Annual Audubon bird count yields excellent results Volunteers report seeing 54 species

Audubon’s Old Town/Orono Christmas Bird Count, held last Saturday, was a great success. Judy Markowsky of the Fields Pond Nature Center in Orrington reported 54 species found, “well above average for this inland count,” she said.

Although I had originally planned to cover one of the territories for the count, I ended up counting only birds seen at my feeder in Old Town. However, I was able to tap into others’ experiences of the count, which were many and varied. As Judy remarked, counters ranged from those participating for the first time to 35-year veterans of such Christmas Bird Counts.

One such first-timer, unbeknownst to me, was a friend and co-worker. Marguerite Roosen not only had never done a Christmas Bird Count and she had never seriously gone bird-watching, either. However, an acquaintance who was a birder invited her to join in, so Marguerite took the brave step into winter birding. How was it, I asked her?

“Cold,” she replied succinctly. “The only time I got warmed up was when I rode my bike in to the university.”

Temperatures that day had hovered around freezing, and she had spent a lot of time standing around, scanning the river around Ayers Island through someone’s spotting scope. Her persistence paid off, as she was able to observe a few bald eagles and sightings of a much-sought-after water bird, a Barrow’s goldeneye duck. Not bad at all for a first-timer.

Others, veterans of many Christmas Bird Counts, covered a lot of ground in their search for birds, especially certain “target” species. Bill Glanz, associate professor of zoology and wildlife at the University of Maine, walked or drove through most of Veazie and parts of Orono. His target species was a red-bellied woodpecker, a southern bird that has invaded Maine this winter. The bird almost eluded him, but nimble sleuthing eventually produced this prize – and an unexpected bonus along the way. He recounts:

“I reasoned that red-bellies are southerners and would like to be in a sheltered spot on a cold day like today. The Veazie Salmon Club fits that description… so why not check it again?”

He does spot a woodpecker, but it isn’t what he thinks…

“I saw a woodpecker on a tree trunk, red on the back of its neck, sideways black stripes on its back. Major adrenaline rush… could this be my red-bellied? I found one! At last! But, there was something wrong with the way it looked…

“The brain works in mysterious ways. You concentrate on the things you hope to see, and your mind focuses on them, excluding other things that you otherwise should notice. I had been thinking of red-bellies and the other common wintering birds for most of the day, but my mind had omitted a species that I’d seen many times this past spring and summer… the bird my brain was trying to morph into a red-bellied was a northern flicker.”

Flickers, a type of ground-foraging woodpecker, usually migrate south come winter; Glanz had never seen one here during this season. Certainly, this was a prize, but the icing on the cake was finally seeing his red-bellied woodpecker at a feeder located in a heavily traveled area.

Thinking back, Glanz realized that he had previously seen red-bellies in the company of other woodpeckers. And where had he seen the most woodpeckers that day?

“It was in the trees around the feeder across from the Veazie Municipal Building and Hachey’s Fly Shop, just down the street from my house. Unfortunately, it also was the feeder with the most vehicular traffic going by.”

Although passing traffic periodically spooked the birds into hiding, the elusive woodpecker finally appeared – if only for a brief, opportunistic moment.

Another veteran Old Town/Orono Christmas Bird Count participant, University of Maine faculty member Ed Grew, was kind enough to share his highlight of the day. He called me all the way from Nebraska in response to my e-mail request.

Grew estimated he had covered 10 miles on foot that day to log in the greatest number of birds for the count.

He had been out since before dawn; approaching dusk found him near a creek that fed into Penjajawoc Stream. Nearby, a small area of ice-free water surrounded a beaver dam. Incredibly, in that small window of open water stood a great blue heron.

Herons do not usually remain this far inland, or this far north, during the winter, and he was delighted to see the bird. He also had the unique image of its large, distinctive footprints outlined in the snow around the creek.

“It had been a long day, but this was a great reward; it definitely made it all worthwhile.”

NEWS bird columnist Chris Corio can be reached at bdnsports@bangordailynews.net