Cape Elizabeth birding report, early November

The shorter days and good stretches of soggy weather have made it more challenging to look for drifting migrants over the last two weeks. On November 2nd my wife spotted a Belted Kingfisher flying over the Jordan family pastures as you approach Pond Cove.

On the night of November 3rd, a first year Barred Owl came into a large Oak tree right above our house. I happened to be outside spying on a foursome of White-tailed deer that had been resting on our property when suddenly, I was alerted to the presence of this not-so-silent observer. The owls cover was blown when the birds wing struck a cluster of leaves.

While on the subject of nighttime nature activity, I was walking along Shore Road around 9:45pm on November 9th when I was startled by the harsh caws of a couple of American Crows flushed from their roost. I wonder if a Great Horned or Barred Owl had disrupted their slumberings.

Noteworthy mentioning’s – Over the past two springs seasons I had seen a female Baltimore Oriole with nest building material in her beak however I have never been able to locate the hanging pouch nest, that is until last week. In the aftermath of one of the very windy days we have had I was out in the yard surveying the work to be done when my eyes caught something strange. At first, I thought it was Coywolf scat but upon further inspection discovered that what I was looking at was a soaked Baltimore oriole’s nest that must have fallen from a branch, nearly 50 feet above! One reason that I never found the nest was because I never really considered looking that far up. More specifically, I had, for some strange reason always pictured a Baltimore Oriole’s nest among the lower stories of woods and tangle. Well it turns out that I had been looking in the wrong place all this time. Oriole’s nest in tall deciduous trees such as the magnificent white oaks that we have across Cape. The nest is placed near the end of a drooping branch and can be anywhere from 20 to 60 feet off the ground.

Lastly, I have added a new species to my yard bird list on November 11th - this being number 110 - with the addition of a fly over Northern Harrier aka “Grey Ghost”. Brown Creepers are still singing in the forests of Cape. Hermit Thrushes are still around too.

Nest site is in tall deciduous tree, placed near end of slender drooping branch, usually 20-30’ above the ground but can be 6-60’ up or higher. Nest (built by female, sometimes with help from male) is a hanging pouch, with its rim firmly attached to a branch. Nest is tightly woven of plant fibers, strips of bark, grapevines, grass, yarn, string, Spanish moss, lined with fine grass, plant down, hair.