Maine, REVI, and Beauty

I recently started my final field position before returning to school later this fall.  I am extremely lucky to be working on the Maine coast during the fall this year, as it is a great area for birding and is an area of stunning natural beauty.  I am living on Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge, which has shown me some amazing sunsets and rises, great birds, flowers, insects, and tons of berries.  I've never been in a place with simultaneously ripe blueberries, blackberries, and red raspberries.  There are even some unripe cranberries about that we hope will be edible by the time we leave in October.  My wonderful co-worker Jessie made a couple delicious berry cobblers from berries we picked that were amazing!  We are anxiously awaiting migrants ranging from ducks and shorebirds to warblers and sparrows, and searching throughout beautiful Maine for great spots from which to view them.  Fortunately, Petit Manan peninsula is itself a very productive place to bird and is extremely beautiful, so I don't have to travel far.

One of our telemetry towers is located on an island named Mount Desert Rock.  This island is literally a rock that juts above sea level about 20 miles off the coast of Maine.  I have always wanted to be able to walk on a small, remote, rocky island and this trip to set up the tower was a dream come true!  On the island there is a stout, stone lighthouse accompanied by a small house that appeared to have seen the underside of the ocean's surface more than a few times.  While setting up the tower we could see shorebirds and songbirds up close who were stopping for a break from migration to refuel.  There was a Prairie Warbler that allowed us to walk within a few feet of it, and plenty of Least and Semi-palmated Sandpipers skittering around the rock as well.  The Ruddy Turnstone that were flitting about weren't as fearless as the other birds on the island, but were still in partial breeding plumage, and therefore looked very handsome.  Unfortunately, there was little chance for photography on the rock, and even on the boat due to concerns with saltwater and my camera equipment, in addition to time constraints on the rock.  While on the rock I also saw two life birds, Greater Shearwater and Manx Shearwater.  The shearwaters were amazing to watch as they flew right across the surface of the ocean acrobatically and with a graceful ease.  We also spotted lots of flocks of Red-necked Phalarope, and we even saw an Ocean Sunfish, Mola mola.

Great Black-backed Gull

The banding effort has started slowly, but steadily, this fall with captures of Northern Parula, American Redstart, Common Yellowthroat, Hermit Thrush, Black-throated Green Warbler, and Black-and-white Warbler, among others.  We were even lucky enough to catch this Sharp-shinned Hawk within the first few days of opening nets.  Hopefully, the next week will bring in many more migrants!

Sharp-shinned Hawk

In addition to birding, the rocky coast surrounding our camping area and banding site has provided beautiful views, and amazing weather.  I am extremely fond of hearing the waves at night, in addition to feeling and smelling fresh ocean breezes throughout the day.  The moon has been extremely bright at night recently, even fooling me into believing that I had missed my alarm and it was early sunrise.  Luckily, that hasn't actually happened yet, but it is incredible how clear the moon has been the past few nights.  One evening, I decided to take the short walk to Bear Cove to watch the moon, and see if there were any birds sitting in the cove that could be seen by moonlight.  I used my scope to check out the full moon, and ended up seeing some sleeping Common Eider in the cove.  We frequently hear the call of the Common Loon throughout the day and night, and I was lucky enough to catch one of them in the moonlight.  When I walked up towards the shore, I also flushed a group of Spotted Sandpipers, that were really only identifiable by their calling and silhouettes across the moonlit water.  Eventually, the fog rolled in and blocked out the moon, so I returned to my tent with the push of a nice ocean breeze.

Cedar Waxwing at sunset

The goal of this project is to capture Red-eyed Vireo and Blackpoll Warbler and attach radio transmitters to them.  These birds can then be tracked with automated telemetry receiver towers that are located throughout the Gulf of Maine, and all the way south to Virginia.  This will give researchers a more precise picture of bird migration pathways and movement patterns of individuals during their migration.  

Red-Eyed Vireo with radio transmitter attached

Automated telemetry tower that receives radio signals from tagged birds as they travel through the area.