I conducted my first Eastern Whip Poor Will surveys on Wednesday night. The first route consists of six stops within Quabbin Park and then four more going south of Quabbin. It was a very successful survey with Eastern Whip Poor Wills heard at all but the last stop with a total of 16 individuals at survey stops and another nine heard between stops. It was a perfect night for the survey despite a lot of mosquitoes. Other highlights of the route included a Great Horned Owl perched on the wall of the dike and at least three Porcupines.
My second survey occurred last night on the restricted access Prescott Peninsula. It was a warm evening with loads of mosquitoes. When I arrived at the first stop at the lower end of the peninsula I was greeted by a Porcupine in almost the same tree I had a family of Black Bears greet me a few years ago. Certainly quite lucky with seeing Porcupines on these surveys this year! Although the high clouds shielded the moon a bit the light was still enough to see fairly well throughout and should have been good for the birds but I had a very low count overall with just three Eastern Whip Poor Wills at survey points plus one in-between stops. All were in the first three stops at the lower end of the peninsula. The habitat at the more northern stops seems to have gotten better for the species but there were none to be found. Although the count of Eastern Whip Poor Wills was less than I hoped I did have Barred Owls at two stops including at least one juvenile calling with an adult nearby.
I was able to guide for a visitor from India for a few hours for three mornings earlier this week and thankfully the weather cooperated quite well despite some cool morning starts. I had to shift my other commitments around a bit and keep the birding to just a few hours in the morning but it was great to show someone all the great stuff we have around the area despite not being in a major birding area. This was the second time I guided for her with the first time being last fall. We covered a variety of areas from the farm fields along the river where we had a decent selection of shorebirds to Quabbin Park and Skinner State Park for a wide variety of forest birds plus a few other brief stops. Overall we had 98 species with many of those being life birds for her. We also had some fantastic mammals sightings with a close encounter with a Short tailed Weasel, Black Bear and a selection of other more common stuff.
Weasal is great find. Although occur in many places it is hard to actually see one. From my trail cameras, I believe they are more active at night although one never knows when or where they may appear.
ReplyDeleteI have seen just a handful of weasels around here ever and never at such close range...I caught one once on a game camera at the house. By far the best sighting of the entire day!
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