| June 15th, 2005. Gunn Road, North Keene, NH. | |
| The sudden change to cold overcast conditions with a north-eastern wind came as a something of a shock after more than a week of torrid humidity and uncomfortable heat. This morning I stayed local and headed to the north side of Keene in the vicinity of Goose Pond Preserve. More specifically I wanted to check the powerline cut on Gunn Road which I’d found to be good for Prairie Warbler and Indigo Bunting in 2004. | |
| My walk produced two major surprises; 1) Great Blue Heron - two active nests in dead trees above a beaver pond, both nests containing well grown young. 2) Louisiana Waterthrush - Two pairs discovered, both actively feeding young with broods of three and four fledgings still being fed by the parent birds. This was a treat, a species that I’d hoped to find locally for several years. Even better, it looks like they bred succesfully as the young were already capable of flight. Let’s hope they survive this current cold snap! The damp hemlock groves, coupled with a dull cloudy day didn’t lend itself to digi-bin photography but I wanted include a few record shots of this fine discovery. Apologies for the poor quality of these images! The views were much better than the images suggest, plus the identification was confirmed by song and call both of which I managed to record on the movie player on my Canon compact camera. | |
| Louisiana Waterthrush Seiurus motacilla, Sturtevant Brook, Keene. Although the shots are poor, noteworthy features include the broad white rear supercilium, rather thin, sparse streaking on flanks, and bright, long ‘bubble-gum’ pink legs. The tail swinging motion (from side to side) was extremely exaggerated, much more so than I’d noticed in Northern Waterthrush which I only recall showing bobbing movements. The adults also frequently fanned the tail, recalling Painted Redstart but I’m not sure how much of this was a distraction display in the view of the close proximity of the fledged young. | |
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| Louisiana Waterthrush Seiurus motacilla, Sturtevant Brook, Keene. One of seven fledged young seen in this area on this date. | |
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