Bird Free Zone

Most of the pictures that make it up here are birds, birds, and more birds.  However, I have recently been putting a different lens in use for close-up shots of insects, flowers, and textures.  I try to only walk around with one lens at a time so I can focus on one thing at a time, and this has led to a lack of bird photos (where they aren't in our hands!).  I have been able to take plenty of plant and insect photos, but I am not able to give you any sort of reliable species identification!  I will try to give a name if I am interested enough to look it up, or know ahead of time.  Otherwise, I'll let you decide what you would like to try to look up!

I believe this a Red Admiral

Delicious blueberries, still found all around our camping and banding area

Flower in the rose family

Rose Hip, the fruit produced by roses that is high in vitamin C

I'll let you be the judge

Wooly Bugger

Monarch

Thrush, Thrush, Warblers

The first few weeks of mist-netting have been a bit slow, although today the capture rates really picked up.  I unfortunately forgot some equipment at the campsite, so I will be sharing fewer pictures than I had planned this week.  I'll be sure to get them up next time.  We ended up catching a thrush that we couldn't identify to species last week, and I'd gladly take any opinions as to what the experts out there think this bird might be.  We narrowed this down to either a Gray-cheeked Thrush or a Bicknell's Thrush.  It had characters that were indicative of both species, and without much experience with these species, we were leaning more toward the less rare, Gray-cheeked Thrush.

Mandible appears to be a little more than 50% yellow/colored, though not enough to be conclusive for either species.

Some reddish tinge, possibly indicative of Bicknell's Thrush

Purple-ish legs indicative of Bicknell's thrush, though the feet are of a similar color, and should be less purple.

This bird's measurements overlapped with both species, though it was at the very low end of wing-chord for a Gray-cheeked.  I'll let the experts decide.

In addition to this exciting bird, we have been catching some other thrushes and a few warbler species.

Yellow Warbler

 Male American Redstart

Female Black-and-white Warbler

Female Black-throated Blue Warbler for all my friends from NC

Northern Waterthrush

Veery

Palm Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

The sunsets and sunrises are still exceptionally beautiful, and the Milky Way galaxy is clearly visible on the cloudless nights.  Last evening we were closing our nets, and we got an amazing view of Nighthawks flying around the fields near the banding site.  Jess and I have been seeing Nighthawks in the pre-dawn light on our walk down to the banding site to open up nets in the morning.  It took me two mornings to realize that the pair we were seeing looked as though they were dancing around the fields together, chasing their insect prey.  Their bobbing, yet graceful flight seemed almost playful, and they frequently flew within a couple feet of us on the trail.  Their wing-spots light up beautifully in the fading light of dusk, and in the fresh light of dawn, and it has been a joy to watch these birds fly so closely.  In the mornings there are crows that roost near our net number 6, and you can hear how grumpily (and clumsily) our presence awakens them.  There is plenty of crashing in the conifers, and angry cawing most mornings as they are so rudely woken.  Every morning, we can hear the lobster boats and frequently hear the lobster boatmen talking.  Sometimes their chatting sounds so close that we are left wondering if someone is taking a walk through the refuge.  Many morning we are too late to check, but it looks as though Venus may be visible right now, and we are looking forward to checking it out through the spotting scope.

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.  

Catching Up

This fall I am working in Maine on the Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge.  The project will involve mist netting for migrant songbirds, and I hope to share more of this season than I've been keeping up with in the past couple years.  I am sleeping in a tent, and living out of a trailer on the point of the refuge, so my access to internet is limited to visits into town.  However, I am trying to write in my free time, so that I can come back and type it up to share.  I think I will also be expanding out of just bird and birding related photos, especially to share the beauty of the places I am working and visiting.  For now, here are some photos from the past few months!

-J

Black-Throated Blue Warbler nestlings

Carolina Wren nest with nestlings.  The best quality I could get without disturbing the nest!

Caterpillar from the Notodontidae family (I think!)

Turk's Cap Lily

Turk's Cap Lily

Turkey Poult

Eastern Box Turtle

Fire Pink

American Black Duck

Sunset from our camping and study area

Spotted Sandpiper

Whimbrel

Spotted Sandpiper