With nice weather due to return for the weekend here in Maine, we would like to take a moment for a short update on our Piping Plover Monitoring Program.

After the storms in late April, a group of plover/endangered species biologists from United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) and Maine Audubon met to tour some of Maine’s plover beaches. Maine Audubon staff biologist, Laura Minich Zitske, was on hand to share an update on the many issues plovers face. The group surveyed beach and dune damage from the winter and spring storms and examined proposed and existing seawalls to better understand how can balance the needs of people and birds.

Everyone is checking out the male plover know as “Bahama Papa” (pictured below) Joining Laura was Kate O’Brien- Refuge Biologist at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge (USFWS), Kaiti Titherington- Plover and Tern Technician at RCNWR (USFWS), Mark McCullough- Endangered Species Specialist, Maine Field Office (USFWS), Laury Zicari- Field Supervisor, Maine Field Office (USFWS), Anne Hecht- Endangered Species Biologist (USFWS), Lindsay Tudor- Shorebird Biologist (MDIFW), Charlie Todd (Endangered & Threatened Species Coordinator (MDIFW)

Seawalls may help protect homes from storm damage, but they may ultimately destroy the very beach on which people built homes to enjoy. When waves hit the sea walls, it encourages increased speed of the water, picking up sand in the wave actions. Thus, we see much greater erosion around the walled sections of beach; the sea walls also prevents the natural rebuilding of beaches. This not only hurts people who enjoy the beach, but the nesting habitat for the endangered Piping Plover,  which have only 43 nesting pairs in Maine.

Nesting Conditions and Damage to Habitat Caused by Storms and Tides

When we get storms rolling in with full moon tides the landscape on our beaches can change fast. The storm damage to dunes has been so extensive on one particular beach that Laura  noted, “I barely know how to orient myself on this beach because there is so much dune washed away.” In the photo below, she demonstrates the approximate height of what was the leading edge of the dune before the most recent erosion after the storm/tide combination of late April.

Seasonal biologist Caroline Cappello took the photo below of an enclosure which originally cordoned off a full section of dune before the storm; after the storm, more than three feet of dune was lost.

Pictured below is the nest which used to be under the above exclosure. Our staff were able to safely remove the enclosure and the parents returned to tend the brood.

Nice Weekend Coming – Please Be Alert!

If you like to enjoy walks on a beach and see the sign in the photo below, please keep your pets on a leash and maintain a good distance from the chicks who start life little larger than a typical cotton ball.

A typical nest enclosure. This helps keep predators out and allows the plovers to come and go.

Not only are the chicks small, but they also blend into the sands of the beach. This was taken from more than one hundred feet away with a 400mm lens.

Pictured below: seasonal biologist, Traczie Bellinger, and intern, Mary Badger, spotting the chicks pictured above, which were then only a few days old.

Some playfulness between male and female.

A Plover on the outside of an enclosure which demonstrates how the Plover can easily fit through the fencing while a cat or other predator could not.

Learn about “Bahama Papa” – named for his location when first banded

“Bahama Papa” was first banded in the Bahamas in 2010 and has been seen on the same stretch of beach in Maine every summer since. Each winter he has been observed on the same stretch of beach on Grand Bahama where he was originally banded. In his Maine summers, he has already fledged 8 chicks!

We saw Bahama Papa on April 29. As of today, we know he has a mate and they have been scraping nest spots there is no definitive word as to whether or not Bahama Papa will be a father for another year.

This is “Bahama Papa” who has been seen in southern Maine a few years now and was first banded in the Bahamas in 2010 and has fledged eight chicks!

One day in late April while taking a walk to the west meadow I was at the end of the parking area at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center when a flash flew by that could only be a woodpecker. It didn’t take long to find the bird – who it turned out had important nearby duties to attend to – and sure enough it was a female hairy woodpecker. An insistent and crowded peeping sound emanating from the woods signaled this woodpecker’s true mission – raising chicks!

I tracked and then lost the adult bird but the peeping of the chicks drew me to inspect a poplar tree where I discovered the nesting cavity entrance! An exquisitely placed entrance hole that had a natural roof was situated where a human (me) could stay for good looks and still not disturb the nesters from their duties.

So I setup a tripod and waited, and returned several days across the month. The results are below.

– Robert Denton
Communications, Maine Audubon

This family was found on April 22. I learned a lot about the hairy woodpecker’s breeding and nesting habits in The Birders Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds [available in our store] by Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin, and Darryle Wheye. A hairy woodpecker pair will bond in the winter and the female often may tap at a potential nest site and perform flight antics to attract a male. The excavation of the nesting cavity takes 1-3 1/2 weeks. The male usually selects the site and the nesting cavity is typically lined with wood chips.

The pair will have 3-6 eggs with an average of 4 which hatch within 15 days. The chicks typically fledge within 28-30 days but I last saw them in the nest on June 3 so that puts these chicks over the cited fledge range.

This was a wonderful thing to watch from the first days when the parents were going into the cavity to feed at regular intervals 15-18 minutes apart, until the day the first chick was caught peeking outside at the big world from the only home it knew. The pictures confirm a male and female chick and beyond looking into the nest or seeing them all fledge only the parents know how many young were set off into the world. The chicks apparently fledged sometime in the first week of June.

May 30 – the first day I saw the chicks.

June 3 – The male chick peeks out above, and the female chick below.

Looking Back with Respect, Moving Forward with Optimism

In the June-August 2013 issue of Habitat, our members’ magazine, we mention work completed to capture the perspective of five former Executive Directors (all living in Maine) in video interviews they graciously agreed to give.

Board member Bob Duschesne met with each of them to get a sense of the challenges they faced during their tenure and the contributions made to the organization we know today. W will create highlights from these videos and present the interviews in full below where former Executive Directors Dick Anderson, Bill Ginn, Chuck Hewitt, Thomas Urquhart and Kevin Carley speak of the trials they faced and moments of celebration as the organization grew from a small community naturalist museum into today’s Maine Audubon. Bonus interview with current executive director Ted Koffman.

Dick Anderson 1969-1977

Bill Ginn 1977-1982

Chuck Hewitt 1983-1987

Thomas Urquhart – 1988-2000

Kevin Carley 2001-2008

Ted Koffman 2009-present

Our guest is Shannon LeRoy, Programs and Office Manager for the Appalachian Mountain Club and we talk about how nature recreation contributes to the Maine economy.

Do you love the outdoors, love kids, or even enjoy organizing programs?

Help our education department this summer. Maine Audubon needs volunteers to support our famously-fun Summer Camps and Preschool Programs at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth which run from June 17 – August 23.

A variety of tasks are available, depending on your interest.  Possibilities include:

• Leading craft activities, games, songs and exploration (between 8:30am and 3:30pm)
• Supervising and playing with kids of all ages
• Taking photographs of campers enjoying the great outdoors
• Organizing and preparing program materials (indoor/office support)

We can work with your schedule. No experience is required, just a love of the environment and a desire to share it with others.

The past week of cool rain feels a long way off since this heat wave moved up the coast and into Maine! The trip last Wednesday to Kennebunk Plains had a handful of intrepid birders slogging through that rain and periods of fog in search of any bird who would present itself.

The word used most often was “vexing” and this was due to the birds staying at a “scope’s distance” or simply behind cover. If the bird gave us a look, binoculars would often make something out but the 30x scope helped us sight in on many of the species we saw that day.

The prairie warblers barely showed themselves and like many birding trips it took patience and some creeping around to get a good look. The Grasshopper Sparrow presented itself and cooperated but only at an extreme distance. We were all delighted to watch him sing his buzzy notes over and over through the scope. We watched an Upland Sandpiper fly farther away, land and give us a great look through the scope as well.

In the woods we were all in awe of the song of the Veery, if you haven’t heard a Veery sing their resonating, double fluted like song go listen to it now at Cornell’s All About Birds page for the Veery!

The highlight however was a life-bird for all of us—even our staff naturalist Mike Windsor—a Clay-colored Sparrow. They are infrequent visitors in Maine and as we emerged from the wooded trail we heard a distinct insect-like buzz, stronger and more resonant than a grasshopper sparrow. You can listen to one on National Audubon’s Bird site »

You can see them all in the slideshow below, just click on one to get started.

Species List

• Red-tailed Hawk
• Upland Sandpiper
• American Kestrel
• Eastern Wood-Pewee
• Alder Flycatcher
• Great Crested Flycatcher
• Eastern Kingbird
• Red-eyed Vireo
• Blue Jay
• Tree Swallow
• Veery
• Gray Catbird
• Ovenbird
• Common Yellowthroat
• Chestnut-sided Warbler
• Prairie Warbler
• Eastern Towhee
• Chipping Sparrow
• Clay-colored Sparrow
• Field Sparrow
• Vesper Sparrow
• Grasshopper Sparrow
• Scarlet Tanager
• Eastern Meadowlark
• American Goldfinch

The mining industry has a terrible record of polluting the environment and leaving taxpayers with the clean-up costs. In Montana, for example, the federal government has spent over $10 million in taxpayer dollars cleaning up the Beal Mountain Mine – and they estimate that additional costs will be between $25 and $200 million. Mining companies also consistently promise jobs they fail to deliver to local communities. Maine’s clean water is our most valuable asset – if we are going to operate new sulfide mines in Maine, we have to ensure that mining companies protect our water quality and wildlife. You can help make this happen today!

The Facts

The Majority Report:
Increases Protection for Maine Taxpayers

• Requires independent third-party verification of mine clean-up costs.
• Requires mining companies to put all of the cleanup money in secure financial instruments upfront so that taxpayers don’t get stuck with the bill later.

Increases Protection of Water Quality

• Requires that mines be designed not to use water treatment for more than 10 years after closure. This means mining companies can’t get away with saying they will protect the environment by treating contaminated water forever. No company lasts forever, and the public will likely foot the bill for mines requiring long-term water treatment.
• Requires that mining companies minimize their pollution of groundwater and keep it within 100 feet of mining activities, with very limited exceptions. Last year’s law did not contain specific language on how far groundwater contamination could travel, potentially allowing it to spread over very large areas.
• Requires applicants for a mining permit to analyze best practices in model mines in the U.S. and describe how those techniques will be applied here in Maine.

Increases Information about Jobs for Maine People

• Requires a mining applicant to provide detailed information about the number and duration of jobs it will create, and an estimate of how many of these jobs will go to Maine people.

Learn: Majority Report [pdf] »
Learn: Maine Mining Watch »

Thank you for your support!

Almost 200 runners participated in today’s Snowy Egret 5K at Scarborough Marsh! What a great way to end a rainy week and long weekend. We hope everyone had a great time and thanks to all the volunteers who helped make this race possible and all of our race sponsors too!

• Snowy Egret 5K Race Awards 2013 [pdf]
• Snowy Egret 5K Race Results 2013 [pdf]

This post will be updated with a link to photo galleries as they arrive online!

2013 Race Sponsors

Since we are rained out of birding this morning here is a report from the other day. On Tuesday we withstood the light rain and mist (and a late down pour) to enjoy the range of habitat in this wonderful Freeport site. While the light made it hard to make some species there was a lot of activity to view and many other interesting sights. The light and height of the birds did not make for the best photography day but that’s only part of the fun anyway!

Full species list:

• Canada Goose
• Mallard
• Osprey
• Spotted Sandpiper
• Solitary Sandpiper
• Herring Gull
• Hairy Woodpecker
• Empidonax sp.
• Eastern Phoebe
• Great Crested Flycatcher
• Eastern Kingbird
• Blue-headed Vireo
• Tree Swallow
• Bank Swallow
• Barn Swallow
• Black-capped Chickadee
• Tufted Titmouse
• White-breasted Nuthatch
• Brown Creeper
• Gray Catbird
• Ovenbird
• Black-and-white Warbler
• Nashville Warbler
• Common Yellowthroat
• American Redstart
• Magnolia Warbler
• Yellow Warbler
• Chestnut-sided Warbler
• Yellow-rumped Warbler
• Prairie Warbler
• Black-throated Green Warbler
• Canada Warbler
• Song Sparrow
• Swamp Sparrow
• White-throated Sparrow
• White-crowned Sparrow
• Rose-breasted Grosbeak
• Bobolink
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Common Grackle
• American Goldfinch

Guest Judy Camuso, wildlife biologist with Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife joins us to talk wildlife habitat. We focus on vernal pools, New England cottontail, brook trout and other fish, birds, and more…