Local birding report

As December rolls through, the daily rhythm of the backyard revolves around Dark-eyed Juncos flitting. White-throated Sparrows scratching, Cardinals glowing, Goldfinches clinging, Carolina Wrens creeping, House Finches and Chickadees singing, White Breasted Nuthatches whacking, Titmice fluttering, Doves perching and Bluebirds squabbling.

A few notes from the yard and field recently include, on the afternoon of December 2 while raking leaves a brownish bird flew within ten feet of me. It landed on a low limb nearby and with an air of complacent calm, looked me over with its deep hazel eyes and produced a low, soft chuck noise before disappearing in the depths of a nearby rhododendron bush. A late in the Season Hermit Thrush!

Getting one last look from this special bird before winter sets in momentarily brought me back to the warm summer evenings within Robinson Woods where this thrush sings its enchanting tune.

On the wintery morning of December 8, a lingering Fox Sparrow arrived in my backyard to scratch about, throwing little jets of snow into the air. The Fox Sparrow is a wild bird, a bird that almost always prefers forest and thicket over backyard, the exception being during migration.

Sometimes confused with a Hermit Thrush and slightly larger than a bluebird, this rather robust, retiring sparrow is a rich reddish chestnut color above and has brownish blurry splotches and streaks on its flanks and chest. This is one of the few of our sparrows that scratches the ground with both feet at once.

A short-to long-distance migrant, “Foxys” are seen in varying numbers every fall across Cape as they make their way towards southerly haunts somewhere between Maine and Florida. Although still common, the North American Breeding Bird Survey estimates that the Fox Sparrow population has declined by 51% between 1966 and 2015.

Additionally, in early December around sunset my two sons and I walked the rocky shoreline from Dyer Point to Two Lights State Park.

Somewhere along our mission we came upon a flock of hardy Harlequin Ducks, including five females and two handsomely adorned blue, chestnut and white colored males who were boldly foraging for mollusks and crustaceans deep below the tumultuous seas.

Quietly descending closer to where the Harlequins were feeding, we could just make out the squeaky calls that give this duck its nickname, “sea mouse.” Despite the cute nickname, these small sea ducks are very rugged, in fact Harlequins experience more broken bones than any other species, and x-rays and museum specimens have determined that a majority of adult ducks live with more than one healed fracture. The coast of Maine is estimated to hold more than half of the eastern population in winter. At night these ducks roost on open water further from the shoreline.

Other mentionables in Two Lights included two Horned Grebes, a male Long-tailed Duck, six Buffleheads, a diving Northern Gannet, a Common Raven and two Song Sparrows.

And lastly, while wandering the back paths and fringes of mowed fields within Crescent Beach State Park a small nest caught my eye. Upon closer inspection the nest looked as if it had multiple nests built upon it. The nest on top had an inner cup that was lined with deer hair, feathers and cattail seeds.

Gently pulling the two nests apart I noticed the small pieces of what appeared to be a brown cowbird egg! Given the habitat, size and composition of the nest my hunch was that this was an American Yellow Warbler nest.

It is known that if a cowbird lays an egg in a “summer yellowbird’s” nest, the warbler often begins building a new nest directly on top of the old one, abandoning the cowbird’s egg, and sometimes its own egg as well.