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Saturday, August 31, 2019

Shearwaters, Cool birds!

Great Shearwater

Cory's Shearwater

Have a fun weekend, go see some birds! If you take a whale watching trip or pelagic birding trip in the Atlantic you may see some cool birds such as, this Great Shearwater, left, or Cory's Shearwater, right. Stay safe if you are in hurricane Dorian's path!

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Nighthawks are Migrating Now!

Common Nighthawk, female has buffy throat, no white tail band and smaller white primary band.

Common Nighthawk, male, has white throat, large white primary bars, white subterminal tail band.



Range map, Common Nighthawk. Orange is breeding, blue is wintering (wikipedia.org).

Carl, Francie, Don and Henry watching for nighthawks

The nighthawks flew until dusk.

Heirloom red and yellow Brandywine tomatoes, yum!

At our annual Common Nighthawk Watch party last night we saw 74 migrating Common Nighthawks from our deck which looks out over a small lake which is a dammed up section of a river corridor and nighthawks follow river corridors. Francie, Carl, us and ace hawk migration counter Henry, scanned the skies until nearly dark. The bad news for the nighthawks is not only are their populations dropping but some are headed to winter in Brazil where the Amazon forest is burning at a record rate right now. Huge amounts of fires have been set by farmers to clear land for business, encouraged by Brazil's president. No party would be good without delicious food such as heirloom Brandywine tomatoes from Rosaly's, greek pizza and stawberry rhubarb pie brought by Carl! Go look for nighthawks from 5:00 until dusk along river corridors.


Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Barn Swallow Migration Happening Now!

Barn Swallow 


Barn Swallow migration taking place here in NH, had a flock of 25 come through this morning. Each evening we are also seeing small flocks of swallows, mostly Barn and Tree, come through near dusk. And soon it will be Common Nighthawk migration time! We are lucky to live on a river corridor (which is dammed up to form a small lake in front of us) as these birds often follow these corridors as they migrate. Barn Swallows are a declining species so protect them if you have them nesting in your barn.

Thursday, August 01, 2019

A Three Vireo Day is a Good Day!

 Blue-headed Vireo
 Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo

It's a three Vireo morning. Blue-headed, Warbling and Red-eyed Vireos all singing/calling next to our house. Already it's a good day! Look for Vireos in woodlands near you.