Maine Nature News

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Monday, January 26 & Sunday, February 1 Lewiston (Map 11)
Just took part in what turned out to be a rather interesting workshop on  tracking animals in winter. Ths first part took place on Monday night at the Lewiston Library and was conducted my Dorcas Miller. We used her handy pocket guide book Track Finder. All over the floor of the meeting room were sketches of animals prints that we had to identify. By using the handbook we learned how to measure stride and straddle and then how to group the tracks into 4 different categories. This is the part I found very interesting. First off was perfect walkers. Canines,felines and hoofed animals. Next was inperfect walkers.Bears, porcupines, beaver, and opossum to names a few.Then came bounding. Fisher, otter, martens and others types of weasels. Last but not least were the hopping and leaping. Rabbits, squirrels. chipmunks and mice . After you decide what type of track pattern it is then work your way through the guide book using stride and straddle to find what kind of animal left the track.

On Saturday it was off to the Stanton Bird Clubs Thorncrag Nature Sanctuary on snowshoes to put are new skills to work.. The trip was lead by Susan Hayward naturalist at Thorncrag and Dorcas Miller. With guide books in hand we set out along the trail to see what we could find. By the end of the 2 hours we came across deer, snowshoe hare, red squirrel, fox and short tailed weasel tracks. We also learned a great deal about the history of the sanctuarys 300 plus acre lands. All in all this was a very interesting class and will help me greatly in my trips into the states woodlands. SY

January 30 through today, February 5 Phippsburg, Totman Cove (Map 6)
The drama continues here in 'Bird Land.'  A flock of 10 White-winged Crossbills, males and females has been gorging at all of my birdfeeders, but this one is the one they love the most. It contains black oil sunflower seed, Niger seed and a little bit of sunflower chips, an expensive, but desirable addition. These birds remind me of a flock of parakeets in the way they behave and vocalize. The are quite gregarious and not bothered by me when I go out to fill the feeder. It wouldn't take much to get them to hand feed. They don't even care when my dogs go investigate them! They give no quarter to the abundant Pine Siskins, either, though the Siskins outnumber them 4 to 1. RRR


Sunday, February 1 Corinth (Map 32)
As I commented on Maine Nature News some time ago, we had put out bird feeders shortly after moving to Hearthfire Hill, but they went totally ignored. I began to wonder if the crows would serve a function similar to the gulls in NC.. once attracted their attention, if the smaller birds would also eventually come. A few days ago, when I went to the garage to bring in the bulbs I had not gotten planted last fall, I grabbed a handful of bird seed and threw in more or less in the area where I have been throwing bread for the crows.

Today we saw first one small bird, then many, on the ground eating seed! I did not get a good look at them, but they were not sparrows (larger, but smaller than a robin), all in grays, black and a bit of white, possibly on their undersides and wings. There was a pretty good size bunch -- maybe 30 -- and the flew away in a definite flock when something startled them before I could grab the camera. A glance at the bird book makes me guess possibly chickadees -- though not likely as I know these guys pretty well, having had one hop down my leg once, as I lay in the hammock, being part of the universe -- or possibly nuthatches or juncos. When I saw them fly, they seemed to have kind of swept-back wings, like I associate with swifts and swallows... and they were definitely eating the seed that was on the ground. Hopefully they will return and I will be able to photograph or at least identify them.  Tomorrow's chores will include filling the feeders when I put on the snowshoes to take out the kitty litter, you can be sure! Jj   (I identified the birds as snow buntings! They've taken to sunning themselves on the roof which annoys Jj's cats! RF)

February 2, Phippsburg, Totman Cove (Map 6)
Our local version of a groundhog? Let's not forget these little guys! Well, how could we? They make themselves very known with their irritated little chittering and prevalence at bird feeders. Oddly, I haven't seen any Grey Squirrels around this winter at all, not one. But these Red Squirrels are around by the dozens! RRR

(How does something so small make so much noise in my attic? There's one running laps up there right now.  RF)



Wednesday, February 4 Topsham (Map 6)
It sure is nice to have the sun setting a little bit later now. After work this afternoon I set out for an hour or so on my snowshoes at the Cathance River Nature Preserve. The trails were packed out but an inch or so of new snow had fallen over night so in a way I had first tracks. It a very nice place for a hike with alot to see in a small area.There were a number of snowshoe hare tracks along the way. Someone told me that with a little bit of imagination their prints look a little bit like Mickey Mouse. For the most part the river is now frozen over except for the part the passes through the small gorge at Barnes Leap. SY






February 6, Phippsburg (Map 6)
The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, in January recommended that the Bald Eagle be removed from the Endangered and Threatened Species list. Maine now has 477 nesting pairs of Bald Eagles. Here in Phippsburg, on Totman Cove I see them everyday. There is a nest near here where there has been a breeding pair for several years. They have fledged numerous offspring. The adults and their juveniles can be seen hunting and fishing here together. Eagles are resourceful in finding food. They fish, hunt birds, small mammals, and they scavenge. I have seen an eagle attack a Great Blue Heron in mid air and drive it into the water. It was not successful in pulling the giant wader out of the water, but I have no doubt that it could so so. It's in conflict with our notion of Bald eagles as our national bird, the bird of presidents, open spaces, blue skies and salmon runs, but I have also seen them eating seal carcasses and dead deer. They don't look any different than a Turkey vulture when they are pulling at some stinking, stringy, rotted carcass. These photographs were taken at the Hatch Hill land fill in Augusta. I saw 8 Bald Eagles in the two hours I was there. I saw them picking up beer cans and wads of all manner of who knows what from the garbage pile. Along with them were 10 wild turkeys feasting on the dump. I'll never trust a 'free range' bird again! RRR

February 7  Windsor (Map 13)
The weather service tells us we've got a warming trend coming; highs in the 30s or so --- but January was colder than normal and our weather, in the last three days, has been zero and below at night, teens and 20s in the days.  The snow pack isn't changing much yet; when I cleaned the woodpile early in the week I could still see remnants of the early January sleet storms we'd had covered with about 18 inches of fluffy snow.  The one warm day we had on Monday did feel good and make us all think spring! It was ground hog day and the temperature here went into the mid forties!!
 
I've wanted to take a few lines to talk about crows here, so let me begin.
At this time of the year, crows are often the first birds we hear and see in the mornings.  We do not seem to have any large murders of crows, there are various small groups that may gather somewhere in the woods at night.  Their activities have always interested me, always seeming busy in the air above woods and fields calling and looking for food.  It is amazing, however, in some other places to notice large murders of the birds.  In Augusta, over some fields near Route 3 a murder of about fifty gathers often, and recently, on a trip to Bangor we noticed what appeared to be hundreds of crows flying east at sunset.  A few weeks ago, Auburn was sending police cars into their parking garage to shoo the crows with their sirens when evening came and the crows were wanting to roost there.  City crows seem to gather in these large murders and I guess that's because roosting spots have been lessened by mankind.  For some reason, when I imagine crows interacting, I give them some credit for highly skilled communications and planning: I find their behavior intriguing. I am aware, of course, of the damage crows can do in farmers' fields and gardens and I'm also interested in how methods like scarecrows and noise really effect their behavior.  PSH

Saturday, February 7 Hermon (Map 22)
Had another good day of downhill skiing today. This time at a a small family hill outside of Bangor called Hermon Mountain. From the top there is a ice view out over a snow covered Hermon Pond which this time of year is doted a number of ice shacks. Far off on the northern horizon is a rather large montain. Judging by its size and shape it has to be Katahdin. Along one of the ski trails there are a number of deer tracks and you can see where they have been feeding on some of the low hanging hemlock branches. SY

QUODDY NATURE NOTES

By Fred Gralensky

Winter Rambling like a Pine Siskin

Pine Siskins (Carduelis pinus) are members of the finch family and are of the same genus as Goldfinches and Redpolls.  They are best described as unpredictable as to when, where or if they will show up and where they will nest.  Pine Siskins have been recorded in every one of our states except Hawaii. Supposedly they may nest in the Quoddy region, but usually they show up in the winter, and I very seldom see them at other times of the year.  I saw my first Pine Siskin this year on Jan 7^th.  He (It’s hard to tell the hes from the shes) was on the thistle feeder busily eating and throwing seeds on the snow.  A lady in N. Carolina complained on the web that although she liked Pine Siskins she wished they would go away because they eat so much (of her expensive thistle seed).  I like them because: they always sound so cheerful; they (like me) like to ramble; and they are very approachable.  When we lived in New Hampshire on one winter day I sat under our bird feeder to see what would happen.  A flock of Pine Siskins came and settled on the feeder and on me.  Fortunately the style of winter clothing back then was the big snorkel jackets, so I was well protected from any mishaps but I remember Siskins on my shoulders peeking around my hood to see what I was.  

Here in South Pembroke I once had a flock on my feeder and I wanted to see how close I could get to them, so I carefully approached until I was bumping them with my nose.  They smelled like a bird and reminded me of my pet chickens and geese that I had a youngster.  This odor may have been from the Uropygial gland found in most birds.  This gland secretes a blend of waxy fluids that are spread on the feathers for plumage maintenance, and are assumed to reduce feather wear and to increase water resistance.  One would think that this would be very important for a bird, but parrots, woodpeckers and other birds like Ostriches lack the Uropygial gland and have found some other methods to accomplish its mission.  Is scent important for a bird?  Most birds don’t have a good sense of smell, but our Turkey Vulture can reliably locate a porcupine carcass bumped into the bushes off of Route 9 if the carcass has had time to cure for a few summer days.  Recently hatched chicks of the domestic chicken (Gallus domesticus) prefer the scent of soiled bedding. 

It has been shown that male Mallards require olfactory stimulation before pursuing courtship and mating.  I’m amazed at that.  Male Mallards are the Casanovas of the duck world, and are known to have hybridized with at least 50 other species of ducks and geese, leaving bird scientists to puzzle over the definition of ‘species’ and bird watchers to puzzle over the identification of the resulting weird combinations.  I guess it’s fortunate that turtles must have the wrong type of musth, or we bird and turtle watchers would really have a tough job.  Crested Auklets (Aethia cristatella) and their close cousin the Whiskered Auklet (A. pygmaea) , small seabirds in the Bering  Sea, both have a strong tangerine smell, and this is supposed to assist them in their bonding and recognition.  But the scent of birds can also be detrimental.  Culex spp. of mosquitoes, the prime carriers of the West Nile virus, are attracted to birds, especially chickens, more so than they are to a bare human arm.  And finally, after rambling a bit, do my Pine Siskins depend on their sense of smell for anything?  Apparently not, but they have been known to hybridize, especially with the Black Capped Siskin (C. atriceps), along the borders of Guatemala.  And even in the continental US there is recorded a Pine Siskin/Red Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) hybrid.  Since I’ve never seen a Red Crossbill eat thistle seeds, would the lady in North Carolina welcome the Red Siskin/Pine Crossbill to her feeders?  I wonder what they smell like?