2007 Birdathon Team Reports
Thanks to all members and friends who helped
make this fundraising event a huge success!
Donations are still coming
in but it looks like our 3 competitive teams and one non-competitive
team raised over $4800!
Twenty-five percent of the
proceeds goes towards Maine Audubon’s nature programs and the
rest goes toward next year’s Hog Island scholarships, as well
as providing a number of educational nature programs for our local schools.
The Lame Ducks
by Leslie Clapp
Our team, (Chip Moseley,
Sal Rooney, Ann Brayton and I) began our 20-hour adventure at 2:00 a.m.
on Sunday, May 27.
We started in Brooklin listening
for owls and got “skunked” . . . we didn’t even hear
one hoot!
It wasn’t until 3:45
that we heard our first bird, American Woodcock. From then on it was
a race against time!
We always try to be at a productive
birding spot for sunrise (a dawn chorus produces the most songs of the
day). That place was Gold Stream Marsh in Surry and we tallied 37 species
in that one area--Wood Thrush, Marsh Wren and Wilson’s Warbler
being three highlights of the entire day.
From there, it was on to Orland
for nine species, and then Ellsworth to get Rock Pigeon and English
Sparrow (remember, every species counts!)
Coming back though Surry we
had an incredible close-up view of a Bald Eagle waiting to snatch a
fish by the town landing.
At 9:00 a.m. we were in Blue
Hill and ticked off Eastern Bluebird, Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted
Nuthatch and Broad-winged Hawk, all sitting on nests.
By noon we had 97 species
and were just thrilled, but knew that the next 10 hours were going to
be lean times. After covering Sedgwick and Brooksville, we raced to
Brooklin to catch several species of shorebirds being pushed in by the
coming tide. Luckily, we got the only Baltimore Oriole of the day at
a second stop at my yard in Blue Hill.
As the day wore on, we finally
made it to Penobscot for Northern Rough-winged Swallow, and Castine
for our “trusty” Sora before finishing out the day at Great
Pond Mountain Wildlands in Orland where Common Nighthawks performed
their wonderful display flights and finally, a Saw-whet Owl hooted.
We had a fantastic day in
the field doing what we all LOVE to do. This was our best bird-a-thon
in the five years we have been a team (even though we missed House Finch,
Brown Creeper, Northern Flicker and Barred Owl!) After covering 250
miles, all within our local area, we ended the day with 115 species.
Of course, perfect weather was a bonus! We sincerely thank those of
you who helped our team raise over $3,066!
The
Acadian Flycatchers
by Rich MacDonald
The Acadian Flycatchers (consisting
of Ed Hawkes, Chuck Whitney, Chad Probst, and me) spent Thursday, May
31st doing the Maine bird-a-thon. We focused our efforts on Mount
Desert Island, with a five-hour pelagic trip thrown in for good measure.
By the end of the day, we tallied 92 species.
Starting at 3:00 a.m. at my
home in Town Hill, we spent nearly two hours at Sieur de Mont Springs.
Waking up so early and seeing the sunrise was certainly a highlight.
Our first species of the day was a Song Sparrow. By 5:15 a.m., we were
up to 32 species…and no longer needed headlamps.
At 6:17 a.m., a small earthquake
rumbled through our feet, making a loud BOOM, as we stood on the Park
Loop Road near Bear Brook.
A Red-throated Loon with,
you guessed it, a red throat observed at Sand Beach was unexpected.
An open stand of spruce trees
on Great Head had LOTS of bark flaked off, clearly the work of a Black-backed
Woodpecker...we even heard the soft tapping so characteristic of Black-backs.
Ed and I circled around the stand in an attempt to flank the bird, only
to flush a Pileated. While I am convinced that there was a Black-backed
somewhere in that stand, we couldn’t claim it.
On the whale-watch, it was
amazing to see hundreds of alcids at Petit Manan Island. It is hard
to believe that as recently as 20 years ago, it would have been all
gulls! I have been on dozens of whale-watches, but seeing hundreds of
Black Guillemots 20 miles from shore was something I had never before
witnessed. Huge rafts of them were everywhere. If only we could have
traded in 100 guillemots for a shearwater.
In Somesville, we saw an Osprey
flying along a tree-shrouded stream, acting for all the world like
a Northern Goshawk. When it plunged into the narrow, shallow rivulet
and pulled up a fish, there was no confusing the species.
As the day wound down, we
were frantically scrambling for species. Finally, at 7:08 p.m., we bagged
our last species of the day: a Greater Yellowlegs.
The
Johnathan Kingfishers
by Leda Beth Gray
This year the Jonathan Kingfishers (Tom Bjorkman, Dave Drake, Leda Beth
Gray and David Stearns) decided to do our Birdathon just in the town
of Brooksville.
The idea was that, just as
the Reverend Jonathan Fisher went around to different towns around the
region, we would hold our Birdathon in a different area each year. We
counted in Blue Hill last year, staying inside the town limits the whole
time and we found 87 different species of birds. Amazingly, this year
in Brooksville we tallied the same number of species!
I was surprised and elated,
because as I was scouting the town for birds before our event I noticed
that there were a number of birds that we had in Blue Hill that I didn’t
find in Brooksville, such as cardinals, titmice, Chimney Swifts, and
House Finches—they may be there but just harder to find. I honestly
thought we wouldn’t find as many species. But as it turned out,
we found other species to take their places, such as Northern Waterthrush,
Wilson’s Warbler, Indigo Bunting, Bobolinks, and Red Crossbills,
all exciting highlights for us.
The Bobolinks were a real
favorite for me. In general, that species is in decline and I am very
happy that we have good habitat for at least several of them over in
western Brooksville. They are very striking birds, and have a wonderful,
complex song.
The Red Crossbills were another
favorite, mostly because we got good looks at them for once. Usually
we just hear them in the tops of trees and often don’t manage
a good look before they’re off to the next feeding area. These
guys sat in a snag at Fresh Pond, on broken-off branches close to the
trunk, looking like colorful ornaments up and down both sides of the
tree.
Besides having a great day
seeing lots of wonderful birds, we were happy to be raising money for
Downeast Audubon education programs for local classes including live
animal presentations by Birdsacre and Chewonki Foundation, National
Audubon curricula, and the purchase of binoculars and field guides for
school classes to use on field trips.
The Jonathan Kingfishers raised
over $1500 for these programs with a quarter of it going to Maine Audubon
Society. We are deeply grateful to the generous local businesses and
individuals that supported us this year!
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