When ruddy turnstones arrive on the U.S. coast in August, they’re still decked out in their calico colors: black, white and rusty red.
Though all of them are born in the Arctic, ruddy turnstones spend only three months up there. The adults arrive on the breeding grounds in late May or early June and lay eggs by mid-June. The eggs hatch by mid July. The young fledge by early August. As soon as the young are independent their mothers, then their fathers, leave for the south. By mid-August most of the adults have left. The young follow soon.
This schedule means that the first ruddy turnstones we see in August are probably adult females. I saw some early turnstones, probably female, at Cape Cod on August 2nd. Chuck Tague saw his first in Florida around August 22.
Perhaps they’re in a hurry to go south. I haven’t seen any on the coast of Maine this week.
When I’m at Acadia National Park, as I am right now, I make sure to visit to the southwestern edge of Mount Desert Island where migrating song and shorebirds stop before launching across Blue Hill Bay. This lighthouse marks the southern tip.
The Bass Harbor Head Light has warned sailors of the rocky entrance to Bass Harbor since 1858. It was automated in 1974 so there’s no access inside, just a pretty walk down to the shore where the view of the lighthouse dominates the sky.
But don’t take that walk in the fog. The path is rocky and steep.
Last April I wrote about the Best Birds on my trip to Nevada. Now I’m back from Florida and happy to report many Best Birds there too.
Most beautiful: Painted buntings at Merritt Island Visitor Center. Last Sunday it was very cold and windy so three male painted buntings stayed close to the feeders. Their blue, red and green colors (shown above) glowed in the nearby bushes.
Best raptor was a peregrine falcon at Daytona Beach Shores who hazed the gulls loafing on the sand, then flew to the tallest building to wait and watch for another opportunity. By focusing on the peregrine I missed seeing the jaegers. Oh well.
Most amazing flock: The 30+ American white pelicans who herded fish at Merritt Island. They swam in tight formation stirring the water with their feet, drove the fish ahead of them, and gulped them up. Overhead a flock of gulls kited in the wind, hoping for an easy catch. From a distance the gulls looked like flags waving above a grandstand.
Crowd Pleaser: Without a doubt the vermilion flycatcher at Orlando Wetlands Park was a crowd pleaser. It was a life bird for me in Nevada last year but this time I had a much better look at it. What a cooperative bird! Like all flycatchers he perched on a branch, made forays to catch bugs, and often returned to the same branch. Everyone on the Halifax River Audubon outing got good looks at him.
Thanks to Chuck and Joan Tague for showing me so many wonderful birds!
I come from a place where I can identify most of the trees, but so few are evergreen that I’m overwhelmed by the number and variety of conifers in Maine.
As I walk in Acadia National Park I try to identify what I see. I usually can’t see an entire tree (they’re tall!) so I focus on the needles, twigs, and cones to figure them out: pines, spruces, firs and hemlocks.
Pines: If the needles are in bundles attached to the branches, then it’s a pine.
White pines are unique because they have 5 needles per bundle, shown above. It’s easy to remember “5” because the word “white” has five letters. Pitch pines have three needles per bundle. Red pines have two. Unfortunately their names don’t help to memorize them.
Spruces: If the needles are sharp, four-sided (square or rhomboid) and grow all around the twig it’s a spruce, shown above. Maine has black, white and red spruces but I’ve not made the effort to tell them apart yet.
Firs: Firs have flat needles, green on top and white-striped below. The needles appear to grow in rows so the twigs sometimes look flat. Hemlocks share these characteristics but their twigs droop at the tips while balsam twigs are stiff and stand straight out. If the balsams had cones I could identify them easily because the cones stand erect on top of the branches. I don’t see fir cones in September because they disintegrate when they mature at the end of the summer.
Hemlocks: Hemlocks also have flat needles with two white stripes on the underside. The needles grow in only two rows on opposite sides of the twig. The twig is flat and flexible and droops at the tip. Hemlocks have tiny cones that hang below the branches. Of all these conifers I know hemlocks best because they’re native to Pennsylvania.
As hard as I look I still get confused, first by spruces, then by firs.
I’ve got a lot to learn in this coniferous state.
(photo from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the photo to see the original)
On my last day in Nevada, I encountered this critter slithering across the trail while I walked the dikes at Henderson Bird Preserve. He was brown and gold and five feet long!
From a distance he didn’t look like a rattlesnake, but I carefully examined his head and tail. (Binoculars are so useful!) No rattles, no diamond-shaped head. I felt fairly sure he wasn’t venomous so I got a little closer than this to take his picture.
Later I showed my cellphone photo to a Bird Preserve volunteer who told me he’s a gopher snake. The snake wouldn’t hurt me as long as I didn’t mess with him.
Fifteen years ago I learned about Best Bird from Chuck Tague when I took his Spring Warblers class at Presque Isle State Park.
As the class wrapped up two intensive days of birding Chuck asked each of us, “What was your best bird?” Mine was a least bittern, a life bird(*) who flushed from the reeds when I stepped alone to the edge of the marsh.
Best Bird is now a tradition with me. At the end of every outing I think back on the birds I’ve seen and their behavior. Who was most beautiful? Who did the most interesting thing? Which bird took my breath away? I enjoy thinking back on the birds that made the outing worthwhile.
My trip to Nevada was so full birds that it’s hard to pick the best. I saw 127 species, nine life birds and thousands of individuals. Rather than pick a single Best Bird, here are some of the many “bests” of my trip:
On my first day, in my first hour of birding I saw a peregrine falcon hunting the ducks at Henderson Bird Preserve.
There were two beautiful “gray ghost” northern harriers at Duck Creek Wetlands last Saturday. I was glad to be watching them in 75 degree weather on the east side of the valley. Through my binoculars I could see it snowing in the west.
At Corn Creek I saw a Swainson’s hawk (another life bird) when a raven hassled it until it flew away.
Most unusual was a group of great blue herons and great egrets roosting on an unfinished roof near Floyd Lamb Park. The home’s roof was tar papered and stacked with ceramic tiles, waiting for the roofers to begin. The herons and egrets perched among the tiles. I would never have seen them but one of the herons perched on the crest and I saw his silhouette.
On Sunday at Corn Creek there were phainopeplas perched on every available high spot. They like the place because there is so much desert mistletoe there.
Thanks to a helpful local birder, I saw a vermilion flycatcher for the first time in my life. It was at Corn Creek, a beautiful male bird like the one pictured above. There was even a Pittsburgh connection: the birder who showed me the vermilion flycatcher grew up in McKees Rocks.
Amazingly, I saw more ravens than crows. Crows are uncommon in the desert.
(photo from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the photo to see the original)
(*) A life bird is a species seen for the first time in my life.
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)
(Male spruce grouse photo by Jim Honeth; female spruce grouse from Wikimedia Commons; click on the image to see the original)
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.”
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.
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.