Bird walk at Harrison Avenue Nature Trail in Gardiner yields 56 species: fallout!

[Cathie Murray]

What can we say about a beautiful morning on a trail full of diverse habitats with a "fallout" of migrating birds? 

Early birders were met in the parking lot by a singing Baltimore Oriole and a flitting Scarlet Tanager in all his crimson glory. That set the stage.

We think we documented all the species we saw (56) and we are pretty sure we undercounted the numbers of each species.  How could we know if a Blackburnian warbler was the same or different as the one we saw up the trail a piece? A fine dilemma :)

You can see the eBird list of our finds here.

Some highlights included 16 warbler species, with the uncommon Cape May and Bay-breasted being real treats.  An osprey carrying nesting material flew by. We had at least 4 male Scarlet Tanagers trading places in trees around a small clearing; their red bodies lit up our binocular views!  We didn't see the alewives at the base of the dam, but the gulls, osprey and eagles were there, so we think the fish must be too.

This nature trail has the benefits of running alongside Cobbossee Stream with a mix of native wildflowers and flowering shrubs, young deciduous trees, and mature hemlocks, oaks, maples, willows and more.  This diverse landscape is full of a variety of insects and therefore an excellent place for migrating songbirds to alight after a long night of migrating.

Note: this relatively new trail and this bird walk involve the collaboration of numerous local entities including Upstream, working to restore passage of alewives in the Cobbossee watershed, the Kennebec Land Trust, holding the conservation easement on most of the property, the City of Gardiner, the Maine Master Naturalist program and the Augusta Birding Club.