The first day of camp began very early: 5:45 AM! We woke up this early because we had an early bird walk to attend. Birds tend to be more active at dawn and at dusk, because they forage and sing at these times. So to hear and find any birds, we had to get up when they did. I went in the intermediate group, as I do consider myself to be a fairly good and knowledgable birder, but not quite good enough to call myself an expert. Anyways, along our short walk we found several birds: Golden-Crowned Kinglets, Northern Flickers, American Crows, Blue Jays, Red-Breasted Nuthatches, and some Yellow-Rumped Warblers. After the hike, we had breakfast, followed by an ornithology class with a Zoology teacher from Canisius College, Sarah Morris. Sarah was a very sweet and very active teacher, meaning she knew her stuff, loved the stuff she taught, and taught in a fun and interactive way. She managed to teach a semester's-worth of ornithology in just 2 hours, very impressive!
After the ornithology class, it was time to get on the island's boat (the Snowgoose III), and take a tour of the island's vicinity. This was exciting because the boat was a big part of the camp, and this was the first time we used it to actually do some birding. Once we started moving, we started seeing birds like Common Eiders, Double-Crested Cormorants, and Black Guillemots.
 |
| Common Eiders and Double-Crested Cormorant drying its wings. (click picture for better view) |
The ubiquitous Laughing Gulls soared over us and let out their calls that sound like a person laughing with a very high-pitched voice. Then, after 10 minutes, we reached the side of Hog Island that is not visible to us from the camp site, so we kept our eyes open for different birds. And lo and behold, we found ourselves a different bird: an adult Bald Eagle guarding its 6-foot deep nest up on top of a spruce tree. This majestic and symbolic bird captivated everybody on the boat, including the counselors and instructors of the camp.
 |
| Bald Eagle standing guard.
The next new bird of the trip was a gorgeous Common Loon in full breeding plumage paddling on the water very slowly and diving underwater every five minutes. This was the best view I've ever gotten of a Common Loon with its dichromatic plumage. The usual view of this bird that I have in San Francisco is when it's in its non-breeding plumage, where it's overall gray and drab (not as stunning).
|
 |
| Common Loon in breeding plumage. |
After the loon, we found a rather unusual bird for Muscongus Bay this time of year. Twenty feet from the boat was a Surf Scoter couple. This diving duck is found off both coasts of the United States and Canada during winter, and breeds during the summer in the lakes of Northern Canada. So this was an unusual sighting for this time of the year.
On some little islands of rock in the middle of the bay were lazy and immobile Harbor Seals. Myriad Herring Gulls and cormorants covered the adjacent little islands.
 |
| Harbor Seals on the sand banks. |
 |
| Herring Gulls and Double-Crested Cormorants nearby. |
Finally, our boat tour ended after 2 hours. Fortunately for us, nobody got seasick from the rocking and swaying of the boat. Then again, we were fairly close to shore and there was hardly any current.
 |
| Hog Island |
We then had lunch, followed by the rest of the ornithology class with Sarah Morris. After the class, we took a short hike in the forest and focused on the local biodiversity and avifauna. This lasted about an hour and a half. Unfortunately, no birds of interest were found. We finally had dinner, followed by the daily evening presentation. That night's presenetation was done by Tom Johnson, an old camper of the Coastal Maine Bird Studies for Teens. As he frequently goes on seabird research stints, he is quite familiar with the seabirds of the Atlantic. So his lecture was about the different birds that spend a certain time of the year in the North Atlantic. Finally, it was time to go to bed, so that a new day of birding and excitement could begin.
On the second day of camp, we didn't wake up as early, only 6:30 AM. The plan for that day was to go birding on the mainland. This was where I knew I'd get most of my lifers. Our first stop was this remote road lined with a deciduous forest where a cacophony of bird calls and a melody of bird songs overpowered the entire atmosphere. Thanks to my good friend Logan Kahle, I was able to identify a lot of the birds by call, something that I need to improve on. But hearing the birds didn't suffice, I wanted to actually see the birds, with my eyes. I realized that this was surprisingly difficult in that kind of habitat. The first birds we were able to see were Black-Capped Chickadees, they appeared to be everywhere we looked. After walking several yards without seeing any birds, our conselor Doug Wentzel decided we should use playback to lure a bird out of its hideout. The first bird we attempted to attract was the beautiful Canada Warbler. This wood-warbler that winters in South America has a gray back and necklace around its neck. It has a yellow throat, underbelly and eye-ring; a truly ravishing bird. After the first playback, we didn't receive any response. Then after the second, a bird deep in the forest reciprocated the song played from the iPod. Then, a closer one responded. Finally, a single bird popped out the thickets of leaves and perched on a branch for a brief moment. It then began to cavort about incessantly, making it near impossible to look at through the binoculars. Then, a second one popped out and did the same. This was exciting because it was my first lifer of the day! Then, our group walked a little further, when suddenly we heard a ghostly call coming from above us. We looked up to discover a Common Loon flying above us. This was interesting because we were at an intersection called Loon Way. How serendipitous! The next bird we lured with playback was a Northern Waterthrush. This bird was easy to attract as it hopped onto a branch in plain view as soon as the song began. This bird however wasn't a lifer for me, earlier this year I found a vagrant at Lake Merced that had been sighted several times before. This was still a treat for me though because it was the first time I saw this wood-warbler in its regular range. As we continued to walk down, we saw other birds such as Brown Creepers and Black-and-White Warblers. The other lifers I got on this road were two Eastern Phoebes and two Red-Eyed Vireos, something like Noah's Ark.
Our next stop on the mainland was by far the best stop. It was this nature preserve called the Damarriscotta River Association. It has two main habitats: fields and marshland. Immediately as I stepped out of the car, I saw dozens of Tree Swallows flying over us, consuming flies they were able to snatch. We headed down to the main view and set up our scopes.
 |
| Damarriscotta River Association |
The first birds we saw were flocks of Bobolinks that landed in the field in front of us. These icterids are related to blackbirds, orioles and grackles. The males have black wings, tail, and face. They have a white rump and back. But the unique part of this bird is its bright yellow nape, which makes it a very beautiful bird to watch. Other birds we saw are American Goldfinches, Yellow Warblers, my lifer Chimney Swift, Ospreys, Turkey Vultures, Canada Geese, Mallards, and a single Pied-Billed Grebe in the middle of the marsh. We also heard a single Sora. As we continued, we got better views of the Bobolinks and Yellow Warblers. Then, I noticed an orange-breasted bird with a black head and back on top of a bush. I called everyone over because this was our first Baltimore Oriole of the trip, and the first one of my life. This was a target bird of this trip for me, so I was very excited. As we approached the reeds, we noticed bevies of Red-Winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles, other icterids related to the Bobolink. After 45 minutes, we headed back up to where we started, to have lunch. Once I finished my wrap, I decided to bird the vicinity of the area where we ate. A cool sight was watching the Tree Swallows enter and leave their nest boxes.
 |
| Tree Swallow peeking out of its nest box. |
Then, I found this blue bird perched on a branch with a rufous belly and throat. Evidently, its overall color gives its name away. I was looking at a male Eastern Bluebird. It is different from the Western Bluebird in that its rufous belly extends to its throat, whereas the Western only has rufous on its belly, and has blue on its throat and chest. This was a very cool find, but not as cool as finding two of its fledglings nearby flying around playfully.
Once we left the Damarriscotta River Association (or DRA), we headed towards Clarry Hill, a blueberry barren. A blueberry barren is a barren space of, more or less, flat land where blueberries are grown (hence its obvious name).
 |
| Clarry Hill |
The target bird for this stop was the Upland Sanpiper, a scolopacid that resides in open fields and often perches atop big rocks. Unfortunately, we left unsuccessful. However, we did find the two other target birds: Savannah Sparrow, and Vesper Sparrow (which was a lifer for me). We also did find the only Common Raven of the trip. These corvids weren't as common as they are here in the Bay.
We arrived back at Hog Island around 5:30 PM, and had dinner at 6:00 PM. That night's evening presentation was called "The Magic of Bird Song" by Donald Kroodsma. For those of you who don't know, Don is a well known ornithologist that specifies in bird calls and songs. He frequently records songs and studies their sonograms. In this presentation, he talked about sonograms and how the fluctuations represent the song's variation. This was one of the most interesting presentations of the entire trip. Once it was over, we went to bed exhausted, but excited for the next day of adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment