Local birding report

Every two to four years the tin hornlike notes of a particular little songbird fill our forests. Less common of the two nuthatches that breed in Cape, the exceedingly active, Red-breasted Nuthatch is a scrappy little bird that gleans its way up and down tree trunks and branches searching for arachnids and insects.

Red-breasted Nuthatches have a black cap that fades to a bluish gloss, a white stripe above the eye, a black stripe through the eye and an underbelly that is a brilliant rusty-cinnamon. Of note, there is little difference in appearance between male and female nuthatches.

One key thing to commit to memory is the variation in pitches between the White and Red-breasted Nuthatche’s songs. The Red-breasted has a higher pitched, more nasally call than the White-breasted. Interestingly, unlike other birds of the nuthatch clan, the Red-breasted uses its soft musical song to woo females during courtship. While both bird’s flight is undulating, the Red-breasted’ s overall appearance is smaller and despite a short tail, seems to turn readily while pursuing insects in the air.

Such was the case on the afternoon of September 11 when I spied two Red-breasted Nuthatches hawking insects over the Pond Cove Brook Corridor. Earlier that same day I watched a Red-breasted wedge a sunflower seed into a bark crevice then hack the seed into smaller pieces with its sturdy little bill. This distinctive habit is called “hatching” and gives the birds in this family the name “nuthatch.”

Red-breasted Nuthatch numbers have been steadily increasing since late July across Southern Maine. Departing from their northern cone-bearing forests where they primarily breed, this “irruption” as it is called, is likely due in part to the hot dry summer experienced in the boreal forests and subsequent poor seed crop. Fortunately, this bird’s population has increased throughout most of its northern range between 1966 and 2019 according to the North American Breeding Bird survey.

Other mentionables from the field include on September 6 Spurwink Marsh along Sawyer Road - while watching a Northern Harrier weave back and forth across the salt marshes I heard the shrill scream of a Red-shouldered Hawk calling aways off in a stand off old pines beyond the Pannes.

The call from this forest raptor is two notes, with a second note descending in pitch while a Red-tailed Hawk’s call is only one note and is most often given while the bird is soaring, and rarely while perched. Just before dark I caught a glimpse of a Common Nighthawk roaming the skies over the treetops above our house and seconds later, I heard what sounded at first like a muffled foghorn, but which I shortly determined to be a Great-horned Owl at significant distance.

Additionally, on September 10 I recorded seeing a single Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Swamp Sparrow and American Redstart along the Great Pond Boardwalk and on the same day three Black-and-White Warblers, a single American Woodcock and singing Common Yellowthroat along Gull Crest.

Lastly, on September 11 in Robinson Woods III, I noted a total of twelve Red-breasted Nuthatches, six Cedar Waxwings, a Belted Kingfisher fishing and four young Wood Ducks, their bright red eyes and red and white bills illuminated by last rays of the setting sun.