{BIRD NOTES} ~ July 27, 2012

Bullwinkle © S L Merritt 7.26.12

 

Bird Notes

 

My sister Sandy writes from Colorado in reference to the attached moose photo:  Look at that rack! This guy, that we've appropriately named Bullwinkle, visited us a couple of days ago walked up our driveway and then headed for the horse trough behind the garage.  It took a very long drink of water and proceeded to eat aspen leaves.  When he snapped the top off a nice aspen tree we shooed him away and believe me, shooing that guy wasn't easy. 

 

John Kristensen reports that Bears have convinced him to shut down the bird feeding stations at his home in Guilford. The bears showed their disapproval of no more seed, by dismantling part of his garden stonewalls.  When he reported it, the game warden suggested that since it was a bad berry season the bears were hungry enough to go into the wall after bees and hornets nests to supplement their diet. Barn Swallows nested successfully in his barn again this year and Chimney Swifts again chose his chimney for their abode. He also has a couple of Black Squirrels that show up regularly along with the gray and red. Black Squirrels are not a different breed, but just a morph of the gray.

 

Lani Wright, spent last weekend with the Wellfleet Audubon group at Monamoy NWR off the coast of Chatham, MA. She saw only several bird species, but all were life birds for her including Roseate Tern, Hudsonian Godwit and Marbled Godwit. The group chased after what was believed to be a Bar-tailed Godwit, but never officially identified it. Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge is located on Morris Island and is only accessible by private boat or commercial ferry from Chatham.

 

Mystery Songster

All season, spring and summer, I have been hearing what I think is a bird singing, especially morning and evenings, the tones to “Kumbaya” in various rhythm patterns at a high pitch, like on a fife or piccolo.  In musical terms it is an ascending broken major chord:  F-A-C-C-C usually, but the patterns vary and are always on the same treble tones of the F key.  I often whistle back to him in imitation (I am a musician) and he answers back with a great variety of rhythm patterns as if he is testing my musical ear. I desperately want to know the name and appearance of this bird.  I have never seen it, just heard it all around our place here in north Windham.  Could you please identify this musical creature for me?   Thanks!
---Radina Welton , Windham 

NOTE: My answer to Radina was: From your description I would guess Winter Wren.

 

Nest Construction of the Eastern Phoebe

Eastern Phoebes build two kinds of nests: statant and adherent. A pair tried to build its statant nest in a corner above the main entrance to our house; not a good location. So I scraped it off. They switched to an adherent location, the trim above the back entrance to our porch. Here are photos of this process on my blog at:

http://onejackdawbirding.blogspot.com/2012/07/eastern-phoebes-building-nest.html

 

Here is a comment on the first photo taken from Birds of North America Online:

 "...when building on a linear substrate without visual irregularities, such as an I-beam, a substantial linear base is occasionally constructed along the surface before a cup location is chosen."

 

Further on:

 "Adherent nests are begun by deposition of a base of mud and vegetation. From this initial mass, material is added upward in a half moon pattern against the surface. Once this initial attachment is completed, additional material is added to this base until the nest form is complete."

 ---Hilke Breder, Brattleboro, VT

 

Springtree Road Shorebirds

Hector Galbraith called me @7:45AM reporting a mixed flock of shorebirds on the mudflats in the West River behind the Marina Restaurant, the highlight being 4 Sanderlings, along with a few Semi-Palmated Sandpipers and a dozen or so Least Sandpipers. I made a very brief stop @8:20 and the birds were still present.

---Dave Johnston, W. Brattleboro, VT

 

***************

Al Merritt

W. Brattleboro, VT

chpmnkx@sover.net

http://sevtaudubonbirdnotes.blogspot.com/

www.sevtaudubon.org