion with my arm and am having to accept that this is going to take a long time to heal. Still, it felt good to be able to drive myself and have a sense of freedom again. On my way home I had to pass the entrance of Brunswick Landing. In the summer I could just drive through this property on my way home, but at the beginning of winter they blocked the south end where the golf course is and one can no longer drive all the way through. Still, you can get onto the property and drive around looking at birds and so, as the turn to the Brunswick Landing neared, I debated about whether I should go straight home or turn in and bird. It was really no debate. I turned my blinker on, got in the left lane, and pulled in.

I drove around the property on snow covered roads with my heat cranking and my window down. I listened and looked but saw and heard no birds other than crows for the first couple of miles, but then, as I turned onto Neptune Drive I saw a robin fly across the road. I slowed down to listen and look, and then I heard waxwings. A high snow bank and a cluster of evergreens blocked my view of the parking lot beyond, but I turned in and followed the sound of the birds. With my foot on the brake I looked through my bins and there they were, in a tree by the Brunswick Recreation Center building and…I could clearly see the cinnamon colored undertail coverts of a Bohemian Waxwing!

I pulled into a parking space facing the building and scrambled out of my car as fast as I could in a tangle of binocular harnesses and camera straps! Not wanting to scare the birds off, I stayed by my car and looked through my bins, then raised my camera for the shot. I could barely believe my eyes or contain my excitement. This was a Life Bird for me! Of course they were mixed in with a flock of cedar waxwings and robins. They all seemed to be feeding from some kind of fruit trees that flanked the entrance to the rec center. Periodically the birds would fly to the rooftop to drink the melting snow, then fly back into the trees to look around. I was surprised at how much bigger the Bohemian Waxwings were than the smaller, paler, Cedar Waxwings. The Bohemian Waxwings were also more colorful and they had a more rounded, potbellied look to them. Cedar Waxwings often look elongated like a cigar to me, but today, every bird was puffed up due to the cold. after awhile, the Bohemian Waxwings flew off into a different tree by themselves.

I kept hoping these birds were turn around but they did not.

I counted three Bohemian Waxwings in all.

These are the trees the birds were feeding in.

 

This is a very puffed up Cedar Waxwing. Notice the white undertail coverts.

I wished the Bohemian Waxwings had posed for me like this.

 

I took one more drive around the parking lot but all I found this time were Cedar Waxwings. I had been there for 30 minutes and it was time to head home. I could not believe I finally got my Lifer Bohemian Waxwings! I have been watching the Maine Birds Facebook page with envy as person after person posted pictures of Bohemian Waxwings. Now I have my own photos to share and what a bird to make species 200 on my Maine Life List!

This morning I awoke to a beautiful blushing sky, but now it has started to snow once again. I am so glad I was able to get out of the house yesterday. I also drove through the boat launch and counted birds there before heading home for good. Today I will stay home and make stew and watch the snow fall once again while I dream of Bohemian Waxwings. You can see my complete checklist here.

Bohemian Waxwings 2-11-15

on

Brunswick Landing