Greetings all! Took a quick break from the Haunted Trail task list tome to bring you another fun post from Brad. He will be going back out on assignment soon and I wanted to get a few more of his posts out while he still had plenty of time to respond to comments. Before we get to that, we have a new brag to celebrate. Raven needed only 6 more qualifying runs to earn another trip back to CPE Agility Nationals, so we decided to head up north and enter a show for the long weekend. I was concerned about losing all those days prepping for the haunt (basement currently full of 8′ spiders, a 10′ wolf, 5 tombstones and a myriad of other props in various states), but this would take a lot of pressure off Raven (and Linda) if we could get the qualifying checked off early.
Our little rock star got it done. Not only did he get his 6 qualifying runs (plus another for assurances), he also earned his 2nd CPE Championship complete with a giant ribbon – matching his now inflated ego ha. He spent most of the show pointing at it whenever another dog passed by. Showed him Brad’s post and his only comment was “Woof, Mwoof, Gwoof, Cwoof” – canine translated – Where’s MY Golden Crown!?! Sigh, a lot of sass for an under 5 pound Poodle. Anyway, I’ve delayed you too long already, let’s get to another of Brad and Jan’s adventures at Acadia.
Take it away Brad…
Let me help set the scene a little bit. Jan and I were on vacation at Acadia National Park. The morning Puffin and Lighthouse cruise we were scheduled to take had been cancelled because of fog. Not to worry, because we were able to catch one later that day. (See prior published story about Puffins, link here)
The Big Question remained unanswered; what do to for the next five hours until the cruise. See the rest of the park, of course — fog or not. We asked the GPS to take to Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse
As we neared the lighthouse, the fog thickened again; something about warm water and cold air mixing. I drove into the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse parking lot and secured the very last official parking space in the rather small lot. Several others had already parked on the grass, in the striped-out areas, in the ditch along the road, etc. The fog wasn’t the thickest we’d had on the trip yet, but it did add a spooky English mystery story feel to the place.
Hit the jump to see Brad and Jan’s finds on this foggy day.
The trees were dripping with moisture from the fog, so what do Jan and I do? We head straight into the woods. I was amazed that the sounds of the outside world ceased to exist only a few dozen feet into the trees, especially the very loud tourist kids yelling in the parking lot. Bird songs permeated the forest. I whipped out my phone with the Merlin app and let it listen to the birds so I would know who was in the area. (BTW, Merlin is a great, free app to help identify birds in your listening area. We at Intrigued receive no sponsorship from Merlin or All About Birds, but our Legal Team would be happy to talk with you if that’s a possibility.)
Immediately, this bird showed up as being present. Seconds after I began Merlin playback to learn the bird’s song, this bird darted by me and perched on a tree limb. Then to another. And another.
I was finally able to catch the Black-throated Green Warbler (Setophaga virens) sitting still for all of about five seconds. Unfortunately, it was closer than the minimum focus for my lens, so I had to thumb the manual focus ring on my 200-500mm lens. I couldn’t tell at the time, but it looked like this one had breakfast all sorted. They eat primarily insects during the breeding season. A favorite meal is caterpillars.
Then my five seconds were up as it flew to another tree.
This time I scored a more isolated and auto-focused photograph. You can tell where it gets part of its name from this photograph. The feathers on top of its head and “shoulders” are greenish. The black throat is obvious in the first two photographs.
Nearly as soon as I had this third photo, it disappeared. While Merlin could still hear it, I couldn’t see it anymore.
Stepping out of the woods and back into the parking area, we saw cars lined up to park, and it wasn’t even a Black Friday sale. Before we jumped back into the car, Jan saw this LBJ having a snack near the edge of the parking lot.
Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia) were all over the park. Song Sparrows do have a nice little song . . . when they aren’t stuffing their faces with beetles they find on the ground. I guess the five-second rule doesn’t apply in the bird world.
We left the lighthouse area, giving up a prime parking space, and drove to Pretty Marsh, almost an oxymoron.
As you would expect, Pretty Marsh was a rather visually pleasing marsh area. It also had unimproved camping with a few parking spots in the stately pine trees. Jan immediately took off for the shore while I listened with Merlin. A whole new set of birds came up on my phone.
I noticed there was a fire road into the woods, so off I went to see if I could find Jan near the shoreline. But on the way, there was a very insistent bird song.
The song was coming from a Swainson’s Thrush (Catharus ustulatus).
Variants are also called olive-backed or russet-backed. It is a medium-sized thrush, slightly smaller than an American Robin and slightly larger than a sparrow (pick a variety). Its brown coloring is well adapted for the forest where I found it. I could only see the white speckled breast flashing between the trees. It didn’t seem to need me to call it; it was very curious. But it was even more spastic than the Black-throated Green Warbler because all I really had were three usable photos (two of which are nearly identical).
Microseconds after the shutter clicked for the photos above, the thrush was off. I’m beginning to sense a theme from earlier in the day. I could still hear it, but it was nowhere to be seen.
The second bird that Merlin identified at Pretty Marsh was this snazzy dresser.
The Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa) was just as spastic as the Black-throated Green Warbler at the beginning of the story. I was only able to catch this bird in three photos in the one location. It was hopping from branch to branch, again, closer than my camera could focus. I sensed it was really curious and wanted to see what that large hunk of glass was doing in its neighborhood. At one point, I thought it was going to land on the end of my camera lens. I tried to manually focus the lens. I had barely found the bird in the viewfinder, just four feet away, when it decided to move again.
Notice the bright “gold” crown on its head. The Golden-crowned Kinglet usually raises two large broods of young, despite the short nesting season of the northern boreal forest. The female feeds her first brood until the day after they leave the nest. She then lays a second set of eggs while the male takes care of the first brood. The male manages to feed eight or nine nestlings himself, and he occasionally feeds the incubating female too. What a nice guy!
Just then, Jan walked around the corner of the trail, asking where I had been. We began to discussing our various sightings while walking back to the car. By now, it was time for us to find our way back to Bar Harbor to catch the afternoon boat tour.
Thank you for reading. Use these links if you want to see more bird photos, or photos from our trip to Acadia.
Credits:
Thanks again to Jan and Allyson for proofreading and editing. Thanks to Jan for the landscape photos in this article.
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