8 a.m. Big Sit Update
A White-throated Sparrow’s pure “Oh Sweet Canada” rang out from a nearby bush into the otherwise silent night once every hour starting at about 1 am but once 4 am rolled around that single bird’s voice was joined by a deafening chorus of White-throats. By 5:30 we had tallied 27 species including a calling Common Loon, loudly singing Winter Wrens, and lots of Red-breasted Nuthatches and Black-throated Green Warblers. At 6:30 we were up to 45 species with highlights including Sharp-shinned Hawk, Nashville Warbler, Golden-crowned Kinglet, and Northern Parula. A highlight for Louis and me was the arrival of warm breakfast croissants and coffee courtesy of the East Boothbay General Store. Thanks!
The warm breakfast gave us the boost we needed and despite increasing clouds and some gentle rain showers we found a few migrants including a beautiful Black-throated Blue Warbler, some Purple Finches, and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet and pushed our list to 54 by 7:30.
We can hear the fog horn blowing in the distance but hoping we don’t get enveloped in fog here!
May 14th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Keep it up fellows and thanks for the inspiration. Some of us will be in schools today working with elementary and middle school students (and their teachers)!
We’ll be working with the toughest species of all – humans!
Today’s in-school presentations will be combined with field forays each day next week, working with specific grades about the birds on their campus.
We’ll be sure to show them the great expanse and purpose of the Boreal – for the birds!