birdspot

Is there anything as soft as the gray on the neck of a loon?

I am tempted to spell it ‘grey,’ since that is removed, reminiscent of old England, more complex than gray. But I am not fond of deliberate attempts at appearing continental when one is, in fact, not. It is tough to come up with an adequate description for the mixes of color and texture to be seen on a loon neck: grey may be too romantic and pompous, but velvety (which sadly also immediately springs to mind) is worse. It sounds crass and cheap. I am at a loss.

There was a Red-throated Loon (our grayest-necked, with a shocking rusty-red patch on its throat) in full breeding plumage in the waters off of Plum Island yesterday. This was not the best bird of the day for rarity, but it was a little unusual, and very nice for the visually inclined. The bird was sitting calmly, in close to shore. I have only seen these loons in their summer breeding (definitive alternate) plumage once, while in Alaska during the end of one May, and then I was wholeheartedly distracted in looking for Bluethroats and stints of various sorts. The Red-throated Loon is a winter bird to New England, and it usually floats around in its drab basic plumage here – also gray, but not the same. The winter feathering has the speckled colors of rocks and freezing seas, but this was lustrous, profound, in the sense of having significant depth.

Birds of North America Online describes parts of the head and neck as “medium light gray or variable (bluish, ash, pearl, glossy dark, dove), occasionally darker dusky gray on lores and around eyes.” The writings of ornithologists may be a little dry, but there is something in this that is clearer than trying to get at it with florid language. citation

I suppose it is fairly obvious that I am an admirer of the subtleties of grays, but I kid you not, I only just now linked up my fascination of this bird’s neck with my drawing habits. Cause I was just sitting down to post this beginning of a drawing. It is pen on gray paper, 7.75 x 10.5.”

I am just back from a dawn to dusk trip to Mass Audubon’s Joppa Flats Center and the Parker River National Wildlife Sanctuary, and I have just enough energy to put together a day list… Winds were Northwest to West, up to 20 mph, and it was sunny to partly cloudy, and generally not particularly “birdy.” Temps were from 41 degrees at daylight to about a high of 58, though it often felt much colder in the wind. There were numerous migrating Monarch butterflies, despite the chill, which was amazing. Many species had left, save for a few stragglers, and not many new ones were moving through. The exception to this was for waterfowl – there were good numbers of most species of duck seen, with flocks of up to 80 or so individuals at the highest, 20 on the low end. Birds seen today were:

Brandt
Canada Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
American Black Duck
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Redhead (1, male, at North Pool)
Greater Scaup
Common Eider
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Black Scoter
Red-breasted Merganser
Red-throated Loon (2, one in full breeding plumage – beautiful)
Common Loon (one in almost full breeding plumage)
Pied-billed Grebe
Northern Gannet (saw many throughout the day, feeding)
Double-crested Cormorant
American Bittern (1, at Bill Forward Blind)
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Turkey Vulture
Osprey (1)
Northern Harrier (3+, including one male)
Merlin
Peregrine Falcon (1-2)
Black-bellied Plover
American Golden Plover (2, possibly 3, at North Field and then North Pool Overlook, chased by an immature Northern Harrier)
Greater Yellowlegs
Sanderling
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Dunlin
Wilson’s Snipe
Bonaparte’s Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow (1)
Black-capped Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet (waves)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (a small wave)
Swainson’s Thrush (1, on road near Hellcat, seen beautifully)
American Robin
Gray Catbird (2)
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Pipit (22 – North Field)
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Sharp-tailed Sparrow sp.
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow (3+, 1 adult)
Dark-eyed Junco (numerous)
Northern Cardinal
Blackbird sp. (1)
House Finch
House Sparrow

A day of moderate rest, though while teaching a rather nice group of people this afternoon, I added two species to my MMAWS list:

Red-breasted Nuthatch
House Finch

Tomorrow: Joppa Flats Wildlife Sanctuary & a wee side trip to Plum Island…

I had a great fall morning walk around the Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary in Sharon, MA, which I will try to write a bit more about later. There were some roving flocks of migrants scattered throughout the sanctuary, again, not huge numbers. Highlights from the walk:

Blue-headed Vireo (1)
Hermit Thrush (1 – making a “vreeh” call)
Cedar Waxwing (small flock)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (numbers – I knew when a cluster of birds was moving through when I would first hear their “tchep” call)
Palm Warbler (1 – drab Western race)
Black & White Warbler (3+)