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Another first for us in Salem, a Long-tailed Duck was found hanging out at World End Pond for a couple of days at the beginning of May. These little ducks are more often found on the coast in good numbers but occasionally pop up on inland ponds during migration. This little lady marks our 192nd bird recorded in Salem, and our 153rd bird recorded at World End Pond.
I went back to World End Pond during lunch and had an adult male REDHEAD on the east side of the pond. It was alone, swimming swiftly north toward the marsh. I would guess it was behind vegetation where many Ring-necks were seen coming and going from, where it was swimming towards. The ducks were very active because of a Bald Eagle so who knows. Hopefully the incoming weather will keep it there for a little while.
This is my first for NH, Salem, and World End Pond.
If you go look for it, bring a scope and just be sure to drive slow on your way in on Theresa Ave. Lots of ducks to pick through.
Getting a Snipe and a Woodcock in the same week is pretty cool — even cooler in the same spot! This week we had at least 3 American Woodcock at Hawkin’s Farm in Salem. They are typically found here during late March and early April every year.
The next day Amanda spotted a Wilson’s Snipe feeding in the farm fields — they are not often seen here so it was a nice surprise.
On June 11, Amanda and I stumbled upon a female Least Bittern at World End Pond. It was a surprising and exciting find to say the least. A few days later on the morning of July 15 we went back to the pond and spent a good amount of time around the area we had initially spotted it…
We sat in the marsh for close to an hour – listening and looking without hearing or seeing any movement, so we decided to keep moving. As we paddled through a small channel between two stands of reeds I looked back towards Amanda and happened to notice a clump of dried up vegetation amidst the 4+ft reeds. I almost wrote it off, but decided to get my binoculars on it and noticed a pretty uniform nest shape. As I scanned through the reeds, to my amazement, I spotted an EYEBALL…the eyeball of a LEAST BITTERN!!! There was a male Least Bittern sitting on a nest. We couldn’t believe it!
We revisited the site a couple times a week to document the nesting activity, and thankfully we had a nice blind spot in the marsh that gave us decent looks at the nest. Some of the interesting behavior noted included the incubation exchange between the male and female, nest ‘jabbing’, egg rolling, and eventually tending to the young in the nest.
The nest exchange behavior was especially thrilling, providing us with great looks at the female bird when she would land on ‘her platform’ before entering the nest. The male bird was much more elusive and was only seen on the nest or sneaking through the reeds.
The best part about the finding is that not only is Least Bittern considered rare for the location, but this could also potentially be the first documented breeding for Least Bittern in New Hampshire. The Atlas of Breeding Birds of New Hampshire (1995) does not include Least Bittern, though breeding has been probable at a number of locations.
During the monitoring of the nest we tried to do as much research on Least Bittern nesting habits as we could. In particular, The Breeding Ecology of Least Bitterns at Agassiz and Mingo National Wildlife Refuges by Karen E Arnold (2005), and Breeding Biology of the Least Bittern by Milton W. Weller were excellent resources. Both of these studies gave us more insight into what behavior to expect and things to be mindful of.
Some of those things included a number of possible threats to the birds during nesting, and some were clearly visible in this case. This included marsh wrens, who were present the entire time and often times singing near the nest – the female bittern even gave a kwek call in response to a nearby marsh wren on one occasion. Other common threats included LARGE snapping turtles, blackbirds, and of course the weather.
We used our best judgement on hatch date and fledge date. It was unclear whether or not any eggs had been layed at the time we found the nest, but we assumed that incubation of at least 1 egg had already begun due to there always being a bird on the nest during our visits.
We visited the site a number of times where there was little movement, with just an incubating bird. We saw a lot of preening, settling, and sometimes heard a contact note or two. Some of the more notable visits are below.
June 11 – a female was seen at dusk feeding at the edge of reeds and photographed before disappearing into the marsh.
June 14 – MALE bird sitting on nest found nearby initial sighting location.
On June 25, we carefully placed a GoPro camera on a long, camouflaged pole. Controlling the camera from our blind with a smartphone app, we captured images of the female bird incubating. On one of the female’s preen/stretch routines, we were able to capture a total of 4 eggs in the nest.
Later on July 6, the first thing we noticed after settling into our blind was that the nest had sunk considerably, an estimated 8+ inches from its original location which made it much harder to see into the nest. This was something we read in the aforementioned studies, whereas the nest will sink lower and lower to the water as the weight from the eggs and young increases. After careful looking with the binoculars we noticed 2 fluffy hatchlings on the nest.
Then a couple days later on July 8, we made a brief visit and noted at least 3 hatchlings on the nest. We did not see any adult bird for about 5-10 minutes until the male bird just sort of appeared on the nest with the young.
Our next visit was the morning of July 14, which was just after Hurricane Arthur had brought strong winds and heavy rain to the area. When we arrived, the nest had noticeably dropped a considerable amount more and we now had almost no visibility into the nest. We did however see the female visit the nest and assumed young were near the nest area.
Since the middle of July, we have kept our visits to the nest site limited. We were able to see the adults on one occasion, and also hear the young in the marshes calling to the parents but we have not seen any young birds since they left the nest.
We believe that the nest successfully raised at least 3 young, with a strong possibility of a 4th – though we never saw 4 at one time. Because Least Bittern lay and hatch roughly one egg per day, the best educated guess on hatch date (of first egg) is somewhere around July 4. The fledge date is a bit more unclear as the the nest had sunk considerably and out of sight from our blind, but is estimated that the young began foraging around the nest sometime around July 17.
Something to note – Least Bitterns have been known to have two broods in one breeding season. The late timing of this nesting activity begs the question, was this the second brood of the season?
Contact me at kyle.wilmarth[at]gmail.com