Flicker!

8:45 to 9:15, 69 degrees, Clear Skies, Wind 9mph NW

With the wind and the shade of the trees it felt cooler than 69. Gusts would sometimes blow drops of water off the leaves. A storm came through yesterday afternoon. Bird feeder was turned a bit. No doubt it was from the storm. Hard to tell if the seed level has gone down. 

I am definitely getting better at telling the different types of motion. The wind moves the trees a certain way. Motion throughout the Little Forrest. A squirrel will make one branch move. Or several branches if it is jumping from one place to another, a more localized motion. I saw some motion up high across The Crick and to my right. My first thought was squirrel. However it was not moving like a squirrel. Then it was clear that it was moving like a woodpecker. I figured Merlin was going to give me Downey Woodpecker soon. I heard some interesting calls and looked down to see Northern Flicker. (Not likely in Sit Spot today) I played back the merlin tape and all 11 calls on Merlin. It definitely could have been a flicker. So I am counting it. 

Merlin heard 16 different species today. 

Nest?

 8:45 to 9:15am, 68 degrees, drizzle to part sunny, Wind 3mph W

When I got to the sit spot, there was a squirrel coming down Old Red. The squirrel had a small branch with leaves on it. I know squirrels use leaves in building their nests. Their nests are called dreys. So far I have only seen grey squirrels here. Was this nest building behavior? Do squirrels like oak leaves better than maple leaves. Those are the predominated trees in the Little Forrest. I guess it will be easier to find nests in the Little Forrest when the leaves fall. 

Not a lot going on this morning. There was some construction going on off behind house number 1. Big earth moving equipment sounding noises. So, things were kind of subdued. The construction noises overpowered the bird sounds. At one point the goldfinches sounded closer than they have ever been before. 

Merlin identified 10 species. Nothing new or not likely in Portland today. Saw a couple of birds flying high and cruising over the Little Forrest. Only caught glances of them as they passed on the wind.

Oops! forgot

 7:00 to 7:45 am, 68 degrees, cloudy, wind 4mph NW

Forgot to write up yesterdays sit spot. The goldfinches were more active again. I have only been at it for a month or so. It is possible they were active like this before I started sitting. They sounded lower at one point yesterday. At one point I thought about moving so that I could see around Pinky. So far, when I hear birds I remain in my seat. Even If I think I can see a bird if I get up and move a bit. 

There was a human moving around the yard in house number 2. It is hard to see the house because there is a dense spot of vegetation at the top of the gully where their lot is. It looks like there are some vines going up the trees at the back of their property. At different times of the day, there are different activities going on in and around The Little Forrest.  Thinking about a trail camera. 

I think the birds have found the bird feeder. I did not fill it to the top when I put it out. That would have been helpful in hindsight. It does have some lines, that I am now paying attention to. More will be revealed!

East End Bird List

1 Osprey

2 Blue Heron

3 Snowy Egret

4 Great Egret

5 Northern Mocking Bird

6 Cedar Waxwing

7 Northern Yellow Warbler

8 Canada Goose

9 American Crow

10 Semipalmated Plover

11 Song Sparrow

12 Grey Catbird

13 Black Capped Chickadee

14 Spotted Sandpiper

15 American Goldfinch

16 Mallard

17 Forster's Tern 

18 Arctic Tern

19 American Herring Gull

20 Blue Jay

21 Common Tern

22 Cormorant 

23 Least Sandpiper

24 Morning Dove

25 American Robin

26 Ring-billed Gull

27 Lesser Black backed Gull

28 Greater Yellow Legs

29 Semipalmated Plover

30 Chimney Swift

31 Northern Yellow Warbler

32 Bonapartes Gull

33 European Starling

Goldfinches Everywhere and Then Nothing

 5:00 to 5:40 pm, 81 degrees, some clouds, Wind 12 mph NW, Humidity 46%

It was the coolest feeling 81 in a long time. Wind and lower humidity was nice. In the first five minutes only Goldfinches, Blue Jay, and Song Sparrow.  Goldfinches are usually off to the right towards Fall Brook. And that is where I heard them first, in the distance. Then some off to my left almost as if they were doing call and response. And for a minute or so the entire canopy of the Little Forrest was lit up in goldfinch song. I kept expecting to see them explode through the canopy and fill the understory. Unfortunately, they remained high in the canopy. Around ten minutes in there was an agitated squirrel off towards Fall Brook. Then the bird sounds stopped for close to twenty minutes. Nothing not a distant crow, not a transient seagull, nor geese honking on high.  What set the squirrel and birds on alert? I do not know. Many such mysteries in the Little Forrest.

There were however some exciting new discoveries. There was activity at the Barrow's house! (Not their name, but it could be.) I have decided that is their name because the have a wheel barrow in the yard across the gully, that has the crick in it. Across the gully there are four single family homes I can see. The Barrow's have a golden retriever. Also, a daughter? who was weeding and looking at her phone. Much of society thinks humans are not part of nature. We are part of nature and shape it in many way both intentionally and unintentionally. 

I cannot imagine what The Little Forrest looked like as old growth forest. It looks as if at one point the gulley was clear cut. No Little Forrest, however the Crick would have been there. It looks as if some of the trees were there before the condominiums were built. Certainly Pinky and Old Red were there. Most of the other tress I have come to know seem much younger than fifty years. The Little Forrest has come to be mostly through neglect. Not a bad thing! Nature abhors a vacuum. Something will happen even if you do nothing! I have much curiosity about my sit spot. More will be revealed!

A Murder.......Of Crows

 7:15 to 8:00am, 66 degrees, Cloudy, Wind 4mph WNW, 

Wow! Were the crows agitated this morning. While I often hear crows in my sit spot they are usually a bit away. They don't live in the Little Forrest. mostly sound like they are in Chevrus Woods or Canco Woods. This morning they were directly above, also left and right above. They were not happy. Perhaps, there was a murder of a crow and they were chasing the killer off. It was five minutes before Merlin heard another bird. Nothing but agitated crows. At ten minutes they calmed and I thought move on. They were clearly still there and communicating for a while. I would hear one over by Fall Brook, then one overhead, then one off to my left, and then one back towards Chevrus Woods. Not sure what happened but it was interesting to hear the calls go from outside the Little Forrest, through it, then out the other side. 

Merlin said 18 different species. Indigo Bunting and Wood Duck were new. Also, not likely in Portland today. Both could enjoy The Little Forrest and its surroundings. I am going to Scarborough Audubon tomorrow and will ask about how to tell if Merlin is correct. 

Orientation to Place

 1:20 to 2:00, 82 degrees, Partly Cloudy, 56% humidity, Wind 8 mph W

Not much seems to happen on a hot afternoon. I have not been doing it long enough to know for sure. However, Jon Young says, in What the Robin Knows,  it is a quiet time of day. That has been my lived experience so far. 

My sit spot is just inside the tree line not far from the parking area for the condominiums. There was a noticeable change in temperature just stepping off the black top. And again, a drop in temperature when I stepped inside the tree line. Today, I pulled out a compass and found that I sit facing due north. I sit overlooking a gully and facing perpendicular to the crick. Fall Crick starts in the west and drops to the east and hits Fall Brook before turning south and running down to Back Cove of Casco Bay. There was a farm here until the 1980's when the condominiums were built. Some of the trees in the gully are probably older than the condominiums. 

The first people to show up on this land showed up about 12,000 years ago. After the ice sheets retreated. Some were as thick as 5,000 feet. The ocean was much further away at that point in time. The first peoples here were known as the People of the Dawn. What happened between the People of the Dawn and now will require some research. I would like to know who owned the farm for starters. 

One interesting thing did happen during my sit. Merlin heard a Great Horned Owl! (Not likely in Portland today) Then The Little Forrest got silent. Now, I did not hear an owl. It is a low activity time of day for the birds in The Little Forrest. This is now the second time this has happened. Who knows?