Some select photographs taken while on vacation in Pittsburg, NH!

Chris (my younger brother) took the vast majority of the photos posted here. Pictures taken by your host will be noted as such; all other photos are captured by my awesome bro! I thought it would be nice to share some of the awesomeness we observed while being on vacation in the Great North Woods of Coos County in Pittsburg, NH (from the 18th to 25th of July, 2010). Enjoy everybody!!

Common Loon

Common Loon

Myself resting at "the falls" off of The Falls in the River Trail (Cohos)

Bald Eagles (off of Back Lake)

Bald Eagles

Bald Eagle in flight

Common Loon

Common Loon

Moose bones found off of The Falls in the River Trail (Cohos)

Female Common Merganser

Moose near jct. of Indian Stream Road and Moose Pond Road

Moose

Momma Black Bear with 1 of 3 cubs off of Route 142 in Bethlehem, NH

Bald Eagles off of Back Lake

Myself and my Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Gildor, at Big Brook Bog

Gray Jay at East Inlet

Gray (Canada) Jay, aka Whiskey Jack at East Inlet

Photo taken by yours truly of my bro with his big catch!

Photo by yours truly of a Boreal Bluet

American Toad off of trail leading to Little Hellgate Falls

The rare sighting of a Gildor!

More Common Loonage!

Common Loon

Common Loon on Back Lake

Photo by yours truly of Common Loon

Also by yours truly!

eBird Report - Great Meadows NWR--Concord Unit, 8/2/10 - Nothing like doing a wee bit of birding after work!

For a multitude of reasons, I chose to do myself a favor and enjoy myself after a dull and monotonous day at work by doing what I love best....birding! Of course, one never needs any sort of excuse to go birding, for its always a good idea to get your bird on! I chose to hit up the Concord subdivision of Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge because 1) this was the best day weather-wise for this week; 2) I usually go birding on Sundays, whether by myself or with my good buddy Kirk, and so, I want to sleep in this upcoming Sunday; 3) needed to find some solitude in one of my favorite locales to visit; 4) it had been quite some time since last I was at Great Meadows; and 5) just a few days ago, Brian Cassie reported seeing 13 immature Black-crowned Night-Herons at Great Meadows! So, there ya have it! The last reason being the main reason I just had to get out after work!


And so I spent 2 hours and 20 minutes at Great Meadows (5:20 to 7:40 pm), trekking around the dike trail that runs along and bisects the Upper and Lower Pools. Since my main objective was the Black-crowned Night-Herons, I made my way to the man-made pools found near the border of Great Meadows just beyond the Upper impoundment. And most fortunately, I was blessed to observe 4 of these mysterious, skulking freshwater wader! Yet another Lifer for me (though such things happen relatively often when you are a novice birder like myself). Its too bad no full-fledged adult Night-Herons were around, but no complaints here, for I take what I can get, ya know?!


Other highlights were as follows: An Osprey gliding low overhead, heading towards the Lower Pool; 2 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and 2 Warbling Vireos while searching for the Night-Herons; a Pine Warbler along the dike trail running in between the Upper Pool and Concord River; a Spotted Sandpiper in non-breeding plumage teetering and tottering its rear-end whilst perusing the juncture of the spillway into the Concord River that enters from the Upper Pool; and lastly, an immature Green Heron warily keeping an eye on me from about 75 yards out from the bridge spanning the spillway that leads into the Concord River from the Lower Pool. Oh, and while trekking along the Upper Pool, from best I can tell, and from what I just read online, a Meadow Jumping Mouse went hopping across the path from the riverside into the reeds. It had to be one, for I have never seen a mouse hop in any manner, for every mouse prior to today has always just hurriedly scampered along! Its hops were about 3 inches in length, and like most mice, was a wicked cute little bugger!


Ultimately, a wonderful, tranquil and leisurely stroll of about 3 miles I had at GMNWR, enjoying the solitude and taking in all the sights and sounds such a wonderful array of habitats that Great Meadows offers! I'll be back again soon enough for the shorebird migration and for the Nighthawk migration as well! Happy birding everyone!

Location:     Great Meadows NWR--Concord Unit
Observation date:     8/2/10
Notes:     Snowy Egret, 4 immature Black-crowned Night-Herons seen along the edge of the man-made pools found beyond the Upper Pool; immature Green Heron seen on edge of creek going down center of Lower Pool nearest the Concord River.
Number of species:     34

Canada Goose - Branta canadensis     28
Wood Duck - Aix sponsa     2
Mallard - Anas platyrhynchos     13
Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias     7
Snowy Egret - Egretta thula     1
Green Heron - Butorides virescens     1
Black-crowned Night-Heron - Nycticorax nycticorax     4
Osprey - Pandion haliaetus     1
Spotted Sandpiper - Actitis macularius     1
Least Sandpiper - Calidris minutilla     1
Mourning Dove - Zenaida macroura     3
Downy Woodpecker - Picoides pubescens     2
Eastern Phoebe - Sayornis phoebe     1
Eastern Kingbird - Tyrannus tyrannus     5
Warbling Vireo - Vireo gilvus     2
Blue Jay - Cyanocitta cristata     3
American Crow - Corvus brachyrhynchos     5
Tree Swallow - Tachycineta bicolor     11
Bank Swallow - Riparia riparia     5
Barn Swallow - Hirundo rustica     6
Black-capped Chickadee - Poecile atricapillus     11
White-breasted Nuthatch - Sitta carolinensis     5
Marsh Wren - Cistothorus palustris     6
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - Polioptila caerulea     2
American Robin - Turdus migratorius     37
Gray Catbird - Dumetella carolinensis     2
Cedar Waxwing - Bombycilla cedrorum     6
Yellow Warbler - Dendroica petechia     2
Pine Warbler - Dendroica pinus     1
Common Yellowthroat - Geothlypis trichas     1
Song Sparrow - Melospiza melodia     2
Northern Cardinal - Cardinalis cardinalis     4
Red-winged Blackbird - Agelaius phoeniceus     21
American Goldfinch - Spinus tristis     22

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Plum Island in Newburyport, MA.....always top notch, no matter what time of the year!

A week removed from being up in the Great North Woods of Coos County in the township of Pittsburg, NH, I was at it again, getting my "bird" on with my good buddy Kirk Marshall up at Sandy Point State Reservation and Parker River NWR on Plum Island! We had several target species to shoot for, and we knew we had to get to Plum early to avoid the droves of "beach weasels" that enjoy getting skin cancer. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice day, but burning my skin to a crisp doesn't sound like a good idea to me......getting my skin burnt to a crisp while searching out all sorts of bird species sounds like a much better idea!! Thankfully, I had some good breathable clothing and the all important "field" hat with a brim all the way around to protect my pale, freckled skin on and near my head!


Ah yes, got a bit sidetracked there....the target species we had on our docket were as follows: Western Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher (Kirk had already seen these prior to this trip) and most importantly, the quite rare (in this region anyhow) Scissor-tailed Flycatcher!! This wonderful, extremely long-tailed bird (fairly common in places like Oklahoma) had been seen for what, about a week and a half, with several birders having seen it and a number taking some decent photos of it. Our first priority was trying to get on the Scissor-tailed that had been found at Sandy Point. We had been perusing the general area that this bird had been seen for about an hour and half or so, but then decided to keep on going, checking out the rest of the hotspots where other bird species we hoped to see would be. Not a half hour later after we had left Sandy Point did we find out from other birders (seemingly everyone we came across) that the Scissor-tailed had indeed come out from hiding for a few minutes before being harassed and chased off by the myriad numbers of Tree Swallows that had called Plum Island home today. Needless to say we were definitely even more bummed when we found out it was indeed still hanging around the area. But by that time, we had had our fill, and Plum Island was filling up fast with "beach weasels" galore (and the sun was draining us of energy as well).


We didn't get upon the Western Sandpiper or Stilt Sandpipers either (at least we think we didn't anyhow.....shorebirds/waders are such a frakking pain in the buttocks to identify, especially to a novice like myself). However, we did see several Short-billed Dowitchers (a Lifer for myself) at BFP, feeding with that sewing machine motion of theirs, as well as a Black-bellied Plover coming in for a landing at Bill Forward Pool to give us some amazing looks of it in its full breeding plumage!


Despite coming up short, we still had a great time seeing all that we could see (the full sightings list is below) whilst getting nagged by sand fleas and greenheads and the onslaught of full-on "sunnage" upon us (at least after the morning fog had lifted). We ended our time up in Essex County having lunch at the Agawam Diner in Rowley off of Route 1. While enjoying our cheese steak sandwiches, we were "graced" with a surprise visit from Senator Scott Brown, his wife Gail Huff (yeah WCVB Channel 5!!), along with perhaps one of his aides (?) and one of his rather lovely daughters....Ayla Brown?? Not too sure. Never did watch American Idol, and never will! It certainly made for a more interesting than usual time at the Agawam!


Happy birding everyone, and some day I will get upon a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (also got jipped at the Orange Municipal Airport in Orange last year of one)! Take care folks!!


Location:     Parker River NWR
Observation date:     8/1/10
Notes:     Numbers of Tree Swallows are more than likely conservative, as well as number of Bank Swallows intermingling with Tree Swallows; struck-out in search of Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, but was seen by other birders visiting Plum; numbers of shorebirds are also conservative, and since not entirely familiar with all species of waders, may have overlooked species not noted in this list.
Number of species:     38

Canada Goose - Branta canadensis     34
Mute Swan - Cygnus olor     3
American Black Duck - Anas rubripes     18
Double-crested Cormorant - Phalacrocorax auritus     7
Great Egret - Ardea alba     10
Snowy Egret - Egretta thula     6
Black-bellied Plover - Pluvialis squatarola     1
Semipalmated Plover - Charadrius semipalmatus     8
Greater Yellowlegs - Tringa melanoleuca     4
Willet (Eastern) - Tringa semipalmata semipalmata     2
Lesser Yellowlegs - Tringa flavipes     6
Semipalmated Sandpiper - Calidris pusilla     21
Least Sandpiper - Calidris minutilla     19
Short-billed Dowitcher (Atlantic) - Limnodromus griseus griseus     26
Ring-billed Gull - Larus delawarensis     5
Herring Gull (American) - Larus argentatus smithsonianus     7
Great Black-backed Gull - Larus marinus     3
Least Tern - Sternula antillarum     9
Common Tern - Sterna hirundo     3
Mourning Dove - Zenaida macroura     4
Eastern Kingbird - Tyrannus tyrannus     3
Purple Martin - Progne subis     8
Tree Swallow - Tachycineta bicolor     1250
Bank Swallow - Riparia riparia     11
Eastern Bluebird - Sialia sialis     1
American Robin - Turdus migratorius     6
Gray Catbird - Dumetella carolinensis     4
Brown Thrasher - Toxostoma rufum     1
European Starling - Sturnus vulgaris     33
Cedar Waxwing - Bombycilla cedrorum     40
Yellow Warbler - Dendroica petechia     4
Common Yellowthroat - Geothlypis trichas     1
Eastern Towhee - Pipilo erythrophthalmus     3
Song Sparrow - Melospiza melodia     5
Red-winged Blackbird - Agelaius phoeniceus     4
Common Grackle - Quiscalus quiscula     3
Baltimore Oriole - Icterus galbula     1
American Goldfinch - Spinus tristis     7

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)