Melanistic Black-capped Chickadees in Aroostook Co

Presque Isle birder, Sue Pinette, recently forwarded a couple of interesting bird pictures that she'd received from her friend, Susan Chandler. Sue C. had a small dark bird visiting her yard on the northeast side of town and got a couple images of the bird when it visited her feeders.

As you know if you read the title of this post, I believe the mystery bird is an unusually dark plumaged Black-capped Chickadee. A quick summary of the pertinent characteristics is probably in order to support this identification....

First, thanks to Sue's nice, clear shots, it was easy to get a good look at the bird's plumage: the bird had an all dark head, a dark gray back, wings and tail and a slightly lighter gray underside. The eye, beak and feet were also black.

This late in November there are a few bird species in northern Maine that look somewhat similar to Sue's bird. But the apparent best-fit is probably the Dark-eyed Junco. So this species should be compared with the bird in the photos. The junco is small bird with a dark head, dark gray back and a dark eye- like the bird in the pictures. Unfortunately, the similarities end there. Juncos also have a clean white belly and white outer tail feathers and a light pink bill. None of these were visible on the bird in the photos.

Though the plumage doesn't match any local bird species, before considering more exotic bird species we should look for subtler clues to the birds identity... Judging the bird in comparison with the feeder and sunflower seeds inside, its evident the bird is a small one. Looking at the bird's shape is helpful. The bird is stocky with a blocky head and short stout bill. The second photo shows the bird with a single seed and apparently ready to fly from the feeder.

All of these point to one of the commoner species around feeders in northern Maine these days: the Black-capped Chickadee. I'm sure if we could watch the bird flitting back and forth from the feeder to the woods and hear it vocalize we'd be able confirm this ID.

It appears Sue's mystery bird is an unusually plumaged chickadee possessing an abundance of the dark pigment melanin. This extra pigment causes areas that are normally light or white to appear black or dark gray. These melanistic birds are substantially rarer than the opposite form of aberrant albinism. Here is a look at a normal plumaged Black-capped Chickadee taken at my Woodland feeders for comparison with these dark ones.


Even though I tried to explain how I could come to the identification of Sue's bird above, in truth, I jumped to this conclusion fairly quickly. This wasn't because of any great insights on my part, but actually because there have been several dark chickadees reported in the northeastern parts of Presque Isle in the past ten years or so. I've sorted my way through this ID before!

Roberta Griffiths first reported an all dark chickadee at her feeder back in 2003. The bird stayed at her yard most of that winter and she was able to get a video of the bird and in the recording one can hear it give the classic Chick-a-dee-dee call of the Black-capped.

More recently, Roberta also brought me the photo of a dark chickadee seen here taken at a feeder on the Parkhurst Siding Road in Presque Isle. The picture was taken in January 2008. While not quite as dark as Sue's bird and certainly not all black, the bird also has an all dark head like the others.



Here is a cropped version of the same picture:

Though the observations of these melanistic chickadees were made in locations that are only a couple miles apart in the north eastern side of town, the span of time (7 years) and the apparent difference in relative degree of pigmentation would seem to indicate that there is a small population of melanistic chickadees in Presque Isle. I'm not sure but I don't think this has been reported before.

Though extremely rare, melanism in chickadees has been reported before. James Tanner (the famed Cornell ornithologist who filmed Ivory-billed Woodpeckers back in the 30's) found one in up state New York in 1933. His paper on the discovery can be found online here:

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v051n02/p0240-p0240.pdf

Alfred Gross, a Bowdoin College ornithology professor, wrote about the rarity of melanistic birds in an article for the Journal of Field Ornithology in 1965

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/JFO/v036n04/p0240-p0242.pdf

Good stuff indeed

Northern Maine Birds 1-16 November 2009

Sunday's rain broke a two week dry spell in northern Maine. The weather has been balmy with warm temperatures for the season. Very little bird movement seems to be going on.

Passerines are in short supply and the general report is that feeding stations are slow.

Waterfowl numbers waned in late October thanks to cold temps, some heavy snow and frozen conditions on smaller ponds and wetlands. Geese numbers rebounded nicely as it warmed in the first week of November and a pulse of apparently "new" geese moved into the area. Canada Goose numbers have held around 12-15,000 in the central Aroostook area and flocks of over 3,000 birds are being seen at Collins Pond in Caribou, Lake Josephine in Easton and a private ponds in a couple Presque Isle locations. Paul Cyr photographed the scene at Collins Pond recently. Dozens of smaller flocks are being seen in other locales. With the exception of a couple Snow Geese seen on the 10th, none of the rarer species of geese have been seen this month. The Cackling Goose reported at Collins Pond in October was seen once more on the 26th and not again

Ducks have been in short supply since the October cold snap. Among those remaining, the most notable ducks were found at Lake Josephine as usual. Five Long-tailed Ducks was a high count here on the 2nd, but these had dwindled down to a single male by the 10th. The bird was in (what I believe to be unusually late) dark brown, breeding plumage. A White-winged Scoter had replaced the Long-tail on the 11th. Other good finds here was a lingering Gadwall, female Bufflehead, two Redheads and a Greater Scaup among 8 Un-ID'ed scaup on the 10th. 11 lingering Ring-necked Ducks continued here through the 16th. On the first a pair of uncommon Greater Scaup were seen in the mouth of McLean Brook at Sinclair and three bright male Buffleheads were on Long Lake at St. Agatha.

Large flocks of Common and Hooded Mergansers are being seen on the larger impoundments. Christina Reservoir at Fort Fairfield had high counts with 180+ Hooded Mergansers and 140+ Common Mergansers on the 3rd.

A single Double-crested Cormorant lingered late to the 10th at Christina Reservoir.

Ruffed Grouse were reported (and in some cases savored) at many locations. Though a likely release, this male Ring-necked Pheasant was none-the-less noteworthy and photographed in Fort Fairfield by Paul Cyr.

Christina's Merganser flock attracted the attention of Bald Eagles and as many as four adults and two sub-adults have been hanging around the pond. An adult Northern Goshawk was seen briefly on the Muscovic Road in Stockholm. Still uncommon in northern Maine, Red-tailed Hawks seen in Sherman on the 12th and Presque Isle on the 13th were almost as notable as a Rough-legged Hawk seen in Limestone on the 10th.

The only shorebird found in the area was a very late White-rumped Sandpiper seen on the 16th. The bird was flying over the shore of Lake Jo and would gone un-identified, but luckily, the bird vocalized and its high pitched squeak revealed its identity.

Gulls continue to move through the area and large concentrations are being seen a Long Lake, Collins Pond in Caribou and Echo Lake in Presque Isle. A high count of 192 Great Black-backed Gulls at Collins Pond was noteworthy. A first cycle Iceland Gull was associating with a few Herring Gulls here on the 14th.

A few Ring-billed Gulls continue to hang out in the area. Almost all Hooded Merganser flocks are being attended by at least a few of these gulls. The Ring-bills watch the feeding ducks and move in to steal food from these just as they surface with their meal. On Veterans Day, I watched Ring-billed Gulls deftly relieve a drake Hoody of a couple fine, large crayfish here at Collins Pond.

As noted earlier there are low numbers of passerines (the small perching birds) being reported in the area these days. It is unclear whether the birds are enjoying plentiful natural food supplies and aren't coming in to visit feeders, or the bird are just in short supply at this time. From my recent time spent birding in the very quiet woods, I suspect the latter.

Woodpeckers are a bit of an exception and the birds are being seen in "normal" numbers. Noteworthy among these, a Black-backed Woodpecker was found just outside of Aroostook NWR at Malabeam Lake in Limestone on the 11th.

The first Bohemian Waxwing flocks of the season were spotted around Presque in early November. Thirty were gobbling up high bush cranberries near the airport on the 4th.

Golden-crowned Kinglets were well reported during early November with small groups heard at Caribou, Limestone, Presque Isle and Woodland. Black-capped Chickadees have been reported to be in short supply around many of the areas feeding stations at this point in the season. However large foraging flocks are being encountered in the woods. The antics of a single feeding group of 22 chickadees was enjoyed in the woods in Caribou on the 11th.

Red-breasted Nuthatches are also well detected in the otherwise quiet woods. These birds nasal vocalizations are often the only bird calls heard these days.

A White-breasted Nuthatch and a Brown Creeper were a rare treat in Fort Kent on the 14th. These two uncommon birds were found feeding on the big silver maples along the shore of the St. John River, at times creeping along the same trunk. Paul Cyr got this nice shot of the fidgety creeper. Another creeper was seen later that day in the Woodland Bog, possibly indicating some movement of this rarely-found species through northern Maine.

Blue Jays have been dominating my feeders for over a month and others are reporting similar activity. Paul Cyr sent over this great action shot of some squabbling jays at his feeders in Presque Isle. I've only found two Gray Jays recently. One showed up at my freshly hung suet feeder in Woodland on the 11th and another was calling from the bog off the Muscovic Road in Stockholm.

With the exception of Snow Buntings, I have not seen any of sparrow family in over three weeks! Early Dark-eyed Juncoes and American Tree Sparrows seem to have pushed quickly through during the October cold snap and the snowstorm on the 25th really cleared them out.

A few of the "winter" finches are being encountered in the woods but I've yet to hear of much action around feeders. A Pine Grosbeak was heard and several flocks of White-winged Crosbills were seen over the Muscovic Road on the 14th. Again Paul Cyr was there to catch at little of the crossbill action... Purple Finches are occasionally heard flying overhead but do not seem to be about in any number. A few Pine Siskins are visiting a feeder in Presque Isle.

American Goldfinch numbers seem to be building a bit recently and are starting to show up at the thistle seed feeders.

A lonely Evening Grosbeak was calling as it passed high over my house in Woodland on the 8th.

Cackling Goose, Rough-legged Hawk and Iceland Gull

After a week of slow birding, I had a good day in the field. There were a bunch of new arrivals in central Aroostook county... and good ones at that.

Just after sunup I located my first Cackling Goose of the year among a few hundred Canada Geese at Collins Pond in Caribou. A Bald Eagle had the flock quite nervous and the geese were leaving the pond in 10s and 20's. We were able to snap a few photos of the little goose before it departed.

In the cropped shots you can see the bird's small size, short neck, stubby bill, steep forhead and overall silvery tone of the plumage are all visible in the photos...enough to make this tough ID.

A single Lesser Scaup and a few dozen Hooded Mergansers were also milling with the geese.

Over in Easton at Lake Josephine, the duck flock seems to be reassembling after retreating from the gunfire earlier this month. Best of these was seven American Wigeon and 18 late Gadwall. 11 Lesser Scaup, 70 or so Ring-necked Ducks and 25 Common Goldeneyes were also present. My first-of-the-season Rough-legged Hawk was hovering over the field just north of Lake Jo. The dark phase hawk allowed a long viewing session and was quite spectacular in the morning sun.

Just north at Christina Reservoir my first-of-the-season Iceland Gull flew up as if to greet me when I had just arrived. The first winter bird did a lap around the pond with a small flock of Herring Gulls and then headed out towards the potato fields to the north. A White-rumped Sandpiper was a bit of a surprise as were a few lingering Lesser Yellowlegs. The Common Mergansers here numbered over 90.

In the afternoon I also found a medium sized flock of Horned Larks in a potato field on the Limestone and Fort Fairfield town line. Mixed in with the larks were 18 Snow Buntings and two colorful Lapland Longspurs. The longspurs landed very near the road and treated me to some of the better looks of these that I've had in a while.

Not too shabby.

Small Canada Geese in Maine

I've been using this rainy Saturday to catch up on correspondence and bird reports from the past couple weeks. As usual, I've been quite interested in all the recent goose sightings from around the state.

So far this fall we've found Canada, Snow, Greater White-fronted, Cackling and Pink-footed Geese here in Maine. (...Any Brant?) I also noticed quite a few reports this fall of smaller Canada Geese that astute birders are noticing amongst the larger individuals. I'm sure these get attention as we all sift through the flocks in search of a rare Cackler.

Though there have been quite a few reports of "Lesser" Canada Geese lately, I wanted to mention that this subspecies has yet to be definitively documented in Maine....This is not to say people aren't seeing groups of small Canada Geese in Maine just that these are probably not the true "Lesser" Canada Geese. (I know discussions of subspecies is often seen as the threshold to the realm of true bird nerd-dom but I still think there's a bit of confusion that bears clearing up.)

Size Variation: Real and apparent

In my experience, we currently see a wide variety of sizes of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) in Maine. I think birders need to consider several things when evaluating the size of a goose and before assigning it to any one subspecies.

First is just the variation in body size of populations within any subspecies. Generally the birds in the northern reaches of the range tend to be smaller than those in the south. So larger and smaller birds within a migrating flock could be both from the same subspecies.

Sex, age, molt and diet can all work in various combinations to produce some real size extremes. Males are generally slightly larger than females and young birds are smaller than adults. Thanks to good food availability in some locales there are certainly some big, beefy geese out there and likewise there are some smaller birds that have struggled and end up true runts. These outliers usually are usually encountered in ones or twos (as opposed to whole percentages of flocks with differing sizes as is the case when subspecific size difference is in play).

Body posture, lighting, plumage erection and variation in the surface a bird is standing on can all also create some perceived differences in size. A relaxed or dozing bird can look a lot smaller than an alert or alarmed one. Likewise I've been fooled by geese that appeared small in a field, until they stepped out of a furrow and up beside a goose that seemed much larger moments earlier... A swimming bird that is angled slightly away can also look amazingly smaller than a similarly sized individual offering a true side profile. (This can also make bills seem stubby and Cackling-esque!)

Its also worth noting that some telephoto and digiscoped images have distorted perspectives that make birds further away from the camera appear disproportionately larger than those that are closer. (Ever notice how huge the batter and catcher look compared to the pitcher when the video camera in center field is being used during baseball games?)

Subspecies of Canada Geese in Maine

I'm quite confident that there are probably three subspecies that show up in numbers in Maine in the fall. I believe our locally breeding geese come mostly from the introduced "Giant" Canada Goose (B.c. maxima). As the name suggests, these are big geese. We also have another subspecies that breeds northeast of Maine known as the "Atlantic" Canada Goose (B.c. canadensis) that we see in migration. These are slightly smaller than the local birds but still quite large on average. Additionally there is a smaller subspecies called the "Interior" or "Hudson Bay" Canada Goose which generally breeds north and northwest of us (western Quebec and northern Ontario). The marked Canada Geese from Greenland, that I and others around New England have been finding, also seem to be from this subspecies rather than the geographically closer (to Greenland) "Atlantic" subspecies. Many flocks I see in October, here in northern Maine, are a fun mix of these subspecies and when these different varieties are found together the size differences can seem quite pronounced.

Lesser Canada Geese

As recognized by the current taxonomy, the true "Lesser" Canada Geese (B.c. parvipes) are breeders in the northwest parts of Canada and in Alaska and generally winter in the southwestern US. Though there probably have been a few found in the east, these are quite rare. I am not aware of any known Lesser Canada Goose, banded on the breeding grounds, that has turned up in the northeastern US or maritime Canada. Maybe someone can tell me otherwise!

Anyway, I wanted to offer this up to the inquiring minds of the blogosphere: lesser (small "l") Canada Geese in Maine are probably not Lesser (large"L") Canadas!

David Sibley has a great map on his website that shows, generally, the distribution of the various subspecies of Canada (and Cackling) Geese in North America. Its worth checking out:

http://www.sibleyguides.com/canada_cackling.htm

BS

Whimbrels in northern Maine

Back in late August, I had a really good day in the field.

I birded a route from Woodland and Caribou east to Limestone and then south through Fort Fairfield and Easton. The morning started off unremarkably and I was tallying most of the expected commoner birds and a few of the less common migrants here and there. Regardless of the apparent mediocrity in bird assortment, I was enjoying the morning and was taking my time and in no rush. As it turned out, I ended up at Christina Reservoir fairly late in the morning and even though I really didn't think there would be much to see, I decided to stop in anyway.

Surprisingly enough, there seemed to be quite a bit of bird activity at the reservoir. The first to draw my attention was some large rafts of ducks in the middle of the pond: about 430 Ringed-necked Ducks and well over 200 American Wigeon. It was an impressive group, and once I got a good look at them with my spotting scope, the number of molting wigeon in the raft was a bit of a surprise. A few molting Common Goldeneyes were also in the mix.

Once I turned my attention away from the ducks and started to scan other parts of the lake, I came across a gorgeous breeding plumaged Red-necked Grebe tucked up in one corner. These grebes are quite rare but not unexpected in late summer as migration begins. Still it was a good find amongst all the Pied-billed Grebes that breed here.

3 young White-winged Scoters were my next find. They were asleep in the middle of the pond but slivers of white showing on the sides of their black velvet plumage revealed thier idenities. Early arrivals, too. Another good discovery.

Some midsized, dark birds bouyantly flying over the far side of the pond turned into Black Terns under my scope's high magnification. I hadn't seen one of these in northern Maine since the previous year...finding 3 was quite a coup! The birds were in partial winter plumage and had quite a bit of white on them. I was really cranking now!

If all this wasn't enough, there was a pretty good shorebird show going on here. The low water meant lots of bare mud along the shore and quite few sandpipers were working the waters edge. Small groups of these were cycling back and forth across the mud. Kept aloft, no doubt by a circling Merlin. Amongst them were Least, Spotted and a few Semipalmated Sandpipers, numbers of Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs and a bunch of Semipalmated Plovers and Killdeer.

I already thought this was banner shorebird day for this inland location when 7 large brown shorebirds flying over the east end of pond caught my eye. My binoculars revealed long downcurved bills and bold dark stripes on the head. Whimbrels!

Though there are a few records of this big shorebird in northern Maine (including Christiana Reservoir), I had never seen this species here. To find seven was thrilling to say the least. I watched the birds for 15 munutes as they landed on the dead wood piled on along the shore. The birds preened a bit then tucked in their heads and settled in for nap.

I underlined the date in my notebook...August 23rd 2009. I was going to remember this day!

Whimbrel redux

In first week of October, I received an email from Linda Alverson. She had forwarded me a couple pictures of an unusual bird she'd gotten from a local resident. In her message, Linda identified the bird as a Whimbrel and the images proved her out.

The bird had been photographed in a horse paddock in my hometown of Woodland by Jessica Belanger . On spotting the big brown shorebird, she had recognized it as unusual and spent 10 minutes sneaking up on the bird and snapping the great photos you see here. The dark brown eye and crown stripes and the long bill are clearly visible.

Recalling the Christina Reservoir Whimbrels, I thought this was a great coincidence that this rare species was found in twice in northern Maine this fall! Most amazing was the date the bird was photographed...23 August! The same date I had seen the 7 over in Fort Fairfield.

Clearly there was some weather and migratory phenomena that brought these rare birds down in central Aroostook county on the same day. Good stuff.

Whimbrel migration in Maine

In mid August, Charlie Duncan sent out a message about a satellite transmitter equipped Whimbrel that had just embarked on a marathon movement that took it over Maine then out over open ocean. The bird had, at that point, been flying for 4 days straight and had covered well over 1000 miles! The bird was marked as part of a collaborative effort by the Center
for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary - Virginia
Commonwealth University and the Virginia Chapter of the Nature Conservancy to discover migratory routes that connect breeding and winter areas and to identify en route migratory staging areas . Amazing stuff

The link for a website that shows the paths of migratory Whimbrels that are tagged with satellite transmitters is well worth a look:

http://www.ccb-wm.org/programs/migration/Whimbrel/whimbrel.htm

Good birding

6 October a Sixth Greenland Canada Goose at Collins Pond

I found GJY yesterday afternoon.

This was my sixth collared Canada Goose from Greenland so far this season. Again the bird was found in Collins Pond in Caribou. It was
with about 900 other Canadas. Attached is a photo (so I get the code
right)!

As always, when I report a marked goose to researchers Tony Fox and David Stroud, they respond quickly to me with the details of the birds travels. David Stroud wrote in part:

"...That's a really nice record, as we only had one sighting of
GJY last winter (in Connecticut) and this summer we saw it just once
(Lake L on 20 July) but even though it was evidently present in the
area, we didn't manage to retrap it. So that's only the third record
since we ringed it as part of our mega-catch that year." (that year was 2008).


It has been a bit frustrating this season that I can't seem to
relocate any of the other marked geese after I've spotted them once... I think I have spent more time, than ever before, monitoring the goose flocks in
the central Aroostook county area. In the past three days I have probably scoped 8,000+ geese in six different towns to no avail! I
wonder if most flocks are pushing through and continuing south rather
than staying in the area....

Due to the vagaries of agricultural markets, there seems to have been substantially less barley planted in the area this year in comparison with recent years. Many Aroostook farmers seem to have sown oats as a rotation crop (to their potato mainstay). While the oat crop offers the geese some spilled grain immediately after the harvest and, occasionally, clover (which is seeded with the oats and flourishes once the oats are cut), it can't compare to barley. This grain re-sprouts after the stubble is plowed under and in the past, offered the geese hundreds of acres of tender shoots!

Cull potatoes, left behind during harvest, also offer a favorite food
source for the geese but these are only consumable when there is a
steady cycle of freeze and thaw. The potatoes become soft in this
environment and the geese will nibble out any potato flesh they can
get. With an apparent early migration this year, the geese are bit
ahead of the cold temperatures and I rarely find geese in potato
fields yet.

So it appears food is a bit limited, as of yet, and it is possible that
the flocks aren't lingering as they usually do. Contra to my
hypothesis, I have relocated an unusual single adult Snow Goose and a
leucistic Canada Goose several times, so it appears at least some of these migrant birds are sticking around the area for a while.

Four Greater White-fronted Geese in Fort Fairfield and ANOTHER Greenland marked Canada Goose

Friday started off well for me with another quick visit to Collin's Pond in Caribou. I was on my commute to work and thought I'd stop in and try again to relocate the two marked Canada Geese I spotted earlier in the week. I was trying to atone for my mis-read of the codes on the two neck collars of these by relocating them and rechecking the alpha codes.

I was surprised to find the pond still quite full of geese and expected they were soon to depart for a morning of feeding in the ag fields around Caribou. The birds were quite alert and fidgety and appeared ready to fly in any moment, so I made a quick cursory scan of the birds with my bins. Sure enough, there was a thick necked Canada on the far side of the pond with a yellow collar!

After a slightly embarrassing dash to my truck and subsequent wrestling match with my increasingly testy tripod I was able to zoom my spotting scope in on the bird. The view revealed the alpha code on this collar was GLS. This wasn't one of the two I'd seen earlier but yet another new marked Canada Goose! The fifth for this little pond this year.

The birds held in the pond a little longer and I was able to digiscope this picture for the record. I love the slick of feathers in the background...these geese are obviously still molting a bit.

Later on in the day I took a late lunch hour, with my coworker Jim, to patrol a few of the goosier day roosts that I had been neglecting. We had another good find. At Puddledock Pond in Fort Fairfield, we encountered the first Greater White-fronted Geese of the season in Maine. The four adult birds were contentedly swimming amongst about 70 Canada Geese and 50+ Hooded Mergansers. Again I set up the scope and had a good long look.

After Jim and I had a good session observing these rare geese, I reached for my camera and then realized I'd forgotten it and couldn't photograph them! White-fronts are still rare enough in Maine that all sightings should be documented if possible. I cursed my bad luck a bit and folded up my tripod and got in the truck to drive away.

Then a great stroke of GOOD luck occurred.... As I pulled from the parking area of the pond Paul Cyr came over the knoll in his big black Hummer! For those who don't know, Paul is the outdoor photographer extraordinaire who has provided about half of the bird photos for this blog. In my experience, the man rarely travels without a full assortment of cameras and gear....

After a quick chat with Paul about eagles and geese, he headed out to the pond. When I left the spot, I knew there would be a good photo of these birds for the record...and, of course, Paul didn't disappoint!

That evening, I sent my digiscope of GLS and Paul's great photo of the White-fronts to Tony Fox in Denmark and David Stroud in the UK and they quickly provided feedback on both:

Like most of the yellow-collared Canada Geese I've found, GLS was first captured and marked in Greenland in July 2008. Unlike most, this bird had not been relocated since that time.

As for the Fort Fairfield White-fronts, they confirmed that these birds appeared to be individuals of the Greenland subspecies of the White-fronted Goose.

As before, the updates on these birds and the others found at Collins Pond can be found at the White-fronted Goose project's website here: http://greenland09.wikispaces.com/Ringing+results+and+recoveries