The arrival of some early morning rain coupled with a decent overnight flight produced a “min-fallout” of Song Sparrows on our Durham property on the 17^th. The first big movement of sparrows this spring was noticeable throughout the area this week.

Newly returning migrants and personal “first of years” led the list of my observations of note over the past 10 days, despite rather limited birding, including:

• 28 Northern Pintails, 1 Green-winged Teal (FOY), 4 Ring-necked Ducks (FOS), etc, Mouth of the Abagadasset River, Bowdoinham, 3/11 (with Jeannette).

• 36 RUDDY DUCKS, 10 Lesser and 3 Greater Scaup, etc, Sabattus Pond, Sabattus, 3/14.

• 3 Red Crossbills (Type 12 fide Matt Young at Cornell), Lake Shore Drive, Auburn, 3/14.

Other personal “First-of-years” this week also included:

• 1 Eastern Meadowlark, Upper Street, Turner, 3/14.
• 1 pair Wood Ducks, our property in Durham, 3/15.
• 7 male Brown-headed Cowbirds, feeders here at the store, 3/15.
• 1 Eastern Phoebe, our property in Durham, 3/17.
• 1 adult SNOW GOOSE (FOY), Thornhurst Farm, North Yarmouth, 3/17.

TOURS AND EVENTS:

• No Saturday Morning Birdwalk on 3/23.

• Presentation: “Birding Jamaica: From Island Endemics to Jerk Chicken” with Merrymeeting Audubon, 7:00pm, Monday, March 25^th at the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick. Free and open to the public.
• Presentation: “How to Feed Birds the Right Way” with Harpswell Heritage Land Trust, 6:00pm, Wednesday, April 3^rd at Cundy Harbor’s Community Hall. Free and open to the public but advanced registration is requested.

• April 6^th’s “Woodcocks Gone Wild” is currently sold out. This year, we are requesting pre-registration for the first time, with evening-of walk-ups only if we have extra space; sorry for the inconvenience Give us a call at the store or email us to be added to the waitlist.

BRADBURY MOUNTAIN SPRING HAWKWATCH

We got underway for the 18^th season on Friday, March 15^th. Zane Baker, back for his record-shattering 6^th season, kicked things off with two triple-digit counts in the first three days of the season.

Daily counts will be posted to Hawkcount.org and the BirdHawk listserve, while weekly summaries will be posted to the News Page of our website.