Turners Falls Ducks

mallard directing the band!

 The almost tame mallards at Unity Park were the only birds close enough for some great shots. At Barton's Cove, where a greater variety of ducks had congregated, viewing was less than desirable.

2 male canvasbacks and ring-necked ducks

Interestingly, one source says the canvasback's name comes from the fact that the drake's sides, back, and belly are white with a fine pattern resembling the weave of canvas.

redhead

Even at a distance, the redhead and canvasback are easily distinguishable. The canvasback has a very white back, while the redhead is grey. Their profiles are different also, the redhead has a very "duck-like" bill when compared to the canvasback's sloping forehead that gives him a wedge-shaped look.

Gulls and Waterfowl

ring-billed gulls

Gerry was visiting a friend in Fairhaven, Massachusetts and brought his camera along. The gulls and brant pictures were taken in Fairhaven and the mute swan pictures were at Betty's Neck in Lakeville.

great black-backed gull

great black-backed gull in flight

herring gull

ring-billed gull - love the shadows!

brant

mute swans

Non-native mute swans are considered an invasive species. One of the world's most aggressive species, especially while nesting and raising their young, mute swans drive out native waterfowl and other wetland  wildlife. Pretty to look at but..........

hooded merganser and mute swan

Keeping an eye on the "competition"!

Portland Maine Coast - Part 2

the rocky coast of Maine!

Ron pointing something out!

 With the rolling waves along the coast, it wasn't hard to see a bird and then lose it behind a wave. Then it's a matter of pointing to something and saying "see that blue buoy, it's right of that" or "left of that raft of eiders" or "just beyond that furthest rock". A good way to hone your "where's that bird" skills!

Mill Creek, South Portland is a great place to find gulls! In this picture, there are Herring, Ring-billed, Glaucous, Iceland (Kumlien's) and Great Black-backed gulls.

The Iceland Gull or Kumlien's (American race) is one of the "white-winged" gulls we see in the east. It's bigger than a ring-billed gull but smaller than a herring gull and is said to have a "baby" face. 

Our other white-winged gull is the Glaucous Gull. It's too bad this one was snoozing, it would have been nice to show the bill compared to the Kumlien's. Glaucous are as big as the largest Herring gulls and rather "stern" looking.

common loon

We stopped at Bug Light in South Portland and found a few winter plumage Common Loons. Even though you think of loons as being on a golden pond, in winter they're common along the coast.

A red-breasted merganser was finding food! Is he having a "bad hair" day? No, they always look this way, it's a good field mark!

Another Rare Bird and the Coast of Maine - Part 1

Spotted Towhee

 On our way to Portland, Maine to visit friends, we stopped in Rye, New Hampshire to snag a rare bird. Somehow this spotted towhee veered right instead of left and ended up on the east coast. Related to our Eastern Towhee (they were previously considered one species), this bird is usually found west of the Mississippi.

In Rye since at least the end of January, he was in the thicket scraping the ground for seeds in typical towhee fashion on the corner of Rte 1A and Central Road.

purple sandpipers

 On to Portland and out birding with our friends Ron and Chuck. A stop at Kettle Cove in Cape Elizabeth gave us our first-of-the-year views of purple sandpipers. These hardy shorebirds winter along the rocky coast and usually found on the rocks.

harlequin ducks

 Another bird found along the rocky coast of Maine, is the harlequin duck. Harlequins have smooth, densely packed feathers that trap a lot of air, vital for insulating such small bodies against the chilly waters. It also makes them exceptionally buoyant, they bounce up to the surface like corks after dives.

Harlequin ducks riding the waves at Dyer Point.

long-tailed duck

 

 

According to online sources, unlike other waterfowl, the Long-tailed Duck wears its "breeding" plumage only in the winter. It gets its "nonbreeding" or Basic Plumage in the spring and wears it for the breeding season.

Gerry got a nice shot of the long tail feathers as the duck dove.

While Ron and I were scoping the waters, Gerry got a shot of this Great Cormorant flying by.

One female Black Scoter swimming among the Common Eiders. We had all 3 species of scoter: black, white-winged and surf, along with black guillemots, horned grebes, red-breasted mergansers and common goldeneyes. Part 2 of our bird sightings tomorrow!!

A Rare Owl and Some Waterfowl on the Lake

It's been a very cold and snowy winter in Vermont! We've been wanting to go to Lake Champlain to see waterfowl. We usually head to the southern end but the lake's been freezing further and further north. One of the areas still open is at the Charlotte Ferry landing, where the hourly runs of the ferry have provided open water for thousands of ducks! 

Mt Mansfield

Along with friends Martha and Don, we drove up interstate 89 to Waterbury Center first, to hopefully see the Northern Hawk-Owl that's been hanging around since December. Gerry and I had tried once before and missed, so here's attempt #2 - we dipped again! (birder lingo for failed attempt)

Camel's Hump

So onward to the lake and the Charlotte ferry landing! A gorgeous day and the scenery is spectacular!!

Greater Scaup and female Common Goldeneyes

The open water near the ferry landing was much less than it had been 3 days earlier, so there were fewer ducks, but we had a nice variety. Lots of common goldeneye, greater and lesser scaup, a pair of Barrow's goldeneye, a few long-tailed ducks, ring-necked, mallard, common merganser and black ducks.

female greater scaup and common goldeneye

The lighting was pretty harsh so Gerry didn't get a lot of good pictures. We decided to go back home the way we came and make another attempt for the hawk-owl.

northern hawk-owl

The third time was the charm! Northern hawk-owl sitting on a snag.

The hawk-owl generally stays within it's breeding range which is Canada and Alaska, so it's a rare treat to find one in the lower 48.

Winter Meals

Feeders full of black-oil sunflower seeds and squares of suet are attracting lots of birds this winter. But these robins rather dine on fruit and berries.

     Purple finches love our feeding stations and also enjoy the seeds of staghorn sumac.

We saw huge flocks of robin at Herrick's Cove in Bellows Falls on one sunny and not so cold day, stripping the crabapple trees of all the berries.

Flocks of cedar waxwings seem to be everywhere too.

No seeds or berries for raptors! They prefer their small, feathered relatives. This sharp-shinned hawk managed to grab an unsuspecting robin. 

She took her time eating then flew off with the carcass.

All that remains are some feathers and blood,

which makes for an interesting investigation by a curious westie named Merry!

Red-headed Woodpecker, a Rare Visitor!

 immature red-headed woodpecker

A "near threatened" species, red-headed woodpeckers, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey, have declined on average by 2.7 percent per year from 1966–2010, suggesting a cumulative drop of 70 percent over the whole period. 

In Vermont, they were more common in the Lake Champlain Valley than where we live in the lower CT River area. Reported sightings are fewer and fewer every year.

Here's a map showing their range and sightings.

eBird Range Map

Whenever a report of a red-headed woodpecker surfaces around here, we usually discover it's a red-bellied woodpecker. They do have a red head, so it's easy to see how one would call it red-headed.

red-bellied woodpecker

red-headed woodpecker (photo credit: Dave Therrien)

But when you compare the two, you can see how different they are. The adult red-headed has a totally red head and neck, solid white belly, black tail and black wings with large white patches.  In the Alstead immature red-headed woodpecker, you can see the red feathers starting to molt in the head area and you can see the bold white patches on the wings. One nickname is the "flying checkerboard".

The best part of this story is that the home owners are letting people visit their yard to see the bird!! Along with Don Clark, Gerry and I saw it this morning at 8:30. He/she (the only woodpecker where the sexes are indistinguishable) was very skittish, flying around the area, landing in a tree, coming once to the suet feeder and not staying too long. It was pretty cold standing still on an icy driveway while we waited for the red-head to appear, but SO worth it!!