Hawkwatching Barre Falls-Sunday

I continued my hawkwatching weekend today at Barre Falls and met up again with Donna, Bart and Dave for about 6 hours today. It's amazing how quickly time goes by while you are hawkwatching. You would think the day would drag because there are plenty of periods between birds where you are looking at cloudless skies and airplanes to keep your sanity and your bins sharp, but despite the lapse between birds, the time seems to fly faster than the birds more often than not! Anyhow, it was the "same old, same old" today with Broad-winged Hawk spottings, but in the familiar 1's, 2's, 3's or 4's and never any significant kettles that I have heard so much about. The birds did decide to cut me a break today and get a little closer which was great for picture taking, allthough still not easy as you will see by my photos.

The photo above is that if I recall, of a juvenile Broad-winged Hawk. Notice the "dark, smudgy border on the wing and the dark tail tip". According to my "Hawks from Every Angle" book, this hawk also appears to be a dark morph (see correction below) which is characterized by "solidly dark underneath with pale flight feathers and stocky, pointed wings". NOTE: Just got an email from Donna who informed me that Dark morph Broad-winged Hawks are very rare in our area and while the picture did somewhat resemble the photo I saw in my book, it was due to the positioning of the sun. Thanks Donna, another new thing I learned today, that's what makes birding so exciting as you learn something new everyday!! Will keep the original statement as well as the correction in here as I like to keep mistakes out here so others may learn from them including myself! Anyway, it was really nice to be able to get some looks at some Broad-winged Hawks in flight over the past few days as they are a hawk I don't see that often so it's nice to have a few record shots on file!

One of the first birds we did see of the morning, (besides the familiar Turkey Vulture), was this Bald Eagle above, who got close enough to us to see with the naked eye and the 15 zoom camera of mine! He was hanging low by the river and we assumed his breakfast of choice for the morning would definitely be trout of course!
Another shot that shows of it's white tail. This is a good field mark when looking at an adult Bald Eagle, especially in comparison to a Turkey Vulture which still confuses me at times as I often mistaken one for the other.
We were also treated to an American Kestrel who flew by us close enough for a photo. I absolutely love how the sun captured that gorgeous orange tail this bird had!

Barre Falls is a haven for wildlife, with it's fresh water, trees, shrubs and nest boxes so many migrating hawks decided to make some "pit stops" along their journey as they were guaranteed a good meal if they were patient enough. I was able to get an out of focus digiscope picture using Donna's scope of this juvenile Broad-winged Hawk
There were also more than a few Cooper's Hawks in the area including the one above.
And of course, what would any hawkwatch be without an Osprey or two or three or four or.......... Well you get the point!
And a photo to once again remind you all of what hawkwatching is really like. More often than not you are not getting closeups of gorgeous, soaring hawks but rather faint little images of the birds. Despite that it is still very rewarding once you are lucky enough to see one through your bins. The picture above is of a Cooper's with a Sharp-shinned Hawk directly above it, which you should be able to somewhat see if you enlarge the photo by clicking on it. Hey, I never said I was a professional photographer you know! ;-)
I decided to do a little light birding in the early AM while at Barre Falls while we waited for the raptors to take to the skies and saw my first Palm Warbler of this fall migrating season. Still as handsome as it was in the spring as you can see!
Take care all!

Hawkwatching Mount Watatic-Saturday

I decided to head out to Mount Watatic today to do a little hawkwatching and take advantage of the sunny but COLD weather. This particular hawkwatch is led by Tom Pirro and he had quite a few people there (well over a dozen at one point, I believe) to hawk watch, all with various levels and years of hawkwatching experience.

The one thing that became obvious when I first arrived on the summit is that summer is indeed gone as folks were wearing winter coats and gloves (I kid you not). Donna warned me to bring gloves but of course I forgot so was grateful for an extra pair as it was needed up there. The view from Mount Watatic is spectacular and you can actually see Mount Wachusett from there which is shown above. This is also another popular hakwatching site and they have had a couple of really good Brood-winged Hawks days this past week.


On the other side of the summit, you can see Pack Monadnock, another popular hawkwatching site that hasn't been as fortunate as Mount Wachusett for Broad-winged Hawks, but there's always tomorrow!
Everywhere you go on the summit of Watatic offers views of rolling hills and blue skies so even if you don't get that many birds, its always awesome to get up there and I am never disappointed.

While the kettle of Broad-winged Hawks everyone had hoped for never arrived (at least while I was there), there were quite a few Sharp-shinned Hawks that were spotted including the lousy photo above.

And of course, I would be remiss if I didn't include a lousy shot of an Osprey to go with the Sharpie. Notice a pattern here? While we didn't see any significant kettles of any kind of bird, we did get some good views of some Sharp-shinned Hawks, Broad-winged Hawks and a Bald Eagle.
I decided to dilly-dally a little while going up the trail first thing in the AM and was happy to see a small group of Dark-eyed Juncos all gathered along a cluster of trees and making that adorable little one note call I have missed so much. Such cute little birds, but I don't want to see them in my own back yard as of yet because once I do, I know for CERTAIN winter is on its way.

For more information on Hawkwatching or to find a site close to you if you want to get involved, please go to Hawkcount.org

Take care all

Hawkwatching & Misc.

I took a half day from work today and decided to visit the dedicated hawkwatchers at Barre Falls as it's not too far away from my work place. There were not that many birds on the move, but it was still nice to get out there to practice and "chit-chat" with Donna, Bart, Dave, etc. The bird I did see most while there were a couple of Osprey's that decided to hunt for fish by the river that is fairly close to where you hawkwatch there.
As you can see the pictures did not come out all that grand. I thought hawkwatching was challenging with a pair of bins, but it's nothing in comparison to doing it w/ a camera. Of course by the time you whip your camera out, you have already spotted the raptor, but the challenge at that point is to get your camera to "auto focus" on a faint dot up in gray cloudy skies. The camera usually does not know what you want to take a picture of, unless the bird is fairly closeby, so hence the poor quality photos. It doesn't help that my camera is only a 15 zoom, so that contributes to the problem. Anyhow, I still wanted pics as they are good for record shots and despite the lousy quality of the photo above, I thought it was a neat shot of an Osprey as it shows just how acrobatic these birds can be while in the sky.
Another lousy shot of what could be a Cooper's, don't you think? Allthough it was identified as a sharpie when I look at the photo above, it seems more like a Cooper's based on the long tail vs. a Sharpie who has a shorter tail. This bird does appear to have a small head like a Sharpie, so what's the verdict here.Deciding to analyze this a little furhter I whipped out my "Hawks from Every Angle" book a little more and was perplexed over just how similar the Sharpie on the lefts tail appears similar in size to the Cooper's on the right as both tails appear somewhat similar in size, but the differences in ths size of the head is very obvious in this picture I think. Going back on the statement above and calling this a Sharp-shinned Hawk now.

Further evidence of this being a sharpie is the picture above. Notice the rounded tail of the picture of the sharpie on the right vs. the lousy picture I took today.

Did I need to bother with all of this rambling?? Of course not, but I wanted to give you an idea of just how challenging hawkwatching can be and remember, I am doing this with the luxury of my pictures, my guide book and as much time as I need to look at the bird, these hawkwatchers often have just mere seconds to observe, identify, etc., and more often than not, these birds are mere specs in the sky so color field marks may be useless due to the sun and the fact that the bird is too far away to pick up those field marks even with a high powered scope, so they have to look for other visual and behavioural clues. Very difficult but I guess that's what half the fun is though as its quite the challenge!

And since I am on a roll here with lousy shots of various birds of prey, I couldn't resist posting a couple of out of focus photos of my favorite birds of all, the Peregrine Falcons in downtown Worcester. As you can see, they don't have any desire to take to the skies anytime soon.
Why would they with the Rock Pigeon explosion that took over downtown Worcester this summer during breeding season. They can eat like kings for as long as they want, and they have a nifty nestbox for shelter to boot. Not a bad setup if I do say so myself! The juvenile Peregrine Falcons have long since gone, so mom and dad are just hanging out just like old times.
Went to Target last night and saw the Red-tailed Hawk perched on the flag poll at the cemetery in Millbury, so of course, I had to get out of my car for a photo.
So funny to see it perched up there like that and it's one of this birds favorite perching places.

Will be headed to Mount Watatic tomorrow for more hawkwatching and perhaps Barre Falls on Sunday. Take care all!

St Philips Cemetery, Grafton

Have been to St. Philips a couple of times over the past several days and slowly but surely the birds are slowly starting to trickle in. I was over there this past Saturday and sure enough I could hear the familiar call of my beloved male Pileated Woodpecker that I have not heard much since late spring. I stopped dead in my tracks and scanned the trees with my bins and sure enough there he was in his glory, but much too far away for a decent photo. I just KNEW he and hopefully the misses would be visible after breeding was over with. I did hear them once right after breeding was over, but wasn't able to see one of them until now so it was a welcome site indeed!
I decided to head over there again tonight after work to see if I could do some fall warbler birding which is something I have been avoiding as I have heard it could be quite the challenge due to the fall plumage cycle these birds have. I get confused enough over the various colorful warblers so the thought of having to get out there to try and identify them in fall plumage can be a little intimidating for a newbie such as myself but I figured I would never learn if I didn't at least try and try I did. Not too many warlbers to speak of but I was lucky enough to see this lone Juvenile(?) American Kestrel perched on the same dead snag as the Merlin a couple of weeks ago. The sun was not at all in my favor when I eyeballed the bird and knew immediately just by the silhouette of the bird that it was a falcon of some kind and it was smaller than both the Peregrine and Merlin so was excited to get my first Kestrel here. I put my bins on the bird and wasn't able to get the vivid colors this bird is so known for so decided to whip out my camera for a few pictures of record despite the fact that I knew they would come out lousy.
I had decided before I left St Phils that this was indeed a Kestrel but wanted to double check with the pictures and am confident that this is in fact what it is. Based on the two mustaches if you will for lack of a better word.

Okay, nothing to see here folks so just move along (especially your Fran! ;-)). This is OBVIOUSLY a Downy Woodpecker on a tree with a huge honkin orange leaf hiding its back. As if anyone couldn't figure that out, sheesh!

Take care everyone. Will try and do some more fall warbler birding this week here and there and may do some hawkwatching this weekend. I went up to Mount Watatic this past Sunday to hawkwatch and its a totally different element of birding that I experienced for the first time. It's very relaxing but EXTREMELY challenging as the birds are so far away that it's hard to find them unless you are an experienced hawk watcher. Once you do find them more often than not they are small specks in the sky so unless you know your raptors extremely well, you have no idea what it is. Very rewarding though to see them even if they do appear to all look the same to you though. ;-).

Take care everyone.

The Last of my Gull Photos-I Promise

This is the last of my Gull photos, I promise! Picture above is of a Greater Black-backed Gull taken in Biddeford, Maine.
Herring Gull scratching the Sand Fleas I'm sure! ;-)
The ONLY Laughing Gull I saw the entire time I was there. In fact, I was totally bummed out over the lack of diverse gulls I never got to see while there as I was hoping to pick up at least one new one. Looks like I am going to have to wait until winter now.
Love the pose above
Two Herring Gulls taking a drink of water. Who says these birds aren't handsome!
Ring-billed Gull giving me the "eye" as I waded in the water right beside him!
Third Year Herring Gull that I couldn't take my eyes off of.
Check out his striking side profile! Gulls have such pretty eyes if you take the time to look at them.
Love this photo because it gives you a good comparison of his size vs. the Ring-billed Gulls.
Still have a few more photos I will try and post this week. Have been a little busy lately so blogging may be cut down some as I try and catch up with everything. Take care all!

Sunrise at Long Sands Beach-York, Maine

Sunrise pictures taken during my morning runs on Long Sands Beach in York, Maine.
The only problem with sunrise pictures is that you can't sleep late which is something I often do on vacation. Sleeping late for me is 6:30! There would be none of that this vacation as the sunrises were too promising. Plus, its great to run on the beach when there are only a few people and a few dogs there.
A perfect way to start your day.
Various shorebirds and gulls joined me to welcome the first morning sun.
The sun made fabulous colors in small puddles of saltwater that the birds were gathered around.
I finally made it to the end of the 1.5 mile stretch and decided to take a break before I turned around so I could get some more photos.
It was at this point that the sunrise was most vivid.
Soon enough the vivid oranges started to fade to a dusty pink.
Which made nice reflection shots in the water.
I made sure I got out there to run everyday I was there and everyday there was a sunrise.
Take care everyone.