Sunday, September 9, 2007

Keene Airport (Swanzey, NH)

I stopped by the Keene ariport on way home from Keene, NH today. The rainy weather weather must have grounded a flight of American Kestrels, I saw 12 perch on one section of fence on the north end of the air field. I could see a few more perched on runway lights a few hundred meters from the parking lot. I drove to the south end of the runways and found more Kestels there, the count was 22. Nice to see a good number of this species , which has been (and still is) in serious decline in the past several years!

Another nice sighting was an American Golden Plover that was spooked from the grass by passing aircraft on the runway.

In Templeton, Ma. , I stopped by the Templeton Developement Center and saw a yellow kingbird sized bird perched on the wire. A Western Kingbird would be a great find in North Central Massachusetts, the problem was it was a Scarlet Tanager pretending to be a much rarer kingbird!

Here is the list from Swanzey, NH:

Species
Number reported

Wild Turkey...12
Northern Harrier...1
American Kestrel...22
American Golden-Plover...1
Killdeer...15
Mourning Dove...5
Eastern Phoebe...2
Blue Jay...2
American Crow...5
American Robin...2
European Starling...100
Cedar Waxwing...10
Savannah Sparrow...5
Rose-breasted Grosbeak...1
American Goldfinch...3

4 comments:

Dave said...

Hey Tom,

Long time ago We did a Christmas Bird Count in Gilford, NH together. I believe it was with JB. I follow birder blogs and just subscribed to yours. Mine is

http://antvireo.blogspot.com

Dave

Tom Pirro said...

Yes, I recall. I remember you found a Pied-billed Grebe on Lake Winipausaukee and we had a nice flock of Bohemian Waxwings in your back yard just after lunch! We had a nice day! I will make it a point to look in on your blog. Nice to hear from you!

Larry said...

Wow! That is a lot of Kestrels. I've never seen more than two at a time.

Hanley Family said...

I get that many starlings in my backyard! They sort of rain out of the sky into the bird bath and take over the entire yard. It is actually sort of eerie.