Thursday, June 11, 2009

Leominster, Ashburnham and "Coop Nest"6/1 to 6/7

Some before and after.....
I took the photo of this young foal and mom, at Timber Lost Farm, just over 2 years ago, in Ashburnham.

I stopped by Timber Lost Farm, to scan for raptors, last week and look who came to say hello...all "growed up"... mum is a few hundred feet back. The owner had said this guy is a "hand full" to ride, but those details are being worked out.

Turkey Vultures were coming and going from a rocky area on the south face of Mt. Watatic last week. I bushwhacked up the hill trying to find a TV nest among the rocks and I did NOT. This nicely intact snake skin was good find, it would probably be an even better find for a Great-crested Flycatcher, as I understand they often like add a snake skin to their nest.

Lincoln's Sparrows usually don't give too many "second chance" views, but this one did....well sort of. I had a very nice look at the fine streaking with a "buffy wash" on the breast, after having a nice look I tried a photo through the binocular. This "side shot" was the best 2nd view it offered, before it dove into thick cover, never to be seen again (by me). This is more likely a late migrant rather a potential nester but 6/7 is a fairly late date for this species in Central Massachusetts.
Missed the head, of this newly hatched Ruffed Grouse (just sneaking under the branch), the parent went right and the chicks went left. The parent squealed, grunted and faked an injury (quite a show I'll tell you), while the chicks made a few peeping noises to keep in contact. I snapped the photo above and backed off about 60 feet, waiting quietly for them to re-join each other, but the parent kept up the act, not trusting danger had passed. So I moved on as to not cause more of a disturbance than I already had.

This Cooper's Hawk nest is only a few houses down the street from my apartment, the chick hatched out last Tuesday or Wednesday 6/2 or 6/3. So far I have only seen a single chick, hopefully they'll (perhaps there is more than one) will make it through this past week's cold and damp weather. (I took a look at the nest this morning 6/12, and 3 chickes were visible).

If you enlarge this photo, and look carefully, you can see 2 young "polt" Wild Turkeys, actually I think there are 4 in this photo...one right under the hen, another under the hen's bent neck (as it heads into the ferns), a third's head under the hen's tail and a 4th's eye just behind the head (obstructed by the pine needles) of 3rd...or maybe I'm just hallucinating. The rest got out of sight quickly, there were about a dozen with this hen.

1 comment:

Kim said...

Congrats on getting that shot of the Ruffed Grouse chick Tom. I have been trying to get a picture of a RG for a few weeks now and right the minute I get close to one it flys out from the bushes and scares the hell out of me! Those birds are real quick!!

LOVE the Coopers Hawk chick photo. I am glad to the chick made it through this lousy weather we have been having.