Yet another wonderful day. The weather was close to perfect, bright and sunny, minimal wind, but not cool to a fault. Twelve people came for our last walk of the year to Sabattus Pond. There were hundreds of ducks, but many too far to be seen well with binoculars but we did have a few scopes, and some were close enough to see reasonably well. We also had a few song birds just to keep the walk interesting. And we went “everywhere” … Long Beach, Riley Rd., Access Rd. loop, Martin’s Point, Hot Dog Rd., and the American Legion. A total of 43 species were seen or heard (H). We particularly welcome the new folks who came and a special thank you to Josh Fecteau for hearing and finding a few others missed
Seen or Heard:
Canada Goose – 85 from Hot Dog Rd.
Wood Duck – 4 at American Legion
American Black Duck – 18
Mallard – many
Ring-necked Duck – 1
Greater Scaup / Lesser Scaup – good number
White-winged Scoter – 1
Bufflehead – 4
Hooded Merganser – 10
Ruddy Duck – 1000 (approximate!!) most ducks were between Riley Rd. and Access Rd. Loop and hard to see close
Wild Turkey – 3
Double-creasted Cormorant – 7, north end
Great Blue Heron – 10 all scattered, one very brown first year
Turkey Vulture – 3 but many more circled over the town
Bald Eagle – 1 first year
Sharp-shinned Hawk – 1 low over American Legion
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Rock Pigeon – 6
Mourning Dove – 8
Belted Kingfisher – 1
Downy Woodpecker (H)
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper (H)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet – 2
Eastern Bluebird – about 4 flew over calling
American Robin
Yellow-rumped Warbler – 6
Palm Warbler – 5 cooperative
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco – 1
Northern Cardinal (H)
Red-winged Blackbird – about 30 flew over
Common Grackle – 1 flew over
Purple Finch (H)
House Finch
American Goldfinch (H)
House Sparrow
Stan DeOrsey