Local birding report

With the electricity of the migration behind us, mid-to-late June across Cape is a great time to catch birds raising their next generation. For me it is also the time of year where I can set out to look for specific species like the Bobolink with its rambling song, or uncommonly seen shorebirds like the American Oystercatcher, or different types of terns like the Artic and Roseate, and elusive birds like the American Bittern and Virginia Rail.

I had seen a male and two female Bobolinks last summer along the Spurwink Trail/ Town Farm so I decided to start there. Ducking behind the Portland Water District shed along Spurwink Road on June 10 I scanned an area where the salt marsh met with luscious uncut pastures and spied three male Bobolinks giving their “display flights.” Within seconds I could hear their burbling chatter as it carried across the tidal dog-legs.

Ornithologist Edward Forbush wrote, “The Bobolink is a harlequin of the spring meadows. He is a happy-go-lucky fellow, with his suite on wrong-side up, the black below and the white above; a reckless, rollicking sort of a fowl, throwing care to the winds, and always bent on a lark. His spirits are of the effervescent kind, and his music bubbles irrepressibly forth at such a rate that half a dozen notes seem to be crowding upon the heels of every-one uttered.” Bobolinks rank as one of the most spectacular long distance songbird migrants travelling 12,500 miles from Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. One way that Bobolinks are able to build up significant fat reserves for long flight is by feeding well after dark under a well-lit moonlight.

Historically, Bobolinks have endured many hardships. In the Early 1800s records speak of “vast numbers” of breeding Bobolinks across the state of Maine including many of the larger islands along our coastline. Starting in early 1900s these birds were shot under the guise of being destructive to rice fields in the south. I say this because at the height of their abundance in the late 1800s to early 1900s Bobolinks were considered a delicacy (by the wealthy and the curious) and were shipped in massive quantities to New York City and Paris at the cost of seventy five cents for a dozen. Today the biggest threat to Bobolinks is change in land use. Specifically, farmers who cut hay only once annually, and do so before Bobolink nestlings have fledged. Listed as a species of Greatest Conservation Need, this distinct bird has declined 3% annually across Maine and 88% over the last fifty years.

Later that afternoon along the Spurwink footbridge towards Gull Crest I briefly crossed paths with a night heron that was being badgered by a Red-winged Blackbird as it flew towards a nighttime roost. I was able to deduce that the heron was a Black-crowned and not a Yellow-crowned by noticing that its feet did not extent past its tail. Yellow-crowned Night Herons have longer looking necks, and legs which extent past the tail when in flight.

On June 17 while running an errand in the Clark’s Pond area of South Portland, I spotted an interesting looking hawk perched atop a telephone pole with what looked like a snake in its clutches. From my vantage the raptor appeared medium in size and its tail was light colored with dark bands. Through process of elimination, I determined it was a molting juvenile, Red-shouldered Hawk. A perch-hunter of the forest understory, this buteo has a distinctive whistle call and prefers snakes, frogs, and lizards.

Other local mentionings include, on June 9 two clamorous Laughing Gulls flew over our house. Interestingly, these gulls are Maine’s only regularly nesting hooded gull. Baltimore Orioles and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks began to resurface in our yard as of June 17. Along Shore Road I located three separate oriole nests, notably all of them are directly over the road, between 30’-40’ feet up in oak trees. Additionally, on June 18 I found three Barred Owl fledglings hissing on a snag high above the vernal pool within the Canter Lane easement portion of Robinson Woods I. Shortly thereafter I heard one Great horned Owl fledgling begging from the depths of Cranbrook. On June 19 my wife, son and I spotted a Willet (stocky shorebird about the size of a crow) from Sawyer Road crossing through the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge and heard two Black-throated Green Warblers along the road down to Crescent Beach. A Brown Thrasher singing atop a thicket off of McKenney Point Road completed the day.

Lastly on June 20 along the fringes of the town dump and Gull Crest, there were American Redstarts, Common Yellowthroats, Yellow Warblers and Chestnut-sided Warblers all vigorously defending their bushy fiefdoms through song. And deep within the tangles a male Eastern Towhee emerged and mounted to the top of a Larch tree to perform his metallic trill, drink-your-tea reminder for a porcupine snoozing in the late afternoon sun.