Birding notes from the dead of winter

The decently moonlit, windless and almost snowless conditions during the last days of January through early February make it a good time to catch owls doing the courtship dance.

On the evening of the last day in January I was lucky enough to find two of Maine’s smallest owls, Northern Saw-whets, not far from where the Gull Crest trails meet the Spurwink river crossing boardwalk.

What initially caught my ear that night was not the tell-tale too-too-too song (which Audubon described as “faint tones of a distant bell”) but rather a once every thirty seconds, high-pitched bark followed by several squeaky whines. These secretive and highly nocturnal forest elves are master ventriloquists and notoriously tricky to spot. With that in mind I felt fortunate enough to be in their presence and catching the shadowy silhouette of one owl taking off from a branch was quiet a treat. Perhaps a field mouse was somewhere below.

The following evening along Shore Road, relatively close to town center, I heard two Great-horned Owls (later saw one of the two) engaged in a quite a chatter. As the breeding season heats up so does the regularity of this sort of back-and-forth that includes weird sounding screams and squawks.

Later in the week around 10:00pm I could faintly make out the rolling hoots of a single Great-horned somewhere deep within Robinson Woods. That same evening, I caught wind of not one but two skunks, a delicacy for this owl.

In the first few days of February an elusive drake King Eider was spotted by a few birders between the rocky coastline of Two Lights State Park and Dyer Point. While wandering the park the low gurgling croak of a Raven could be heard echoing through the pine forest.

As for the coastline there were forty or more Common Eiders working the exposed, rough conditions, a couple pairs of Buffleheads, a single Surf Scoter, three Long-tailed Ducks, two Black Guillemots, and four Harlequin Ducks. This last sea duck, the hardy Harlequin, is a dazzler with its blue, chestnut and white feathers. Arriving for the winter from faraway places like Greenland, our Maine coast is estimated to hold more than half of the eastern population in winter.

In other birding news, new research from the Journal of Applied Ecology from the University of Connecticut discovered that the seasonal feeding (live mealworms were used ) of Eastern Bluebirds in our backyards during breeding season increases young birds immune response to a type of parasitic fly larvae that feed on the blood of the bluebird nestlings. In summary seasonal food supplementation was shown to dramatically increase young bluebird’s antibody response to parasites, essentially giving them the nutrients needed to kill off the fly larvae in the nest.