3.20.15 - Private Walk - Cape Cod & South Coast Homeschoolers

Cape Cod Canal  Sandwich, MA

I've been very fortunate leading bird walks for so many reasons, and one of the best reasons is meeting wonderful nature loving people.  A lovely family joined in on Tuesday Tweets last fall and their mom contacted me to lead 4 private walks for their fantastic group of home schooled students!  This was our first walk together as a group and we had an incredible amount of sightings!  It was the perfect way to spend the first day of spring, as chilly as it was, outdoors & celebrating nature through the birds and our unique environment on Cape Cod.  Janice - Common Eiders eat crustaceans, mollusks and sea urchins from the ocean floor.  I can't wait for the next walk!  

(double click photos below to enlarge)

Our List:

Black-capped Chickadee

Brant

American Crow

Herring Gull

Surf Scoter

Red-breasted Merganser

Common Eider

Long-tailed Duck (!!!)

Common Loon

Black Scoter

Ring-billed Gull

Horned Grebe

Red-throated Loon

Brant 

Brant 

American Crow

                                              Red-breasted Merganser (1st year male)

Surf Scoter - male

Long-tailed Duck (male)  A FIRST FOR ME!

Long-tailed Duck diving (male)

Long-tailed Duck - female & male

Long-tailed Duck - male & female

Red-breasted Merganser, 2 Common Eider - females

Common Eiders flying west through the Cape Cod Canal

Human garbage - pointed out by one of the young home school students

You can barely see the Sagamore Bridge in the distance

Common Eider - male

Sandal shaped driftwork

Common Eiders at the mouth of the canal

Common Eiders

Common Eiders - male & female

This solitary Common Eider male did not seem bothered by the enormous barge

Brant on the wing 

Red-breasted Merganser - male

Common Loon

                                  

Common Loon - non-breeding plumage

Horned Grebe - non-breeding plumage

Common Loon - non-breeding plumage

Horned Grebe

Common Loon  - non-breeding plumage

Common Loon, Red-throated Loon, Horned Grebe

Brant & Herring Gull

Herring Gull & Great Black-backed Gull (for comparison)

Common Eiders flocking through the canal to avoid a large barge

Looking forward to our next bird walk home schoolers!  That walk is going to be tough to beat!  Happy Birding!

3.16.15 - For The Birds - Enrichment Class
Wixon Innovation Middle School - Dennis, MA

It's still SO COLD here on the Cape and we bundled up again and headed out into the sunshine... still no birds to speak of, or listen to.  Part of the issue is the time of day.  The birds know that there is a lot of noise and activity near the end of the school day.  The buses show up, cars pull in for parent pick-up, and the anticipation of the end of the school day, even though it's a Monday, is evident.  No doubt the wildlife in the area basically steers clear of the schoolyard during this time, particularly on cold days.  I am confident, as the Northeast starts to warm, we will be able to observe more avian activity.  As if growing up on Cape Cod wasn't enough, one of the incredible benefits to being a 5th grader in this school district is getting to travel to the NEED Academy in Truro with your classmates and stay over 4 nights in Truro!   What an experience and a right of passage for these kids.  They retain so much from their stay there, and that experience encourages a deeper understanding and appreciation of this naturally spectacular area we call home.   We discussed the school yard habitat we were visiting and compared much of the information they've learned while at NEED.  So - what do we do when there are no birds about?  We searched for and discussed evidence of birds and/or spaces they may use for shelter, what they may use for food, and what they could possibly use for nesting.  See the photos below to see some of our discoveries. (double click photos to enlarge - enjoy the spontaneous photo bombs!)

Old Man's Beard Lichen

Oak Apple Gall remnants

Acorns - important to Blue Jays, Wild Turkeys & of course, squirrels

Heart-shaped ice

Hugging and respecting the trees for their importance

Spotted a nest cavity

Who might live in there?

Trees are WONDERFUL!

One student compared the tip of this branch to a bird's foot - so true!

One in tact pine cone & one picked apart for seeds as food

'Til next time... Happy Birding!

3.10.15 - Cape Cod Museum of Natural History - Tuesday Tweets 
John Wing Trail - Brewster, MA

I've had to cancel a few Tuesday Tweets due to uncomfortable weather, sub zero temperatures and treacherous trails.  Cancelling is a bummer!  Today, we got a walk in! It was sunshine-y and peaceful over the marsh and it made for a magical trek for me.  There was at least a foot, and in some spots more than two feet, of snow & ice packed over the trail, making us feel quite tall in some areas and allowing for new perspectives when walking & trying to avoid snow sink holes.  It was SO quiet without wind and it was a whole new trail to me!  Where thickets and brush were buried and stretched over into the snow, there were spaces among the branches where tiny mammals and no doubt birds had been finding shelter.  There was at least one moment when I missed someone tiny scurry into one of those spaces.  So I heard the noise, and then saw the quivering of the branch... but that was it.  A meadow vole I suspect.  The photos on this day represent more of what the walk felt like in the mounds of snow.  We didn't encounter too many birds.  It's hard to believe that within the next couple of weeks, the Osprey will return, and soon after that, the herring will be running.  Things are slowly warming up, but for now we are still mostly covered in the white stuff.

Our List: (double click photos below to enlarge)
White-throated Sparrow
Blue Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
American Crow
Mourning Dove
Song Sparrow
Canada Goose

White-throated Sparrow (not a good shot)

White-throated Sparrow (another bad angle - the sun was GLARING)

Nest - goldfinch I believe

This nest was in a spot I'd normally NEVER get to, but because of the snow & ice pack, 

we could walk right up to it to inspect it.

Next lined with fluffy stuff...thistle?  I've learned from Sue Finnegan, the museum's master bird bander that American Goldfinch are one of the last birds to lay eggs because they prefer to line their nest with the fluffy soft thistle.  That's what this looked like to me.

Cape Cod Museum of Natural History - north side view, over the snowy marsh

Osprey prime real estate... they'll be here soon!

Looking west over the marsh from the John Wing Trail

Song Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Snow-covered Solar Calendar

Pitch Pine Yoga

This broken branch, now frozen into the packed snow & ice

was providing necessary shelter for the wildlife that fit into the small insulated spaces.

Next opportunity for Tuesday Tweets: 3.24.15 @9:30am $2Members/$4Non-members

Also - Birdwatching For Beginners is included with museum admission on 3.19.15 at 10am.

Happy Birding!

3.9.15 - For The Birds - Enrichment Class
Wixon Innovation Middle School - Dennis, MA

What a crazy winter!  As we approach spring, there is STILL plenty of snow on the ground everywhere you turn on Cape Cod.  We proved it by trudging through it - so the students did get stuck in the snow as we decided to explore the woodlands behind the school!  It was pretty funny in that we could not cover much territory at all because some of the snow cover was still about 2 feet deep!  This was a reminder for those who forgot their boots... that's all I'll say about that!  We did hear, but not see, two bird species in the woods; a Black-capped Chickadee and a White-breasted Nuthatch.  We were so loud in the snow and laughing at each other, it was too difficult locating birds on this outing. We did spy some animal tracks in the snow, and while this is not my specialty, they looked like fisher tracks to me.  Pretty big! We are learning about the tremendous habitat that surrounds the school!  So many opportunities for birds to find what they need to thrive!  I cannot wait as the season warms up, to see and hear what we see and hear!  (double click photos to enlarge)

Our List:
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch

Fisher tracks?

The tracks led to the base of a pitch pine where some bark was scratched off 

and then they led away from the tree.

'Til next week - Happy Birding!