A group of Audubon birders were at the Fields Pond Audubon Center in Holden to find as many birds as possible in one morning. They were especially pleased with a Sora Rail that walked across a boardwalk in a marsh.

The expression “thin as a rail” refers to this bird, not a fence rail. Rails are thin so they can slip through cattails, sedges or shrubs in a wetland. They look somewhat like a very small chicken as they walk among the cattails.

This Sora called out its name from its hiding place in the cattails, and then walked in full view across a boardwalk, delighting its audience of birders.

Another Audubon birder was patrolling the Orono Bog Boardwalk without his binoculars. Suddenly he saw a gray bird with long tail – a Gray Jay.

This is an uncommon bird in the Bangor area, and the first sighting of this species from the bog boardwalk. Then he saw two together. Fortunately he had seen that species frequently in other places, so he knew right away what species it was.

A pair together at this time of year means there is a good chance that they have a nest nearby, something to watch for. The pair may be seen often there, looking for food – insects, small mammals and amphibians – for their young near Interpretive Sign No. 7.

Birders on an Audubon bird walk in Mount Hope Cemetery found 40 bird species there. In the sky overhead, they saw Chimney Swifts. As they swoop across the sky, their wings look stiff, and they have a short stubby tail. They are often called “the cigar with wings.”

Chimney Swifts find insects higher in the air than swallows do. Swarms of ants sometimes looked like a rising cloud.

Chimney Swifts find them and fly through the “cloud,” catching ants. The swifts have a tiny bill, but enormous “gape,” the term for a bird’s mouth. They catch flying ants, other insects and spiders sailing on their silk threads, by opening the gape wide.

Chimney Swifts can be seen in early June pulling twigs off trees with their feet. They glue the twigs together with saliva to make their nest, formerly in hollow trees and cracks in cliffs, but now largely in chimneys. They perch vertically in chimneys and other vertical surfaces.

Chimney Swifts spend their summer in the United States and spend their winter catching insects high in the air above the Amazon River watershed.

For information on Fields Pond Audubon Center, call 989-2591.