Delimited Site Visit #2 - The Junk Pond

April 22, 2018, Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, ME

This walk had a number of goals. 1st was to find the GREAT-HORNED OWL's nest (if there is one). 2nd work on a number of assignments for class. 3rd visit my delimited site.

As always the first thing I did was start an eBird checklist, the full list of which, can be found here.

I walked into the woods straight in from Brentwood St, as I have heard AMERICAN CROWs causing a large ruckus there in the past. This time it was quiet and I wandered around scanning the high WHITE PINES.

Along the way I found some deer prints. There were small and I'm assuming from a WHITE-TAILED DEER, but I'm yet to see any deer in this area. As I was leaving I started to hear the AMERICAN CROWs and turned back to investigate. It wasn't long before I saw the GREAT-HORNED OWL. I watched it from a distance for a while as it was being harassed by AMERICAN CROWs. Finally, it flew off and I went to the tree it had been in. Under the tree was a white flight feather and 4 owl pellets. Of those 4, 3 were already falling apart so with a stick I gently poked them further apart looking for skulls. I found none. But I did collect the fourth pellet which is labeled specimen #1.

After collecting the pellet I scanned for a nest or another owl. Finding neither I moved on to my next mission.

I headed to the ponds and checked them for frogs, finding none I headed over to my delimited site. Along the way I found a COMMON GARTER SNAKE. After doing a somewhat quick observation of it I was off to my site.

I entered my site at the junk pond at about 10:22a and stayed for just over 20 minutes. While there it was very sunny with some breeze. I quickly noted two differences from the last time I was there, bug (flies) and larger buds on the trees. Spring was on its way.

Throughout the time I was there I heard a lot more then I saw. SONG SPARROW, BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE, WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, AMERICAN GOLDFINCH, HERRING GULL, and RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER all called at some point. There were also two different frog calls but this time feeling even less confident about their id, I couldn't say what they were. I should have attempted to describe or recorded them to figure out later.

Animals heard or seen: