Category Archives: Travel

Bruce, The Fabulous

Doves & Chickens, Travel
Male spruce grouse, Boot Cove, Maine (photo by Jim Honeth)
Male spruce grouse, Boot Cove, Maine (photo by Jim Honeth)

This is a Life Bird, the first spruce grouse I’ve ever seen.  The fact that I saw him and even have his picture is thanks to Naomi and Jim Honeth of Portland, Maine.

Now you may wonder, how did I manage to vacation in Maine for 27 years and never see a spruce grouse?  Well, I’m from Pennsylvania and I wasn’t thinking.  I assumed spruce grouse behaved like Pennsylvania’s state bird, the ruffed grouse, which hides in the oak forest until the last minute and bursts skyward in an explosion of sound and feathers.  Silly me.  I would never have found a spruce grouse without a guide.

I first met Jim and Naomi on September 7 on Campobello Island as we watched birds, whales and seals in the turbulent water where Passamaquoddy Bay meets the Bay of Fundy.  We were pleased to see so many sea birds from land: greater and sooty shearwaters, phalaropes, razorbills and murres.  The next day it was foggy and by afternoon I was casting about for a place to find birds when I saw the Honeths in South Lubec.  We compared notes on what we’d seen, then Naomi said, “Do you want to see a spruce grouse?”  You bet!

We drove to Boot Cove Reserve.  Jim brought his camera and Naomi led the way down the narrow path in the mossy forest.  She whispered instructions on where to look and told me the male spruce grouse at this location was nicknamed “Spruce Bruce.”  I wondered why.  My rainproof pants made swishing sounds.  I was afraid we’d scare off the grouse.

At the Bog Path junction we stopped to discuss what trail to take.  By this point the Honeths had expected to see the grouse and were worried he wouldn’t appear.  Naomi said, “He is usually more cooperative.”  I wondered what “cooperative” meant in terms of a grouse.

While we chatted we heard the whir of wings.  Jim was behind us and called, “There he is!”

The male spruce grouse landed on the path and walked toward us.  He stopped and stared.  Several times he flew to a tree branch, then back to the ground.  He decided to convince us that he owned the forest so he paused on the path, raised his bright red eyebrows, fanned his tail, puffed his chest and opened his wings. Wow!  He was so close I could see the dark brown iris of his eyes.  No wonder he has a name!

Eventually Bruce flew into the woods and we resumed our hike but soon had to stop because his lady (Betty?) was standing on the path in front of us.  She was a little shy but posed long enough for Jim to take her picture.

What cooperative birds!  Yes, spruce grouse are tame compared to ruffed grouse.

Thanks to the Honeths I saw the fabulous Spruce Bruce and his lady.

 

NOTE: When Picasa’s website disappeared, so did my link to Jim’s album of Spruce Bruce and Betty.  Here’s a photo of a female spruce grouse from Wikimedia Commons.

Female spruce grouse in Canada (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Female spruce grouse in Canada (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

 

(Male spruce grouse photo by Jim Honeth; female spruce grouse from Wikimedia Commons; click on the image to see the original)

Bird with a Headlamp

Travel, Water and Shore


Plovers are one of my favorite shorebirds, partly because they’re easier to identify than peeps. 

This one is a semipalmated plover, distinguished by his single black belly band and black and white forehead.  Bobby Greene snapped this photo just as the bird was taking a step so you can even see the semi-palms between his toes that give him his name.

To me this plover is “The Bird with the Headlamp.”

Can you guess why?

(photo by Bobby Greene)

Maine coast birds in fog

Travel, Water and Shore

Not many shorebirds at South Lubec yesterday, which was disappointing for my shorebird study, but I went to Campobello Island (New Brunswick) and saw whales, seals and ocean birds very close to shore at East Quoddy Head Lighthouse.  There were black-legged kittiwakes, razorbills, common murres, red-necked phalaropes just off shore.

Today is very foggy with intermittent rain but I went to the sandbar anyway and found many more shorebirds — black-bellied plovers, semipalmated plovers and sandpipers, least sandpipers, sanderlings, short-billed dowitchers, red knots, whimbrel — plus a life bird Hudsonian godwit!

To top it off a merlin cruised by to find his breakfast, though I didn’t see him catch anything.

It will be hard to beat those two sightings in the rest of the day.

UPDATE at 5:00pm.  I did beat those two sightings.  I saw another Life Bird: spruce grouse!  Thanks to Jim and Naomi Honeth for showing me the trail at Boot Cove where the spruce grouse lives.

(photo of a merlin by Chuck Tague)

Peeps Say Peep

Travel, Water and Shore


Today is the last day of my shorebird self-study project in Lubec, Maine.  I’ve learned a thing or two by watching large flocks of the tiny sandpipers called “peeps” but I don’t know if I’ll retain anything because I have so little opportunity to see shorebirds at home. 

Maybe it’ll help to write it down, so here goes.

  • The advice offered by the field guides and those in the know really works:  At first glance, forget about plumage.  Focus on the legs and bill.  What color and length are the legs?  What color, size and shape is the bill?  Amazingly the bills on semipalmated sandpipers, like the one shown above, really do look blunt compared to the bills on least sandpipers.
  • Know where you are and what time of year it is.  This sounds obvious but it has helped to know that in Lubec I’m unlikely to see a western sandpiper at any time of year.  The downside is that if there’s a western sandpiper out here, I won’t figure it out.
  • In a flock of peeps during fall migration the sanderlings really stand out.  They are larger and whiter, feed with their bodies at a different angle than the others, and are – unbelievably – slower-moving than peeps.
  • Some peeps can be surprisingly aggressive considering they hang out in flocks.  I’ve seen peeps head-butt a sanderling when it didn’t move away fast enough.  Sometimes the smaller bird takes a running start and bashes into the sanderling.  The sanderling reacts slowly, looks up and steps back.  Huh?
  • And finally, peeps really do say “peep.”  

(photo by Bobby Greene)

Pill-will-willet

Travel, Water and Shore


It may be too late in the season to see a willet at the Bay of Fundy but I will try.

Today I’m beginning an intensive three days of watching shorebirds — and I mean watching.  My plan is to follow them no matter what they do:  feeding, walking, flying, flocking, calling.  I won’t have an expert with me but I hope that by the end of three days I’ll be better at identifying them by their general look and behavior — and that’s bound to help.

One such bird that I’ve almost mastered is the willet.  Many’s the time I’ve carefully stalked these plain, long-legged, long-billed birds as they feed at the shore.  I try hard not to spook them while I figure out their field marks. 

I’ve been known to watch them with their wings closed for as much as half an hour.  Then I’m saved when a predator flies over.  The willets open their wings to escape and Wow!  No doubt about them!  Look at that distinctive wing pattern! 

I should learn from this that some birds can only be identified when they fly. 

Theoretically I could learn to recognize willets by their voices but that requires more time than I have this week, and it’s unlikely I’ll ever hear their territorial song in September.  It’s the sound that gave them their name:  “Pill-will-willet.”

(photo by Steve Gosser)

Where the Peregrines Nest

Peregrines, Travel

September 5, 2010:

When we watch peregrine falcons nesting on camera in cities or visit them at bridges we often forget that they nest in wild places.

Here’s a wild place where peregrines nest every year:  Champlain Mountain at Acadia National Park.

Champlain is a 1,058-foot granite mountain with a sheer cliff overlooking Frenchman’s Bay.  The side shown here is the “easy” slope but I can tell you from climbing it that even this side is steep.  It’s a staircase to heaven.

The other side, where the peregrines nest, has a trail too steep for anyone afraid of heights.  (I am!) That trail is called The Precipice and it’s closed during nesting season.

Precipice Trail, Acadia National Park (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Precipice Trail, Acadia National Park (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Cliff nests, though in beautiful settings, are generally not as successful as those on tall buildings.  In the past decade there have been as many as four peregrine nests at Acadia but all four failed one year due to bad weather.

This year, 2010, there were only two nests, one at the Precipice, the other at Beech Cliffs.  Beech fledged four young in June but for weeks it looked like the Precipice nest would fail. The pair picked a likely nest site but abandoned it when they should have been incubating.

The Precipice peregrines remained on territory but continued to puzzle everyone until late June when observers heard a nestling begging.  In July this pair fledged one young female.  And now the trail is open again for climbing.

For photos of Acadia’s peregrines (including two pictures of Ranger Lora Haller, formerly of Pittsburgh), click here.

 

(photo of Champlain Mountain by Moses Martin. photo of Precipice Trail at Acadia National Park from Wikimedia Commons; click on the image to see the original)

On Bubble Pond

Travel, Water and Shore


One of the most memorable bird moments of my life happened on Bubble Pond.

It was 20 years ago at Acadia National Park.  My husband and I had hiked up Cadillac Mountain and were returning on the carriage path when we paused to look at the pond through a gap in the trees.  There, only a few yards away from us, was a female common merganser.  Alone.

I was very excited to see her, but in those days I could not identify ducks without my field guide and it was in the car.  I told my husband, “This could take a while” and rushed back to the car to get it.  He understood and waited near the parking lot, reading a book.

Back at the pond the merganser was still there, dipping her face in the water to watch for fish.  Sometimes she raised her head and looked at me unafraid.  I figured out her name but I didn’t want to leave. 

It was very quiet, only the sound of small waves lapping at the shore.  The sun sparkled on the water.  The merganser swam near me.  Peace. 

(photo by Kippy Spilker from Shutterstock)

Birds before the storm

Travel, Weather & Sky

Last evening before Tropical Storm Earl reached Maine, I checked on what the birds were doing:

  • Surf was high at the outer islands by late afternoon so rafts of common eiders came into the sheltered coves of Mt Desert.  I’ve never seen so many so close.
  • Another ocean bird came in too. By dusk, northern gannets were hunting fish within sight of shore.
  • An hour after sunset the air was calm and almost foggy when I heard large numbers of Swainson’s thrushes migrating in the dark, heading west along the coast.  It seemed to me they were flying toward the bad weather.  I wished them luck.

The wind and rain did not begin until 4:00am.  At dawn the crows & osprey were up and out as usual.  Maybe the birds are better informed than the Weather Channel.

UPDATE, 11:00am: No wind, and now no rain.  Earl was more hype than storm.

Red Sky at Morn, Sailors Forewarn

Travel, Weather & Sky

The sky was red-pink at sunrise this morning.

After five days of absolutely clear, hot weather the clouds are here in advance of Hurricane Earl.  By the time Earl gets here he’ll be downgraded to a tropical storm.  The wind out there in the Gulf of Maine will be 50-65 knots (57-74 mph) with waves 18-28 feet.

Sailors forewarn.

(p.s.  Here on land it will rain from midnight Fri to noon Sat with wind gusting to 50 mph.  Not bad.)