Cruising in an electric boat is a great way to see our local water birds.
I have wanted to get down to NW Electric Boat Rentals for a while now and we finally get the chance yesterday. Nancy and I took one of their 21’ boats out for 90 minutes of bird watching. These boats are great! They have a 12 person maximum but would probably be most comfortable with 9 or less. The boats are very quiet and come with an AM/FM/CD stereo and cabin heater. We kept the windows down since it was pretty cold yesterday but you can also fold them up for better viewing. Our goal is to take the boats out a few more times in order to get comfortable with birding from the water and then offer bird watching tours through the shop. The boat is so quiet that it allows you to get fairly close to water birds without disturbing them, which made for some very good viewing. This would be a great opportunity for you to get together with a group of friends for some on-the-water birding, a nice picnic or box lunch from Keyport and no responsibility except keeping the mustard from dripping on your binoculars. Let us know if you would be interested in a tour.
Hansville Greenway Park
Have you taken a walk along the Hansville Greenway yet? It is a fairly extensive network of trails around Buck Lake. I wanted to get out of the house last Sunday and take a bit of a walk. I had considered going to Fish Park but I can do that any morning on my way to work. Somehow I had stumbled upon the Greenway's website while noodling through the internet and thought it looked interesting. So I grabbed my binos, spotting scope, field guide & notebook and made the short drive north. I drove to Buck Lake County Park and took the trail from there. You can find it by walking south across the ball field. You'll know you are in the right place if you see the above sign. A short walk will take you to the Meadow Kiosk which has a nice map of the trails.
I took a quick jog to the west and then started walking south towards Lower Hawk's Pond. According to the website, this was a 2.5 mile roundtrip (plus the short hike to The Quiet Place). The trail through the woods is pretty amazing.
You can still hear some noise from nearby roads and homes but it is easy to imagine that you are in a much more remote area. I heard birds all around me but saw few. The trees are pretty thick and I didn't want to go off-trail so it was hard to track down the birds I could hear. Less then a mile of walking found me at the turn for The Quiet Place. The name alone caused me to turn off and see what it was all about. A few minutes of walking through the woods brings you to the following marker, an observation platform and a nice view over Upper Hawk's Pond.
I spent quite a bit of time at The Quiet Place and ended up getting a long view of a nice looking Song Sparrow through the spotting scope. I also saw a Canada Goose slowly cruise by from north to south. He didn't seem too bothered by me and quietly made his way down the pond. I had thought about heading home at this point but decided that I might as well see what was at the end of the trail since I was already halfway there. I took the trail that brushed along the southern shore of Upper Hawk's Pond before it headed down to the lower pond. The walk was really nice and I finally got some good views of a Winter Wren. I had heard several of them but was never able to get more then a glimpse as they worked their way through the shrubs and trees. I got down to Upper Hawk's Pond and found a raised observation platform there.
I set up my scope and spent about 30 minutes there. There were a lot of birds calling from the cattails and grasses but most of them were staying out of sight. I eventually got the scope on some Mallards, Green-winged Teal and Ring-necked Ducks who were feeding well out in the pond. I also had a few Song Sparrows feeding beneath the platform and quite a few Chestnut-backed Chickadees flying around my head and scolding me from the nearby tree branches. I then noticed how I had let time slip by and I was going to get home later then I wanted. I collapsed the tripod and tossed it up on my shoulder for the walk back to the car.
Bird Screens
Are you having problems with birds flying into your windows? Have you tried everything you can think of and nothing seems to work? Come on down to The Wild Bird and ask us about Bird Screens. They are a fiberglass screen that can be mounted on the exterior of your windows. The screens are as transparent as a normal window screen but act as a “soft landing” if a bird should happen to fly into one. Bird Screen also helps stop territorial birds from attacking their reflections in your windows. We have a sample here for you to look at and can order your Bird Screens directly from the manufacturer.
Local Student Studies Seed Preferences
Ben is a local student who designed his science fair project to study his backyard birds in order to determine what seeds they prefer. He set up a feeding station that included many tube feeders each featuring a particular seed or mix. His findings showed that the birds in his yard prefer sunflower chips the most while turning their collective beaks up at safflower seed (at least until everything else was gone).
