Birding in Maine» Bird Photography Weekly

Juvenile Bald Eagles

John Briggs — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:10:46 +0000

Bald Eagle -- Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Since mid spring, I’ve been watching a successful Bald Eagle nest not much more than a stone’s throw from where we live here on the peninsula south of Bath. The nest is some 40 feet off the ground and it’s impossible to see inside. I knew there were chicks in the nest, because the adults brought food on a regular basis, and I could hear the chicks calling when the adults were not around.

While taking a break from my studies this weekend, I finally got to see the young, pre-flight Bald Eagles. Just before sunrise Saturday morning, I set up my tripod and camera and waited. I could see wings flapping in the nest, and I heard a few calls, but nothing worth photographing. Finally, after an hour or so wait, one of the juvies hopped out of the nest onto a branch. Lovingly named Butchie and his other brother Butchie by Robin Robinson over at The Back Story -- My Controlled Chaos, I expect them to take their first flight any day now. Many thanks Robin, for giving me the heads up on the nest! I can only hope I will be nearby when they take their first flight.

The young Eagles were very cooperative for nearly an hour. I filled a 16gb CF card with many photos and videos of the pair; capturing preening, head and chin scratching, yawning and several wing stretches. While I enjoyed the Eagles, plenty of other birds were on the move. Cedar Waxwings and Red-winged Blackbirds were everywhere, the forest floor seemed alive with Chipping Sparrows, and I caught a brief glimpse of a Black-crowned Night Heron in flight. All and all, it was a great morning to enjoy Mother Nature!

Some of the following images are tall. Tap your f11 key to open your browser to its fullest size before viewing. Simply click a thumbnail for a full-sized view.

Dimension: 560x480 | Video bit rate: 1000Kbps | File Size: 24.6mb
Playback: Click Play Button | Broadband Connection Recommended
Video: Juvenile Bald Eagles | ©2010 John Briggs Photography
Watch in full-sized HD at YouTube by clicking video screen after playback begins.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCmTukjjezA

Happy birding!

Atlantic Puffins at Eastern Egg Rock

John Briggs — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 15:21:30 +0000

The Hardy III - New Harbor, Maine

When it’s was too hot and humid to stand in the blazing sun for activities such as the Bath Heritage Days festivities on Saturday afternoon, we looked for a way to cool off and still be able to enjoy the great outdoors.

Sharon and I booked a trip on the Hardy III out of New Harbor, Maine for a Puffin cruise to Eastern Egg Rock. Eastern Egg Rock is an approximately 7 acre island located in the outer reaches of Muscongus Bay, about 7 miles east of New Harbor. The island is ringed with granite boulders that provide nesting habitat for Atlantic Puffins and Guillemots. It is also the home to nearly 4,000 pairs of nesting Terns, Laughing Gulls and Common Eiders.

The island is owned by the Maine Deptartment of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and is managed by the National Audubon Society. The island is home to the Adopt-A-Puffins program.

Since 2000, breeding birds recorded on the island include Atlantic Puffins, Black Guillemots, Arctic, Common and Roseate Terns, Laughing Gulls, Common Eiders and Leach’s Storm-petrels.

Eastern Egg Rock

Puffins were wiped out in Maine waters during the 1800′s by a combination of hunters, feather collectors and gull predation. Before the restoration, the last nesting Puffin was in 1885. The wonderful conclusion to all of this is that the island is the world’s first restored seabird colony. In 1973, in an effort to restore the Atlantic Puffin population in Maine waters, 1,000 young Puffins from Newfoundland were translocated to Eastern Egg Rock in the hopes that when the birds left the island in late summer, they would return the following spring to nest. Decoys were used to make the island more inviting and in 1981, five pairs of Atlantic Puffins settled on the island to nest. As of 2008, 101 pairs are nesting on the island.

Tern restoration was also implemented and with the help of gull management and decoys, Terns began nesting in 1980. Today, the colony has more than 1,350 pairs. Included in this count are 150 pairs of endangered Roseate Terns, more than half of the Gulf of Maine population.

We departed New Harbor at 4:45 p.m. for the trip out to the island, and it was a choppy ride, but the breezes coming off the cooler Atlantic waters made it worthwhile. Air temperatures on the water were in the upper 60′s, while inland, it was a very warm 83° F. The one-and-a-half hour trip included a half hour ride out to the island, slowly circling the island for half an hour and the half hour return trip. For those interested in the Puffin Cruise, contact Hardy Boat Cruises out of New Harbor, Maine.

Audubon naturalist showing posters of birds nesting on Eastern Egg Rock

Audubon naturalists tell the history of the island and the restoration efforts to bring the seabird colony back into existence. The naturalists are also very good at pointing out sightings of seabirds using the clock system. Over the loud speaker, you hear them say, “Roseate Tern at 11 o’clock!” and so on.

We wished for a little smoother ride, but still captured some great photos. For those who haven’t experienced trying to take photos on a rocking 60′ boat, it’s akin to trying to photograph a bird while jumping on a trampoline! Don’t get me wrong, we enjoyed every minute of the trip, including one particular wave that caused several of us to go sprawling across the upper deck of the boat.

As we circled the island, we recorded Atlantic Puffins, Common, Arctic and Roseate Terns, Black Guillemots, Laughing Gulls and Common Eiders. On the way out, I spotted a whale spouting water from its blow hole approximately 300 yards off the port side of the boat.

All in all, we were happy with the trip. Out of over 450 photos taken, around one hundred were usable. Believe me folks, it’s not easy photographing a football sized Puffin while a boat is rocking and rolling. We will take the cruise in the future, but check on wave heights before we book the trip.

Enjoy the photos! Simply click a thumbnail to view the full-sized view.

Happy birding!

BPW: Birds and Critters

John Briggs — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:22:20 +0000

I had the opportunity this week, between bouts of studying Anatomy and Physiology, to take my camera to the backyard and points close by to photograph some birds and critters. The activity at our feeding stations is high, with adult male and female birds taking suet, grape jelly and seed back to their nests. I am patiently waiting for fledglings to show up at our feeding stations. A noisy House Finch family are the only species to have fledged so far.

I am also watching two Bald Eagle nests and several Osprey nests, hoping to capture some images of the young leaving the nest. Several families of Mallards and Canada Geese have been motoring around our cove with young in tow, but never close enough to get any worthwhile images. I noticed that one particular goose family has 3 less goslings than the week before. Could be the Bald Eagles feeding their young.

Enjoy the photos of the birds and critters that I have submitted for this weeks edition of Bird Photography Weekly. A note on the Red Fox kit: the image was taken through the windshield of my car, thus the strange looking background. The kit was startled when a tractor came down the dirt lane where it was standing on a pile of old lumber. The background looks strange, but I like the image never-the-less.

Some of the following images are tall. Tap your f11 key to open your browser to its fullest size before viewing. Simply click a thumbnail for a full-sized view.

Happy birding!

BPW: Gray Jay

John Briggs — Mon, 31 May 2010 19:09:01 +0000

Did you ever hear of the old saying, “We were so far back in the woods, they had to pipe in sunlight?” That’s about how far we traveled to add another bird to our life list, the Gray Jay. This bird has eluded us for so long and it was almost by chance that we finally got to see one.

Route 3 north of Colebrook, NH is a beautiful area running through the Connecticut Lakes Region to the Quebec border. Boreal forests. bogs and mountains make up the geography. You also pass over the 45th parallel, the half way point between the equator and the north pole. Attentiveness is a must! At any time, around a blind curve or just over the crest of a hill, a one thousand pound moose or a deer may be standing in the middle of the road.

Map is interactive. Hover cursor over markers for details.

We took a dirt logging road just north of the Second Connecticut Lake. After traveling for about one mile, the road came to a “T”. According to our maps and the GPS, the road to the left did not exist. We decided to take the left road. It was a lightly traveled, narrow dirt road with ruts and a washboard surface in places. Along the way, we saw Whitetail Deer, Snowshoe Hares, Porcupines and had a fleeting glimpse of a Black-backed Woodpecker.

On our GPS, the map was blank except for the marker designating our vehicle. It showed no roads or bodies of water, we were in the middle of nowhere. We had plenty of food and water, but we began to think about scenarios of our vehicle breaking down, flat tires or one of us needing medical attention. I checked coverage on my cell phone and there was no signal what-so-ever. We agreed it was a good time to look for a place to turn around. As we looked for a place to turn around, we noticed that the Canadian border was less than 1/2 a mile away. More than likely, there was no border station where we were, and even if there were, neither of us had our passports with us.

We came to a large boreal meadow bordering a bog. It was also a good place to turn around. Before we did, we paused for a while and listened. We heard, but could not see, Boreal Chickadees and several Yellow-rumped Warblers. A Spruce Grouse hurried across the road about 50 yards from where we stood. It was then that Sharon directed my attention to a broken off birch tree. Perched on the broken tree was a Gray Jay!

The following is an audio clip of a Gray Jay’s song and call. Click the play button.
Download audio file (gray-jay-call.mp3)

Gray Jay’s are a very curious bird. It wasn’t long before another one showed up. One of them nearly landed on my 400mm lens! I moved very little and the Jay’s landed near my feet, on a bush beside me and flew so near to me that I could have reached out and touched them. It wasn’t long until they flew off and were out of sight. It was an experience that I won’t forget!

Some of the following photos are tall. Tap your f11 key to open your browser to its fullest size before viewing. Clicking a thumbnail will open a shadowbox with a full-size view. All photos taken with a Canon 7D camera and Canon 100-400mm f/4 L IS lens.

Happy birding!

BPW: Gray Catbird

John Briggs — Mon, 17 May 2010 15:02:20 +0000

The Gray Catbird is named for its cat-like mew call. Like the Northern Mockingbird, the Gray Catbird is regarded as a mimic. Like many members of the Mimidae, it also mimics the songs of other birds, as well as those of the tree frog, and even mechanical sounds. Because of its well-developed songbird syrinx (the vocal organ of birds), it is able to make two sounds at the same time. The Gray Catbird’s song is easily distinguished from that of the Northern Mockingbird or Brown Thrasher because the Mockingbird repeats its phrases or 3 to 4 times, the Thrasher usually twice, but the Catbird sings most phrases only once. The Catbird’s song is usually described as more raspy and less musical than that of a Mockingbird.

The following is an audio clip of a Gray Catbird’s song and call. Click the play button.
Download audio file (catbird.mp3)

Just over half of the Gray Catbird’s diet consists of insects, such as beetles, caterpillars, cicadas, crickets, grasshoppers, moths, ants, aphids and spiders. The rest of the diet consists of fruit such as wild berries, especially blackberries, berries of sweet gum, grapes and seeds of grasses. We attract this bird to our feeders by offering grape jelly, orange halves and a sprig of grapes fastened to a perch with a clothes pin. Northern Mockingbirds and Orioles will also eat these offerings.

Gray Catbird -- Dumetella carolinensis

Click a thumbnail to view photo full sized. Once a photo is open in the shadowbox, navigation arrows are at the bottom to go to the next photo. All photos taken with a Canon 7D camera and Canon 100-400mm f/4 L IS lens.

To end this post, I have included a short video clip of our backyard resident Gray Catbird sitting in a blueberry bush near the cove.

Click the play button to begin the video. To watch in HD, click 360p on the player to select HD quality. Video taken with a Canon 7D camera.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiSeWbOT12s

Happy birding!