Mt. Monroe and Washington Hike 7/23/08

Last month I Hiked up the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail to the AMC Lake of the Clouds hut, over to Mt.Monroe, back towards the hut and on to Mt. Washington, via the Crawford Path. The descent was via the Gulfside Trail, skirting Mt. Clay and down the Jewel Trail, back to the trailhead completing a 10.5 mile loop. The primary focus was hiking but I did manage to see and hear some nice birds along the way.

headwaters of Ammonoosuc River about a mile from the trail head.
From the parking lot, at the trail head, was a few Swainson's Thrush, a White-winged Crossbill and 4 Evening Grosbeaks. The trail began a fairly easy, but rocky, ascent for the first few miles where the path paralelled the Ammonoosuc River (a fast flowing stream at this stage). Afterwards, the trail became steep and the river is a series of spectacular water falls and pools. The most common bird of the day was Blackpoll Warbler, which I probably under counted.

A pool about 2.5 miles into the hike.
A short spur (a few hundred feet) from the main trail leads to "The gorge", well worth the side trip.

Visibility was poor once I reached about 4500 in elevation, less than 100 feet at times but at least there was no heavy rain. Dispite being mid July, gloves were a nice addition to the pack as the moist air and 30+ MPH wind quickly chilled the hands. Once above tree line I heard a few Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows but little else.
Heading toward Mt. Monroe
The summit of Monroe had essentially zero visibilty and the wind was gusting to 40MPH, so after a quick touch of the summit marker I headed back down.
Only a few hikers were on the trail between Monroe and the Washington summit, they being a few "staffers" packing food to The Lake of the Clouds AMC Hut...frozen turkeys and butter was "the order of the day".

Lake of the Clouds staff member packing in Food (frozen turkeys and butter) to the hut
A Mt. Washington summit building through a thick fog

With the Washington Summit "socked in" there was only a few tourist at the visitor's center but there were perhaps 15 to 20 hikers. A bowl of hot chilly, from the visitor's center "cafe", was a nice addition to the sandwiches I had packed for lunch.

After coming off the summit trail I joined the Gulfside trail, where it crosses the Cog Railway track, heading toward Mt. Clay. Just before reaching the rail crossing I heard then saw 2 Amercian Pipits, this is one of the few places this species breeds in the north east, I believe Mt. Katadin in Maine is the only other.

The Guldside Trail crosses the Cog RR track. Top speed of "the Cog" is about 2 MPH, being run over by the cog would lead to an instant nomination for " a Darwin award"!

The cloud deck rose a bit offering a wonderful view of Mt. Clay as well as a nice look down into the Great Gulf, toward the east. Not having time to climb Clay I followed the Gulfside trail to the west of Clay where it intersects with The Jewel Trail which leads back to the trailhead.
Mt. Clay from the Gulfside Trail

The Jewel Trail heading down from the base of Mt. Clay. The patch to the left is the end of Base Road, the departure of the Cog Railway, the trailhead is a mile beyond that.
"The Cog" chunging toward Mt. Washington.

Once I was back below tree line and into the forest I heard my first and only Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Shortly after, I crossed paths with 3 Gray Jays, 2 adults and one Juvenile, which approached to wait for handouts . The adults were more bold than the Juv., but eventually the youngster landed on my hand for some trail mix.

An adult Gray Jay

The skiddish "sooty" juv. Gray Jay making a quick "grab and go"
Ad. Gray Jay posing nicely
The last few miles of the hike were uneventful, and tough on the knees, but upon reaching the parking lot this Red Fox was walking across the parking lot.

Red Fox a the trailhead parking lot.



The bird list:


Yellow-bellied Flycatcher...1
Blue-headed Vireo...2
Gray Jay...3
Common Raven...1
Black-capped Chickadee...3
Red-breasted Nuthatch...1
Winter Wren...2
Golden-crowned Kinglet...4
Swainson's Thrush...10
American Pipit...2
Nashville Warbler...1
Magnolia Warbler...1
Black-throated Blue Warbler...3
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)...2
Black-throated Green Warbler...5
Blackburnian Warbler...1
Blackpoll Warbler...25
White-throated Sparrow...2
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)...5
Purple Finch...1
White-winged Crossbill...1
Pine Siskin...1
Evening Grosbeak...4

New Hampshire Birdathon 5/24 (Coos County)

We saw at least 9 Moose, this a young bull.
Our NH birdathon team (Chuck Caron, Paul Meleski and I) decided to do something a little different, for us at least, for this years NH contest. We loaded up the "land yatch" and headed to northern New Hampshire and birded the wilds of Coos County,concetrating on Pittsburg looking for some northern specialties planning then to work our way south to Whitefield/Jefferson area.

The "Walmart" of Pittsburg
We arrived mid-day on Friday and scouted some of the logging roads, Indian Stream and East Inlet Roads, north of the town of Pittsburg. The weather was cold, windy with on and off rain, snow flurries and hail. Bird song was minimal but finding territorial species such as Northern Parula, Magnolia, Blackburnian, Black-throated Blue (and Green) and Yellow-rumped Warblers was not an issue. We heard a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, while probably a common bird up here, May 23rd seemed a tad earliy for so far north or maybe because we'd heard it just after being "hailed" upon.
Indian Stream


Later in the afternoon, we checked into the Colebrook Country Club and got dinner a few miles away, the only place that had a generator (there was a local power outage). After dinner we drove some of the back roads in the Colebrook area where we had Savanha Sparrow, Bobolinks an Amercian Bittern and heard winnowing Wilson's Snipe.
Most impressive, to ME, was a yard that had so much junk in it, you couldn't even tell what was there ...and guess who left his camera at the motel...this would've certainly taken 1st prize on Foxworthy's "Red-neck yard of the week"! I was one vote short to get this locale on the Saturday route, my plea of "*@$# the Spruce Grouse", fell on deaf ears!

Aside from fishing, apparently "Moose tipping" is the local sport of choice.

On "game day" we got started a bit before 4am, hitting some back roads in Colebrook as we worked toward Pittsburg. The song of White-throated Sparrows was constant, we picked up the song of a distant winnowing Snipe and American Bittern. Once we got up to Pittsburg and onto Indian Stream Road bird song was constant, nothing fancy but never out of ear shot from the song of Northern Parula, American Redstart, Magnolia (especially), Blackburnian, BT Blue, BT Green Warblers. Northern Waterthrush and Ruby-crowned Kinglets were very common as well.

Along East Inlet Road there was still pockets of snow between the Balsm Fir, we picked up a Bay-breatsted Warbler, Evening Grosbeak and Rusty Blackbird. At the East Inlet spillway we missed the Hooded Mergs that were present on Friday but, a Gray Jay came in and took handouts! We would see 3 more during the morning. We continued up East Inlet Road carefully looking for Spruce Grouse, missing it but we got a few Boreal Chickadees.

Chuck and Paul survey a remote marsh near the Canadian border.
Our first surprise species was 4 Surf Scoters on Scott's Bog Pond, 2 drakes and 2 hens, along with a pair of Ring-necked Ducks and Hooded Merganers. On 2nd Connecticut Lake we got 5 White-winged Scoters and a Bald Eagle, and a hen Common Goldeneye flew past over 1st Connecticut Lake. We found a nice flock of swallows along on Rte 3 which was mostly Cliff Swallows, that were nest building on a gift shop and a few nearby homes.

We spent most of the morning in Pittsburg and got 2 of the 4 boreal specialties we'd hoped for, missing Spruce Grouse and Black-backed Woodpecker.
Scott's Bog Pond

Back toward Colebrook we got Rock Pigeon and House Sparrow and picked other easy birds on route toward Pondicherry. We had about 90 species on the list when we reached the Whitefield Airport, we'd quickly add a few more species such as Black Duck and 2 Pine Siskins convinently dropped into a tree beside us, just long enough for us all to see them.

The long walk into Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge was a level walk along an old rail road bed, an Olive-sided Flycatcher allowed close study and a few photographs.

Olive-sided Flycatcher at Pondicherry
The view from the platform at Cherry Pond was spectacular with the Presidential range as a back drop to this natural pond.

Mt. Washington from Cherry Pond

On the walk to Little Cherry Pond we added Blackpoll Warbler and Red-breasted Nuthatch which now brought our total to 99 species. The mosquitoes were now out in force as we continued onward, some one commented "there better be something good out here". As we arrived at the viewing platform we heard an unfamilar sound, that was most likely a Black-backed Woodpecker. However, this was on our "had to be seen list" and we had some uncertainty so this went uncounted. A monemt later a Black Tern was seen on the far side of the pond, a perfect bird to bring us over the century mark for the day! A hen Wood Duck was seen a moment later and then a singing Tennesee Warbler on the walk back to the car.

Black Tern (digi-binned) at Little Cherry Pond
Our last bird of the day was a Chimney Swift in Twin Mountain, after we'd eaten dinner at a local restaraunt. We finished off with 104 species and we had some interesting misses, such as Downy Woodpecker, Tufted Titmouse, White-breatsed Nuthatch, Northern Cardinal, Scarlet Tanager and Northern Rough-winged Swallow to name a few. Though, some of these may be tough to find up north and we did not spend a lot of time worrying about these.

Our list of birds for 5/24:

Common Loon
American Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
American Black Duck
Ring-necked Duck
White-winged Scoter
Surf Scoter
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Hooded Merganser
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Ruffed Grouse
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Common Snipe
American Woodcock
Herring Gull
Black Tern
Rock Dove
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Northern Flicker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Hairy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Least Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Kingbird
Blue-headed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
Gray Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Bank Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Boreal Chickadee
Brown Creeper
Red-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Winter Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Wood Thrush
Veery
Swainson's Thrush
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Tennessee Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Canada Warbler
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
American Redstart
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Bobolink
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Rusty Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
Purple Finch
House Finch
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
Evening Grosbeak
House Sparrow

Massachusetts Birdathon 5/17/2008

I had planned a "human powered" big day for this year's birdathon but a last minute an opportunity came up to hook up with Jim Baird's birdthon team. With my son's prom Friday night I did not join the 6PM Friday start, but Paul Meleski and I made it to Jim's, in Petersham, Ma., a bit after 6AM and Jim and Ann Flatt were checking out Jim's property in a light rain. It was decided we would keep things "civil" and have breakfast as the rain cleared off, coffee, omelets and toast.

The oldest house in Petersham

After a tour of the 260 year old home, we got down to business on Jim's property and had some nice birds. A Ruby-throated Hummingbird, a pair of Scarlet Tanagers and Eastern Bluebirds showed nicely....a Lincoln's Sparrow, that Jim had seen the previous day had stuck around and was a nice addition. We walked down the road, missing a usually reliable Red-bellied Woodpecker, but 2 Pine Siskins at nearby feeding station filled that void nicely!

Ann, Paul and Jim looking and listening for Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 of 2 Pine Siskins in Petersham

Over the next hour and a half we hit some of Jim's choice spots around Petersham, by car, and continued to build the list. Red-shouldered Hawk, Swainson's Thrush and Wilson's Warbler were good additions, singing Brown Creepers and Winter Wren along with a stunning look at a pair of Blue-headed Vireos added to our total. We headed back to Jim's, tried and missed the Red-bellied again (but got a Hairy) and headed to ocean, next stop Lynn Beach and Nahant.

Bobolink near Maple Lane in Petersham
Turkey Vulture and Sharp-shinned Hawk made to our list during the commute and I encouraged Paul to keep tally of the House Sparrows as we passed through Lynn. Paul said he'd submit those numbers when I finish the Starling statistics from the trip! Off Lynn Beach we nailed all 3 Scoter Species, picked up a Horned Grebe and many Bonepart's Gulls, but NO Little Gull. A friend of Jim's, a retired Revere fireman, kindly let us scan the ocean from his yard on Little Nahant, during our visit we picked up Rough-winged Swallow and had a flock of 20 Purple Sandpipers pass by.
Jim, Ann and Paul "work" Lynn Beach

While leaving Little Nahant, Jim pointed to a tree, in a congested residential area, explaining that Ludlow Gricom had collected a Hairy Woodpecker from that tree in the 1940's. It was of northern race of the species and quite unusual for Massachusetts. The home owner was irate with the gun fire in his front yard and confronted Griscom. Mr. Gricom calmly tucked the bird into his game bag, put the gun ( what was called a "gamegetter", basically a sawed off pisto-grip over/under .22 cal./410 shotgun type deal) in the car, while the home owner ranted, and drove off! Mr. Griscom did have all the appropriate federal and state collection permits and kept in contact with the local law enforcement. ...and I feel guilty peering into yards with binoculars.
Jim lets our host use his binoculars to look at White-winged Scoters at Little Nahant, as Ann and Paul scan the ocean.
At the Nahant Thicket MAS we had nice looks at Nashville, Northern Parula and a stunning Cape May Warbler and added Magnolia Warbler and Common Eider further out on Nahant. Traffic was tough heading through Lynn and Salem and we ended up on the wrong side of bridge to make it to Pikul's Farm for the Wilson's Phaloropes and possible White-faced Ibis.

In Newburyport Harbor we added a few shorebird species with Black-bellied Plover, Least Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher and Greater Yellowlegs. There were more Bonepart's Gulls, a few Common Terns , 4 Long-tailed Ducks and a "boat-load" of Brant. Plum Island hilights included, Northern Harrier, Willet, Gadwall, Green-winged Teal (2 pair), Tri-colored Heron, Marsh Wren but missing Purple Martin was a big miss! There was a large group of people looking at the Pines just south of Hellcat and the 4 of us were treated to spectacular views of a Great Horned Owl with Owlets!

We concluded the trip at "The Old Mill" restaurant in Westminster, Ma. and had a nice time recounting the day's birding, talking of wind farms, Ivory-billed Woodpeckers and what we all do when we're not birding!

Our list:

From 5/17/2008
Brant
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Gadwall
American Black Duck
Mallard
Green-winged Teal
Common Eider
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Black Scoter
Long-tailed Duck
Wild Turkey
Common Loon
Horned Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Glossy Ibis
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Least Sandpiper
Purple Sandpiper
Dunlin
Short-billed Dowitcher
Bonaparte's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Common Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Least Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Kingbird
Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Winter Wren
Marsh Wren
Eastern Bluebird
Veery
Swainson's Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Pine Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
Wilson's Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Bobolink
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
House Finch
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Additional species seen by Jim and Ann the previous evening, within the birdathon time frame, but not seen or heard on Saturday: Common Merganser, Bald Eagle, American Woodcock and Bank Swallow for a birdathon total of 121 species.

Leominster 5/01

In previous years I have found Eastern Meadowlarks at the old Leominster Landfill, off Mechanic Street. This evening I stopped to see if they were present, I had not seen them last year even though I looked a few times. As I pulled into to park on 6th Ave., a Red-tailed Hawk flew low directly over the car and landed on a telephone pole a hundred feet from me. This being a "city" bird, it appeared well adjusted to people and sat atop the pole for several minutes as I viewed and took digi-bin photos of it.

Red-tailed Hawk Mechanic Street Leominster, Ma.

An American Crow was approaching and this Red-tail kept a close eye on the crow, perhaps anticipating it may return with an angry "mob".

Red-tail watching a passing crow with some concern

I did manage to get around to scanning for the meadowlarks, after the Red-tailed distraction, and saw two in flight that quickly "fell" out of sight behind the crown of the hill.

Last Saturday, I drove to Quabbin Park to pickup the gate keys for this Sunday's (5/4) Forbush Bird Club trip. A Raven's nest is quite visible at the spill way , offering a nice view down into the nest. The young layed sprawled out and keeping a low profile in the nest, their body feathers had grown in and the flight feathers appeared to just be coming in. On the return trip I spotted this Broad-winged Hawk in Templeton, just off Rte 101.

Broad-winged Hawk in Templeton, Ma.

Westminster Birds 4/26/08

Even though I haven't written much here recently, I have been birding a lot locally. I wanted to extend my human powered birding range ,so last week a bought a Trek mountain bike so I have been peddling around town.
One of the benifits of birding from the bike is that it gives one an excuse to stop on uphill climbs! Rather than looking like a complete "wuss" you can rationalize, that sounded like a Ruffed Grouse (actually it just my pulse rate going through the roof) stop, scan and look like you have a purpose and of course rest. But, seriously this is a great way to bird locally and not miss too much while in route from one place to another.

The spill way of Round Meadow Pond, in Westminster, this morning

This morning I biked just under 17 miles between 6:00 and 10:15 AM to Trophet Swamp and then up to High Ridge Wildlife Management Area. I struck out on marsh birds at Trophet and High Ridge, warbler activity was sparse but the numbers of White-throated Sparrows and House Wrens are on the increase. Purple Finches continue to show very well in the area, with several pockets of 4-10 birds, many are feeding on the flowering maples.

A Red-bellied Woodpecker has been territorial not far from my apartment

High Ridge was a busy place this morning, the radio controled aircraft folks were flying their aircraft, a "missing persons" drill was starting up about 9AM and retreiver field trials were in process, complete with live gun fire.

Yellow-rumped Warbler from Overlook Road in Westminster

Hilights included a fly over Merlin that was quickly swarmed by Tree Swallows and my first Black-throated Green Warbler of the year. I have still yet to come up with an Evening Grosbeak for the year, much of my winter was spent concentrating on moving and I haven't really targeted this species.

Hairy Woodpecker recent digi-binned from my yard
Currently my human powered year list stands at 92 species (88 which I've seen or heard in April) and as spring progesses I should be able to add a good deal of birds to this list.

This moring's list:
Canada Goose...22
Wood Duck...5
Mallard...8
Hooded Merganser...4
Double-crested Cormorant...5
Great Blue Heron...1
Osprey...1
Broad-winged Hawk...1
Merlin...1
Killdeer...1
Rock Pigeon...4
Mourning Dove...10
Belted Kingfisher...2
Red-bellied Woodpecker...1
Downy Woodpecker...5
Hairy Woodpecker...4
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)...3
Pileated Woodpecker...1
Eastern Phoebe...4
Blue-headed Vireo...6
Blue Jay...32
American Crow...12
Tree Swallow...41
Black-capped Chickadee...45
Tufted Titmouse...26
Red-breasted Nuthatch...1
White-breasted Nuthatch...9
Brown Creeper...2
House Wren...3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet...1
Eastern Bluebird...2
American Robin...79
European Starling...16
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)...11
Black-throated Green Warbler...1
Pine Warbler...5
Palm Warbler (Yellow)...1
Eastern Towhee...2
Chipping Sparrow...59
Song Sparrow...23
Swamp Sparrow...9
White-throated Sparrow...14
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)...1
Northern Cardinal...14
Red-winged Blackbird...40
Common Grackle...50
Brown-headed Cowbird...11
Purple Finch...34
House Finch...14
American Goldfinch...20
House Sparrow...29