This drake Barrow’s Goldeneye was one of the foursome currently in the Androscoggin River between Auburn and Lewiston, most often in view from the Bernard Lown Peace Bridge. Jeannette paid them a visit on the 6th, where she found this one male just below the bridge.
Except for a delightful morning at Reid State Park, my birding outings were short and local, but I did enjoy catching up with local patches and their winter denizens, especially Barrow’s Goldeneyes. Here are my observations of note over the past seven days.
2 drake and 2 hen Barrow’s Goldeneyes, Winslow Park, Freeport, 1/4.
1 drake Barrow’s Goldeneyes, Sandy Point Beach, Cousin’s Island, Yarmouth, 1/6.
1 SNOWY OWL (FOS), 9-11 Red Crossbills, 58 Red-necked Grebes, 1 Savannah Sparrow (subspecies undetermined), 26 Sanderling, etc, Reid State Park, Georgetown, 1/8.
1 hen Barrow’s Goldeneye, Front Street Boat Launch, Bath, 1/8.
This is how I like my Snowy Owls…safe in the distance, backlit, poorly phone-binned, and otherwise unconcerned with my presence. Later, I spent 30 minutes observing it in the distance as it moved around, perhaps to get in position for hunting, or perhaps because it was getting too warm!
This Week in Irruptives.
American Goldfinches and Red-breasted Nuthatches remain very abundant. While a number of customers at the store have continued to report scattered small flocks of Evening Grosbeaks at feeding stations, I did not hear or see any yet again this week. In fact, my only irruptive in limited time birding was a single Pine Siskin at Florida Lake Park on the 7th, until I re-entered the Red Spruce zone at Reid State Park on the 8th. There, there were several Pine Siskins and at least 9-11 Red Crossbills – including two singing males suggestive of upcoming mid-winter breeding!
The state’s 4th or 5th Virginia’s Warbler – and the first away from Monhegan – was one of the rarest birds of the year in Maine, and it was even more special for me since I found it on Peak’s Island in November!
It’s once again time for my annual Predictions Blog, where I view into my crystal binoculars and attempt to forecast some of the “new” birds to grace the State of Maine – and then my own personal state list – in the coming year.
But first, let’s look back at last year’s predictions.
It was a great year for birding in Maine, with rarities at every season, especially during a truly epic November Rarity season. As a snapshot of just how many notable species were in the state in 2025, consider Noah Gibb and Stacey Huth’s Maine Big Year total of 332 species broke the old record by an astounding 10! Surprisingly, with such an eventful year for rarities in the state, no new species were added to the state’s list in 2025. With that, I’m going to keep Next 25 Species to be found in Maine list the same, but based on current trends and regional sightings, I am doing a little shuffling at the top to bump up Limpkin as the northward mini-irruptions of this tropical/sub-tropical bird continue.
1. Limpkin
2. Scopoli’s Shearwater
3. Neotropical Cormorant
4. European Herring Gull
5. Black-chinned Hummingbird
6. California Gull
7. Gray Heron
8. Bermuda Petrel
9. Graylag Goose
10. Little Stint
11. Audubon’s Shearwater
12. Common Shelduck
13. Anna’s Hummingbird
14. Heerman’s Gull
15. Common Ground-Dove
16. Allen’s Hummingbird
17. Spotted Redshank
18. Lewis’s Woodpecker
19. Ross’s Gull
20. Black-capped Petrel
21. Lesser Nighthawk
22. Dusky Flycatcher
23. Painted Redstart
24. Hooded Oriole
25. White Wagtail
It’s only a matter of time for Maine to be visited by its first ever Neotropic Cormorant, but it’s another Neotropical species that took the stop slot this year!
As for me, there were so many great birds seen in Maine in 2025, and the birds I chased just scratched the surface of the litany of vagrants this past calendar year as once again, my birding involves fewer and fewer chases each year. The MacGillivray’s Warbler in Yarmouth in November was one of the highlights – including becoming the 255th All-time Saturday Morning Birdwalk bird!- and a Fork-tailed Flycatcher in the Kennebunk Plains in July.
My first self-found rarity of the year was a Ruff at Walsh Preserve on 5/9…
..and Jeannette I chases the Northern Wheatear in Scarborough Marsh in September for a new ABA Area bird for her.
Black-throated Gray Warbler on Monhegan. A state bird for almost everyone, but “just” an exceptional “Island Bird” for me.
I even added two species to my State List in 2025, starting with an overdue Cerulean Warbler (#11) found by Doug Hitchcox in Evergreen Cemetery on 5/6. But nothing beats a “self-found” rarity, so finding a Virginia’s Warbler (#20) on Peak’s Island on 11/24 was even more special!
Of course, a few potential State Birds got away from me last year. However, all appeared to be one-day wonders, so it’s hard to complain: Crested Caracara in Scarborough Marsh on 4/30, a Franklin’s Gull (some day!) in The County on 5/21, an Anhinga over South Portland on 5/27, and an un-chaseable Ancient Murrelet at Matincus Rock on 6/19.
So, with those hits and misses, my updated list of the Top 25 Next State Birds for Me is now:
Franklin’s Gull (this is getting amusing/frustrating)
Neotropic Cormorant
Brown Pelican
California Gull
Brown Booby
Crested Caracara
Slaty-backed Gull
Boreal Owl
Calliope Hummingbird
Graylag Goose
Gull-billed Tern
Pacific Golden-Plover
Limpkin
Wood Stork
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Brewer’s Blackbird
Anhinga
Yellow Rail
Scopoli’s Shearwater
Western Wood-Pewee
Red-necked Stint
European Herring Gull
Gray Heron
Heerman’s Gull
Little Stint
Well there ya have it, let’s see what 2026 brings, at least when it comes to the birds in Maine.
I think it’s about time for another Wood Stork to visit the state as well.
This Rufous Hummingbird graced a Bath yard for almost two months. The story below.
Life in retail during the holiday season, followed by a trip to the Motherland of New Jersey for Christmas resulted in limited Maine birding for me over the past two weeks. However, a couple of good days in the field here in Maine produced several observations of note:
Recent ice and more snow resulted in a nice little surge of Dark-eyed Juncos and American Goldfinches into our Durham yard. A male Purple Finch on ½ was the first I have seen locally in at least a month, and a Northern Flicker dropped in on 12/30.
1 continuing drake Green-winged Teal and 1+ Fish Crow, Auburn Riverwalk, 12/23.
2 drake and one hen BARROW’S GOLDENEYES, Bernard Lowne Peace Bridge, Auburn-Lewiston, 12/30 (with Kelley Sharp)
3 Fish Crows and 1 1st-cycle Iceland Gull, Auburn Riverwalk, Auburn, 12/30 (with Kelley Sharp).
1 pair American Wigeon, Rockland waterfront, 1/1 (with Jeannette).
Rufous Hummingbird in Bath, 10/31-12/26, 2025.
A Rufous Hummingbird arrived in a Bath yard on Halloween. And she stayed until the 26th of December! These birds are just incredible! Unfortunately, it was not in a yard that was conducive to visitation, so we had to keep the sighting under wraps. I really am sincerely sorry about that, but the homeowner’s rights and the bird’s welfare will always be put first and foremost with us. But it was well photographed, well studied, and well monitored. Here’s the story, identification particulars, and more.
We only had one morning for birding after visiting family, and we chose to spend it with an estimated 100,000 American Robins!
It was awesome and I hope these videos do it a modicum of justice! This was in Oldwick, NJ, discovered by Evan Obercian (yup, a birding friend of mine since high school who also now lives in Maine!) around 2021 (although he heard of a former roost not far away before this one). This was the largest gathering he has seen, at least around Christmastime. We just enjoyed the show, but he recently made the estimate (based on counting sample minutes and extrapolating). There were also about 1,000 European Starlings – look for a couple of dense flocks exiting the leaning bamboo during the videos. A few hundred Common Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds were also present (mostly exited before sunrise in the first video), and Jeannette and I picked out a single Hermit Thrush. 3 Cooper’s Hawks and a Sharp-shinned Hawk were present, but they too seemed to be overwhelmed by the masses!
The videos can be seen here:
New Year Predictions Blog!
I know you are waiting with bated breath, but I’ll publish this soon. Of course, when I am delayed in getting it posted, something really rare shows up! So keep you eyes open!
Maine Birding Field Notes 