Birdwalk Highlights for 12/20: Town Landing Tour

Expecting much stronger winds than we encountered, we sought the shelter of the Town Landing Tour, traveling between Freeport and Falmouth, focusing on winter waterbirds.

While we had some respectable tallies today, two moments really stood out. The first was a group of a dozen frisky LONG-TAILED DUCKS off of the Harraseeket Yacht Club that were displaying and establishing the pecking order right off the end of the pier. Long-tailed Ducks are often quite vocal, but this was an exceptional cacophony, and they were right in front of us as they demonstrated why most winter ducks are already in "breeding plumage."

BALD EAGLES put on a show today as well, with a young bird stirring the pot at the Freeport Town Wharf, but over at the Yacht Club, we witnessed, mouths agape, a pair of eagles cooperatively hunting a female Bufflehead who was alone in the middle of the river. They hovered over the water, the Bufflehead would surface for a quick breath, and one of the eagle pair would dive. The Bufflehead ducked under, but was resurfacing too close, so the other half of the pair would dive next. This was going on for several minutes before the hen gambled and took flight. The eagles pursued as she pattered across the water, but once she reached full speed, the eagles didn't stand a chance and the Bufflehead flew downriver.

Meanwhile, our totals from the morning included: 160 BUFFLEHEAD, 117 Long-tailed Ducks, 87 HERRING GULLS, 74 COMMON GOLDENEYES, only 33 COMMON EIDERS, 32 SURF SCOTERS, 31 MALLARDS, 23 RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS, 10 COMMON LOONS, 8 RING-BILLED GULLS, just 4 AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS, and one lone GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. Two COMMON RAVENS. We also had one of each GREAT BLUE HERON, BELTED KINGFISHER, and our last bird was a single male SHARP-SHINNED HAWK that buzzed by us at the Falmouth Town Landing before alighting in a tree.