Cape Ann Winter Birding Weekend

Last weekend, Sharon and I attended the Cape Ann Winter Birding Weekend on Cape Ann, Massachusetts. The event, sponsored by the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce, was headquartered at the Elk’s at Bass Rocks in Gloucester.

Birders from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and as far away as New York attended the event. Buses departed at 8:00 a.m. sharp for guided birding tours to Halibut Point State Park, Niles Pond, Andrews Point, Good Harbor Beach, Magnolia Beach, Eastern Point and other locations on the cape.

Sharon and I did our birding by car. I am nursing a back injury and felt I would be uncomfortable bouncing around in a school bus. So in between events, we drove around the cape. Our main objective was the Ivory Gull that was widely reported and photographed the week before the event. Sorry to say that we did not find it, nor apparently did anyone else that day.

Female American Wigeon

We found a beautiful female American Wigeon near Halibut Point State Park. She was feeding with approx. 20 Mallards and a few American Black Ducks. At the same time, a Turkey Vulture soared overhead. The Vulture was very light on the under-wings, lighter than I have ever seen with this species.

Nearly every protected cove we came to, we found Canada Geese sleeping. On several occasions, we did not see a “sentry”, the goose that keeps watch for danger while the others sleep. Good thing for the geese that the Bald Eagle we saw was on Ten Pound Island, several miles from the cove.

Saturday evening was the birders dinner. Approximately 50 birding enthusiasts attended the meal. Great conversation included finds of the day. One couple recorded a Dovkie, and others recorded a King Eider.

Barn Owl

 Keynote speaker Norman Smith, Director of Mass Audubon’s Blue Hills Trailside Museum, gave a slide presentation titled “From Snowy Owls to Saw-whet Owls”.

His guest was a beautiful Barn Owl. The Barn Owl is one of the most widely distributed birds in the world, found on all continents except Antarctica, and on many oceanic islands as well. It has been introduced by people to some of the few places it did not already occur, namely Hawaii, the Seychelles Islands, and Lord Howe Island.

Barn owls are protected under the U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty Act and under CITES Appendix II. They are not federally threatened or endangered in the United States, but they are protected in some individual U.S. states–including Michigan, where they are considered endangered.

After the presentation, door prizes were awarded. Sharon and I won a shopping bag full of bird feeding supplies from Wild Birds Unlimited. Sharon also won a 55% off gift certificate from Alpen Optics.

All in all, a fun and enlightening time for all.

Here is a list of species we recorded last Saturday morning on Cape Ann.

Location: Cape Ann, Massachusetts
Notes: Clear skies and light winds, temps from 22 F. to 30 F.
Birded from Gloucester Harbor to Rockport to Halibut Point State Park to Annisquam.
Number of species: 48

Canada Goose 175
Mute Swan 2
American Wigeon 6
American Black Duck 33
Mallard 130
Green-winged Teal (American) 4
Common Eider 90
Surf Scoter 4
White-winged Scoter 11
Long-tailed Duck 16
Bufflehead 22
Common Goldeneye 9
Hooded Merganser 2
Common Merganser 5
Red-breasted Merganser 21
Wild Turkey 2
Red-throated Loon 1
Common Loon 10
Red-necked Grebe 1
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Great Cormorant 10
Turkey Vulture 1
Bald Eagle 1
Northern Harrier 1
Red-tailed Hawk 4
Purple Sandpiper 60
Black Guillemot 2
Rock Pigeon 75
Mourning Dove 16
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 2
Blue Jay 11
American Crow 65
Fish Crow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 13
Tufted Titmouse 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 6
American Robin 18
Northern Mockingbird 1
Song Sparrow 4
Dark-eyed Junco 15
Northern Cardinal 6
House Finch 3
White-winged Crossbill 2
Pine Siskin 8
American Goldfinch 16
House Sparrow 44

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 http://ebird.org

I leave you with photos taken of some of the birds we saw on Cape Ann. Click photos for a larger view.

Camera: Canon 40D
Lens: Canon 100-400mm IS L
Handheld with BushHawk

Norman Smith with his Barn Owl

A raft of Common Eiders

Female Mallard

Female American Wigeon

Mute Swan

Happy birding!

©2010 Birding in Maine. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. Birding Fox Island

Tufted Titmouse

 The ninth in a series of occasional rundowns of what’s happening in the world of birds, birding and bird blogging.

If you have a story that you would like to submit for inclusion, please contact John Briggs for consideration.

Ottawa boy’s invisible invention warns birds about deadly windows| Eighth grader Charlie Sobcov wants to stop birds from dying in collisions with windows, but he doesn’t want to ruin anybody’s view. For his latest school science fair project he has invented painted, plastic decals that can be placed — discreetly — right in the middle of a window pane. “This paint is a colour that birds can see but humans can’t,” he said Wednesday on CBC Radio’s All in a Day. “It’s like putting a big stop sign in the middle of the window.”

New species of babbler bird discovered in China |  A new species of the fist-sized babbler bird has been found in a network of underground caves in southwestern China, raising the prospect the country could become a hot spot for other discoveries, a conservation group said Thursday.

Woodpeckers in Rossmoor may soon end up in sharpshooter’s cross hairs| Woody Woodpecker was annoying, but real woodpeckers are incredible birds with complex social systems and an affinity for drilling holes in trees, in which they store food. So why would anyone want to kill them? In the upscale Bay Area retirement community of Rossmoor, it’s because acorn woodpeckers have been mistaking wooden homes, built within the birds’ natural habitat, as trees.

Cape Ann Birding Weekend

Cape Ann Chamber organizes weekend devoted to bird watching | In order to create an organized opportunity for bird lovers of all levels to further their birding knowledge, the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce and Mass Audubon have collaborated in planning the first Cape Ann Winter Birding Weekend from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1. The price of the weekend is $10 per adult and $50 per person at the Birders’ Dinner. Event homepage

Snowy Owls Safely Removed From Logan Airport | This winter, Snowy Owls have been spotted in our area in huge numbers. Their favorite destination–Logan Airport. Although it is a long journey from the high Arctic, the icy tundra of Logan Field looks like home, attracting more Snowy Owls than anywhere else in the Northeast.

Snowy owls swoop southward, delighting birders | Biologists say an increase in snowy owl sightings in the South suggests that the arctic species did so well in its northern breeding grounds last year that competition is driving the young ones to warmer climates.

N.J. Town Shocked As Dead Birds Fall From Sky | Residents in a New Jersey town were stunned when hundreds of birds started dropping out of the sky to their deaths, but after officials explained why, residents became fuming mad.

DNA Confirms Fastest Evolving Birds | Birds from the family Zosteropidae—also called “white eyes”—could be poster children for rapid evolution. They form new species faster than any other known bird, according to new research.

Happy birding!

©2010 Birding in Maine. All Rights Reserved.

No related posts.

Northern Hawk Owl | Copyright Lloyd Alexander

Recently, a Northern Hawk Owl was sighted near the mid coast of Maine. I cringe when I see a report of a rare species on the list serv.

Case in point is the Great Gray Owl fiasco in Jackson, Maine just about one year ago. The owl was severely emaciated and after a week of uninterrupted viewing that interfered with its hunting and feeding habits, including being “chased” by birders and photographers, a wildlife rehabilitator was called to rescue the owl. The owl died shortly afterward.
 
The reported Northern Hawk Owl has not yet met this fate, but could have and still might. Yesterday, someone was releasing mice and rats bought from a pet store for the owl to eat. This in turn led to birders and photographers setting up for better views of the owl. The owl crossed the road several times, low enough that if any traffic was present it would have been hit.
 
This is unethical and totally wrong. Who is to say that the mice and rats aren’t harboring some kind of disease? What about the safety of the owl, needlessly exposing the creature to traffic and predators who would love to have the owl as a meal. What if the owl begins to associate humans and cars with food? I am sure the owl watched people get out of their cars and in turn saw the humans release the mice. This association could lead to the death of the bird.

Some people just don’t get it. I found this while reading a forum post about the ethics of baiting birds for photography. Here is this knuckleheads response to the post:

The reality is that these birds are tame simply because where they come from there are no people, so they have developed no fear. This is very common in northern owls, like the Great Gray, Snowy, Boreal and Hawk Owls. I have seen them in their native haunts in northern Canada, where no one was feeding them mice–and they are very tame. I was able to touch a Boreal Owl sitting in a tree, and all it did was open one eye and glare at me.

Touching a wild owl? Tame? Give me a break!

What about the ethics of releasing a pet store rodent into the wild? What about the law? Is it illegal to release a mammal, wild or exotic? When a live mouse is released, what about the possibility that it will escape and hide and now it’s in an environment that it was not raised for, now you run the risk of introducing harmful diseases or parasites.

When you trespass, bait, and otherwise annoy an animal to get a good view or shot, you’re no longer a birder or nature photographer; at that point you’ve become a nature exploiter. Animals get spooked, but then they just fly or run away, they’re afraid of you, that’s natural. When you bait an animal, you stress it because it doesn’t want to get any closer to you than it has to. But, it’s putting that natural fear aside to get food. It’s like putting a briefcase full of cash in the middle of a 4 lane highway – it just gets messy!

There is a heated debate about the baiting of the Northern Hawk Owl on the list serv today. Feeding yard birds with bird feeders versus feeding Owls from the far north. One of the responses on the list was from Amy in Rockport, Maine. I have recieved her permission to post it here.  She makes some very valid points. Thank you Amy!

I was afraid someone might compare typical back yard bird feeding to
what I feel is a totally different situation. Here are my thoughts,
maybe more murky than clear:

1. Setting up the “feeding station” on the opposite side of a busy
road from what seems to be the usual perching area has a built-in
risk. I watched the hawk owl on Friday swooping low enough over Rt.
130 to have been hit by a tall car or truck. I don’t care how careful
the Dad was. This is a risky set-up.

2. Who knows what extra exposure to disease (brought up by Don
Reimer’s post) the bird might have from the mice that were being fed.
Potentially another stress for the bird.

3. We have no way of knowing why this bird is here. Was it starving
in its home range? What happened that it is here? How rare are these
birds to this area in the winter? We can’t appreciate the stresses
that it is under. Doesn’t it seem logical that the less interference,
the less interface it has with humans the better off it might be? Did
you notice the chicken coop? What if the property owners who have the
chicken coop are troubled with rodents in their garage or house?
What if they poison-bait the mice? It seems likely to me that there
is good rodent hunting there because of the chickens and their
scattering feed around. Perhaps the hawk owl lucked into something
good. Or perhaps dangerous. I have read that the hawk owl can see
prey a half a mile away! Don’t you wonder what it senses when is sees
people moving around? What does that do to its stress level? We have
no clue what it does, do we? I hope the hawk owl moves on and away
from any possible further contact with humans soon.

4. I am well aware of how setting up a bird feeder can influence bird
life. To me, there is something different about one feeder feeding a
panoply of birds that are common winter or year round residents. Yes,
opportunistic hawks may profit. So will feral cats. Back yards have
become less able to provide wintertime food for birds. There are less
native plants that harbor either the frozen insects that birds forage
on and less fruit and seed bearing plants. Gardeners seem to prefer
to cut down the stalks of potential food plants and to clean up
underneath the plants for the sake of neatness and getting a jump on
the season in the spring. In doing so, they remove these sources of
food and hiding places for prey. So, in a way, bird feeders are an
insurance policy that might get a few birds through the night or
winter that might not make it otherwise. But this is one rarely seen
bird. It is rare on its home turf. It is way outnumbered by the
people paying attention to it. It just seems that that isn’t a good
thing. People can do crazy things. I remember an incident of saw-whet
owls being killed by thugs who found about them through the Rare Bird
Alert, for example.

5. I don’t agree that a Dad feeding the mice so his children can have
an wildlife experience is a good thing. This is not wildlife
watching. It is faking a drama. It is causing something to happen in
a rapid time course, something that is not teaching those children to
be patient and to watch quietly. It is fostering the lack of an
attention span, which is a problem with way too many people. It is
giving those children the wrong idea of how to interact with nature;
the Dad here is not being a good role model. It is also appropriating
and manipulating the scene for all bystanders.

I have bird feeders in my yard, and I also have a blind so I can photograph the birds. I am not stressing the birds. But I do not have 15 people standing around talking, clicking away on ipods, etc. Also, no one is releasing tame mammals in the yard either.

This debate is far from over. This type of activity will continue far after I am gone from the face of the earth. In the meantime, refresh yourself with the ABA Birding Ethics.

I would like to hear what you think. As always, comments are more than welcomed.

I would like to thank Lloyd Alexander for use of the beautiful photo he took of the Northern Hawk Owl. Also, many thanks to Amy for providing us with her insight.

Happy birding!

©2010 Birding in Maine. All Rights Reserved.

No related posts.

The eighth in a series of occassional rundowns of what’s happening in the world of birds, birding and bird blogging. This is the final installment for 2008.

Hawk flying over marsh

The CatBib Will Stop Your Cat From Catching Birds! | The CatBib was invented by a bird-feeding, cat-loving gardener in Springfield, Oregon, USA. This unique, patented product protects wild birds whenever your cat is outdoors. Here is a link to the video showing how the bib works.

An Eagle Christmas Story | This could have been a story of terrible cruelty with a sad ending. Fortunately, there are some very good people in this world and one young eagle will have a good Christmas.  From The City Birder

Turn your Christmas tree into a bird sanctuary | Your glorious Christmas tree dazzled through the holiday season with sparkling and treasured ornaments. Give that lovely Christmas tree another life by creating a winter bird sanctuary. Bird families can enjoy your tree as a backyard habitat. Decorate your tree as a feeding station during the winter when food is scarce for birds. The tree’s branches also furnish protection from wind and shelter from predators. From St. Louis Today

Female Red-breasted Merganser

The Spotted Owl’s New Nemesis | An epic battle between environmentalists and loggers left much of the spotted owl’s habitat protected. Now the celebrity species faces a new threat—a tougher owl. From Smithsonian.com

Avian airlines: Alaska to New Zealand nonstop | Tracked bar-tailed godwits set new nonstop flight record for birds: In an avian flight of epic proportions, a female bar-tailed godwit lifted off from her Alaskan breeding ground and flew south 11,680 kilometers, nonstop, until she reached her winter home in New Zealand. From sciencenews.org

Hawaii’s honeyeater birds tricked taxonomists | DNA from old museum specimens reveals evolutionary look-alikes: Five species of Hawaiian birds have made fools of taxonomists for more than 200 years, thanks to a fine bit of evolutionary illusion-making. From Science News

Snowy owl — a marine species? | Wildlife satellite studies could lead to a radical re-thinking about how the snowy owl fits into the Northern ecosystem. “Six of the adult females that we followed in a satellite study spent most of last winter far out on the Arctic sea ice.” From Biology New Net

What trouble can I get into?

 Happy birding!

©2010 Birding in Maine. All Rights Reserved.

No related posts.

Recently, I offered a question on the Maine-BirdList: Who would be interested in a Maine birders discussion board? I would be the one to set up and maintain such a board if the responses favored such an endeavor. The overwhelming response was for such a discussion forum.

I am happy to report that on Sunday October 26th, 2008, the Maine Birders Network will be open to all Maine birders and others who wish to participate. I am testing and setting up the discussion board software and may give a sneak peak a few days before the launch date.

This type of forum for birders in Maine has been tried before in the years past and has failed due to the lack of participation. I am willing to take the risk of failure on the board that I will create. From the responses that I received from the mail list, I think we can make this work as long as birders participate in the discussions.

What is a discussion board?

A discussion board is a virtual tool that allows groups with the same interests to communicate online. A person can either reply to existing messages or post new messages. This is web-based, not an email enviroment. Discussions on a wide range of topics are possible. Members can even post images.

Anything related to birding and wild birds is appropriate on the forum. Topics that are particularly about Maine birds and birding are probably more appropriate on the mailing list (www.mainebirdlist.net/), but you can also post them on the discussion board if you like.

Why must I sign up for a membership?

There are people out there who like to ruin things. If an open forum without membership were to be found by any of these characters, all sorts of foul play would befall the board. Posting of spam, pornography and other illegal activity would make it an unpleasant place to be.

With a membership that requires logging in, we have control over such activity. Any instigators can be banned from ever participating again, they will not have access to the site.

When you register, you will be prompted for a user-name, password and email address. Please know that your email will never be given or sold to anyone. This information will be safely encrypted in the board database, retrievable only by the member who it belongs to.

Other benefits include the ability to post pictures, private messaging and emails, receive board notices and newsletters and to have your own photo gallery.

What can I do to help?

Moderators will be needed to help with activities on the discussion board. Now is the time to let me know if you’d like to volunteer to be a forum moderator. Here are the details.

What does moderation involve?

Basically you check the forums daily or every other day and use the built-in moderation functions to handle any problems that come up. You’ll automatically receive an email whenever a forum member reports a problem, so in many cases you’ll be alerted to problems before you even visit the site.

Your privileges will include the ability to delete, close/re-open, and move threads and posts. You’ll also be able to send private messages to members. The forums will require registration with an image-based verification process for all members, so you shouldn’t have to worry about automated spam attacks. Before the forums officially go live, I’ll personally work with the moderators to hammer out a list of forum etiquette rules, so basically your job will be to ensure that the community members follow those rules. Most of this will be pretty obvious — no spam, no sexual content, no harassing people, and so on. But written rules will ensure that all moderators are on the same page and the community has a fairly consistent moderation style throughout.

Depending on how many qualified people apply to be moderators and how popular the forums become, we could have multiple moderators per forum or multiple forums per moderator. I’ll aim to maintain a good ratio that keeps the moderation duties fairly light. On most days moderators shouldn’t have any problems to address at all. If you decide you no longer wish to moderate, you can quit at any time.

Why become a moderator?

Anyone who’s moderated a forum already knows how rewarding it can be. If your goal is to fill an ego-based need like status or popularity, you probably won’t make a good moderator. A good reason to become a moderator is that you love helping people and are looking for an outlet to contribute. Great moderators are active in their forums, and they love seeing their communities blossom.  An active moderator has tremendous influence over the type of community that evolves. If there’s anything you’ll get out of being a moderator, it’s that you’ll build stronger communication and leadership skills.

How to apply

If you’re interested in becoming a moderator, please E-mail me.

I’ve no idea how many people will apply, so I don’t know how selective I’ll have to be, but once all the moderators have been selected, I’ll train them in using the boards moderation features as needed (it’s fairly straightforward and easy to learn). And whenever everyone is ready, we will open the board and begin the discussions.  

I expect these forums will become very successful, not because of the particular topics but because of the people they’ll attract – people who are committed to learning about birds and birding. I’ve gotten to know many of you from the mail list, those who commented on this site and out in the field, and now I’m delighted that you’ll finally have the chance to meet new people and share the passion of Maine birding.

Any other questions about the discussion board may be submitted by commenting on this article.

Happy birding!

©2010 Birding in Maine. All Rights Reserved.

No related posts.