Cape Elizabeth birding report

On one of many exceedingly still and sultry evenings in late July I slipped into the tall timber section of Great Pond Preserve II.

The forest was devoid of any nocturnal rambles until I heard a buzzy, rasping, hissing noise that seemed to be very close. A disorientating affect started to set in as I paused to listen to this eerie call that would ring out above me then fade away quickly into the heavy night-time air full of buzzing insects. Every so often I would stop to listen to the noise, which seemed to be following me.

A minute or so later I noticed the silhouette of a bird appearing larger than a crow perched not 20 feet from me. The bird turned slightly and started bobbing its head - its dark, solemn eyes staring fixedly at me were the giveaway. Suddenly a second, third and fourth bird appeared in the surrounding branches, serenading me with their outrageous calls. Four almost adult size fledgling Barred Owls!

Far from the reverberant hooting calls that we may be more accustomed to, the hissing noises coming from these youngsters were less known to me. Forest-haunting owls such as the Barred have rather extensive vocalization repertoires and many of the sounds that they make are not readily available to listen to on-line. The raspy calls I was hearing most likely had to do with being agitated by my presence. I wondered if they were just hot and hungry for after the young have fully fledged the parents continue to feed them for quite some time.

Additional mentionings from the yard and across town include a leucistic Chipping Sparrow and a band of fifteen boisterous Blue Jay youngsters that forced me to temporarily cease my backyard feeding operations.

On July 27 I crossed paths with four American Woodcocks along Charles E Jordan Road - old fields provide superb roosting habitat for these birds up until its time to migrate south.

On July 29 around dusk I heard a single shriek from a Great Horned Owlet begging for food somewhere back off of Shore Road. I also heard an Eastern Wood-Peewee calling deep within Robinson Woods. While this flycatcher’s plaintive song of three sliding notes is relatively straightforward to remember, the timing of the call was what ultimately allowed me to say it was a Wood-Peewee as they are known to call quite late in the evening, after other flycatchers such as the Great-crested have retired for the night.

As for late summer nesters, on August 2 while in Two Lights State Park I caught glimpses of several American Goldfinches with nesting material in their beaks. I also saw and heard numerous Cedar Waxwings with young emerging from the thickets along the rocky shoreline and a young family of Black-capped Chickadees.

Other birds spotted while in Two Lights include Common Terns, Common Eiders, Ring-billed and Great-black backed Gulls, a Least Sandpiper fly through, a single Osprey and several Gray Catbirds.

August marks the time of year where many shorebirds start to pass through in significant numbers.

A few of the best places to see these southbound migrants are Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge and Scarborough Marsh/Eastern Road. Sightings included Sanderlings, Semipalmated Plovers and Sandpipers, White-rumped Sandpipers, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs. Short-billed Dowitchers are beginning to show up as well.