Birding in Maine» weather

Miscellany

John Briggs — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:52:50 +0000

Red-breasted Nuthatch | Click for larger view

⇒Fog, rain, drizzle and mist. That has been the norm for the last several days. Forecasters are predicting a very wet weather pattern for the next week. Heavy rain is predicted for Friday night and a slow moving storm may bring flooding rains on Monday and Tuesday. The only possible sunshine I see is on Sunday for part of the day.

Springtime along coastal Maine is a cool and wet season most of the time. Ocean water temperatures are in the upper 30′s and the wind flow off the ocean brings temps in the upper 30′s to low 40′s with fog and low clouds. Inland locations can see temps in the 50′s to low 60′s and bright sunshine.

⇒Several new visitors today. FOY Great Blue Heron flew through the yard and out across the marsh. Another first of the year was a male Northern Harrier who swung through low over the lower yard and landed in a tree. On Tuesday, we had a Snow Goose come out of the cove and into the lower yard with several Canada Geese. Chipping Sparrows began showing up and earlier in the week we had six Fox Sparrows scratching under the feeders for several days.

In the southern parts of Maine, Great and Snowy Egrets, Glossy Ibis, Eastern Bluebird and Eastern Phoebe are beginning to show up. Ross’s Geese were seen near Biddeford Pool and Scarborough Marsh. A Golden Eagle and a Black Turkey Vulture were also seen.

Aerial view of area around our home. Red arrow marks our home. | Click for larger view

⇒A new I and the Bird is up over at Great Auk – or Greatest Auk?. A recent post of mine, “Yard Birds from a Blind” is included in the great line up.

⇒The Freeport Wild Bird Supplyis now open. The previous store, The Wild Bird Center of Yarmouth, was destroyed along with two dozen other businesses in a January 2nd arson fire.

⇒Officials at Acadia National Park have closed hiking trails on and around the Precipice Cliff to protect peregrine falcons that have been showing pre-nesting behaviour.

⇒Maine state biologists are preparing to conduct a census of nesting great blue herons and other wading birds amid signs that their colonies may be declining. Yours truly will be a participating volunteer in monitoring nesting sites in my area of the state.

⇒On numerous occasions this month, low-flying wild turkeys have struck motorists in Maine — one smashing a truck windshield, sending glass flying; the other knocking a man off his motorcycle, causing severe injuries.

⇒From our friends to the north: On Sunday, March 29, 2009, Quebec’s Premier Jean Charest announced the creation of 14 new national parks and additions to another, totaling 4.5 million acres of new protected areas in the province.

This brings Quebec’s total protected areas to just over 8% of the provinces land mass. Just 5 years ago, the total protected areas in Quebec were less than 1% of the province.

⇒I will leave you today with my yard list so far this year. Some of the species listed were not in the yard, but in the cove within 50 yards of the shore at the bottom of my yard. I count them if they fall in this range as a yard bird. All bird listed were seen from our yard or from the windows in our house.

American Black Duck
American Crow
American Goldfinch
American Robin
American Tree Sparrow
American Wigeon
Bald Eagle
Barrow’s Goldeneye
Black-capped Chickadee
Blue Jay
Bohemian Waxwing
Broad-winged Hawk
Brown Creeper
Brown-headed Cowbird
Bufflehead
Canada Goose
Cedar Waxwing
Chipping Sparrow
Common Eider
Common Goldeneye
Common Grackle
Common Loon
Common Merganser
Common Raven
Common Redpoll
Dark-eyed Junco
Double-crested Cormorant
Downy Woodpecker
European Starling
Fish Crow
Fox Sparrow
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Great Blue Heron
Green-winged Teal
Hairy Woodpecker
Hooded Merganser
Horned Grebe
House Finch
Laughing Gull
Long-tailed Duck
Mallard
Mourning Dove
Northern Cardinal
Northern Harrier
Northern Mockingbird
Northern Pintail
Osprey
Pileated Woodpecker
Pine Grosbeak
Pine Siskin
Purple Finch
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-breasted Merganser
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-winged Blackbird
Ring-necked Duck
Snow Bunting
Snow Goose
Song Sparrow
Tufted Titmouse
Turkey Vulture
White-throated Sparrow
White-winged Crossbill
Wild Turkey
Wood Duck

Happy birding!

Winter birds videos

John Briggs — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 19:19:41 +0000

During the month of December, we have had a crippling ice storm, a blizzard, temperatures ranging from -5° to 50° F. and a plethora of snow, rain and sleet. This kind of weather is hard on birds. Now, more than at any other time of the year, birds can use our help when deep snow packs makes it hard to for them to find food.

I shovel a patch down to bare ground under our feeding stations and sprinkle bird food on the area for the ground feeding birds. We also keep fresh water available and clean the snow and ice off of all feeders. The birds really appreciate it!

We took the following hi-def videos just before the blizzard struck on last Sunday morning. Fair warning: large file size, broadband connection recommended!

Dimension: 500×375 | Video bit rate: 1000Kbps | File Size: 20.0 mb
Playback: Click Play Button | Broadband Connection Recommended
Streaming Video of Downy Woodpecker | ©2008 birdingmaine.com

This next hi-def video shows the many Sparrows and Junco’s that visited when the snow started to fall. Broadband connection recommended! Half the file size of the above video.

Dimension: 500×375 | Video bit rate: 1000Kbps | File Size: 10.6 mb
Playback: Click Play Button | Broadband Connection Recommended
Streaming Video of Sparrows & Junco’s | ©2008 birdingmaine.com

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. Here’s wishing all of you a happy and prosperous New Year.

Happy birding!

Overnight bird migration

John Briggs — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:18:14 +0000

With a combination of a full moon and light northwesterly winds, a heavy migration of birds occured last night over Maine. The Maine-Bird List was alive with reports of birds in-flight and calling during the overnight hours.

As evident in the following image of the 9:00 p.m. radar, you can see that the movement was spectacular.

9:00 p.m. radar image showing evidence of last nights bird migration (GRLevel 3 Radar)

To some, this may look like it is raining according to the radar image. But as you know, clear skies prevailed last night. The radar operators place the radar in “Clear Air Mode” when there is no threatening weather. This is the perfect time to check the radar for migrating birds, but only at night.

Good articles on “birding by radar” can be found at Derek Lovitch’s Blog and another at David LaPuma’s Woodcreeper.com. Reading these articles can help you better understand the relationship between night time bird migration and radar. You can view my radar images at anytime of the night or day at BathMaineWeather.com. There is a controller to loop through the images from the last several hours.

I leave you with a picture of the beautiful full Harvest Moon from last night. Click the thumbnail for a full sized view.

Happy birding!

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