Maine’s second-ever Rock Wren continues in Ogunquit. With the changing calendar, birders returned en masse on January 1st. Jeannette and I avoided the crowds to spend some quality time with the bird on our day off on Tuesday.It’s always fascinating how vagrants survive. This Western Conifer Seed Bug was a nice, hearty meal.
A little more time this week in the field produced the following observations of note:
678 Scaup (too far to sort through, but probably 5-10% Lessers, which are regular to even common within these early winter scaup flocks on Casco Bay contrary to recently published information), Simpson’s Point, Brunswick, 1/1 (with Jeannette). Another smaller raft of scaup continue at Wharton Point (12/27 and 1/1 with Jeannette), but too far to sort through.
1 1st winter male Red-winged Blackbird, feeders here at the store, 12/27.
Continuing ROCK WREN, Marginal Way, Ogunquit, 12/29 (with Jeannette). Highlight includes watching it ravage a Western Conifer Seed Bug.
1 Peregrine Falcon, odd location in a tree along Pennell Way, Brunswick, 1/1 (with Jeannette).
This Week in Finches:
EVENING GROSBEAK: 0
Red Crossbill: 2 (our yard in Pownal, 12/27).
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL: 4 (Furbish Avenue, Wells, 12/29 with Jeannette).
PINE GROSBEAK: up to 10 daily (in and around the yard here at the store all week); up to 18 daily all week (Pine Tree Academy, Freeport); 2 (Route 1, Brunswick, 12/28).
Purple Finch: 0
Common Redpoll High Count This Week: 6 (Simpson’s Point, Brunswick, 12/27).
The good thing about birding is that it can be done anywhere at anytime, such as between errands in Auburn where I enjoyed this Peregrine Falcon hunting around Great Falls. I snapped this photo with my phone through my binoculars on the Hampton Inn in Auburn.
I don’t usually get out birding much in the week before Christmas, and this year it was even less. But a few quick stops, dog-walks, and incidental observations produced only the following observation of note over the past seven days.
1 GRAY CATBIRD, Saco Riverwalk, 12/20.
This Week in Finches:
Although my birding was limited, the dearth of finches was noteworthy. Has the flight passed us by? Did the largest volume of redpolls simply move southward to the west of us? Are there more in the pipeline, or will we have a rather quiet January and February?
EVENING GROSBEAK: 1 (Old Town House Park, North Yarmouth, 12/21).
Red Crossbill: 0
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL: 0
PINE GROSBEAK: up to 10 daily (in and around the yard here at the store all week).
Purple Finch: 0
Common Redpoll: 0
Pine Siskin High Count This Week: 3 (Merrill Road Ext, Freeport, 12/19).
Starting the day with Evening Grosbeaks at our home feeders and enjoying Pine Grosbeaks everytime we carry seed out to someone’s car really isn’t too shabby.
My observations of note over the past seven days included the following:
Unusually large number of Red-throated Loons in the northwest corner of Casco Bay all week.
1 BOHEMIAN WAXWING and 1 Savannah Sparrow, Wolfe’s Neck Center, Freeport, 12/13.
1 RING-NECKED DUCK with about 450 mixed Lesser and Greater Scaup with about 1,000 White-winged Scoters, Wharton Point, Brunswick, 12/14.
425+ mixed Lesser and Greater Scaup, Simpson’s Point, Brunswick, 12/14.
EVENING GROSBEAK: 12 (flying over our yard in Pownal, 12/13); 2 (Verrill Road, Pownal, 12/13); after a several day absence, up to 4 were in our Pownal yard on 12/15; 1 (Verrill Road, 12/17).
Red Crossbills: 1 (Wolfe’s Neck Center, Freeport, 12/14); 4 (Cumberland Town Forest, 12/16);
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL: 0
PINE GROSBEAK: 6-10 daily (in and around the yard here at the store all week); 4 (Rte 1, Brunswick, 12/14); 10 (Cumberland Town Landing, 12/16); 4 (Rte 88, Cumberland, 12/16).
Purple Finch: 0
Common Redpoll: 5 (Cumberland Town Landing, 12/16).
Pine Siskin High Count This Week: 2 (Cumberland Town Landing, 12/16).
I didn’t get out birding much this week, but my morning on Bailey Island was fantastic! But the good news is that Pine Grosbeaks have been around our store daily, and this morning lost getting snow tires on my car produced the biggest flock I have seen in the area so far this season. It is nice when the birds come to you!
My observations of note over the past seven days included the following:
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 1 Hermit Thrush, and 1 Northern Flicker, Bailey Island, Harpswell, 12/7.
EVENING GROSBEAK: Up to 3 continue daily at our feeders at home in Pownal through the early part of the week; 2 (Memak Preserve, North Yarmouth, 12/10).
Red Crossbills: 4 (Bailey Island, Harpswell, 12/7); 12 (Waterboro Barrens Preserve, 12/8).
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL: 2 (Bailey Island, 12/7).
PINE GROSBEAK: 4 (in and around the yard here at the store, 12/2-8); increased to 6 (12/9 – present); 6 (Mayall Road, Gray, 12/9); 3 (Westbrook Riverwalk, 12/11); 18 (Saunders Way, Westbrook, 12/11).
Purple Finch: 1 (Bailey Island, 12/7).
Common Redpoll High Count This Week: 7 (Bailey Island, 12/7).
Pine Siskin High Count This Week: 3 (Bailey Island, 12/7).
Incredible…a Rock Wren and a Rufous Hummingbird…in Maine…in December. It was a big week! Western birds in the East and finches from the north continue to be the stars of the show.
My observations of note over the past seven days included the following:
1 Common Grackle continued at the store through 11/28.
1 Turkey Vulture, I-95 South, Scarborough, 11/29.
The ROCK WREN, Marginal Way, Ogunquit, 11/29 (with m.obs). Photos above.
1 immature White-crowned Sparrow, 1 Savannah Sparrow, and 1 Swamp Sparrow, Private property in Cape Elizabeth, 11/30.
2 Brant, Dyer Point, Cape Elizabeth, 11/30.
1 continuing immature male RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD, Ledgewood Drive, Yarmouth, 12/4. A hummingbird in Maine in December – incredible! 39F when I arrived. Observed repeatedly between 8:00 and 9:00am visiting hummingbird feeder and foraging in trees (especially at the end of spruce twigs). Photos below.
This Week in Finches:
EVENING GROSBEAK: Up to 3 continue daily at our feeders at home in Pownal; 2 (Main St, Cumberland, 12/2).
PINE GROSBEAK: 4 (in and around the yard here at the store, 12/2- present); 1 (fly-over, Ledgewood Drive, Yarmouth 12/4); 6 (Royal River Park, Yarmouth, 12/4).
Purple Finch: 0
Common Redpoll High Count This Week: 1 (Mayall Rd, Gray/New Gloucester, 12/2).
Pine Siskin High Count This Week: 32 (Ledgewood Drive, Yarmouth, 12/4).
Pine Grosbeaks have already started to arrive in Southern Maine, such as this female at the Yarmouth Library on the 25th.
I didn’t get very far afield much this week, but feeder-watching, local patches, and a visit to Sabattus Pond at week’s end made up for it. My observations of note over the past seven days included the following:
1 continuing LINCOLN’S SPARROW, feeders here at the store through 11/21.
8 American Pipits, Highland Road, Brunswick, 11/21.
1 Fox Sparrow, feeders here at the store, 11/21.
1 Turkey Vulture, over the store, 11/24.
100+ Horned Larks and about 40 Snow Buntings, Mayall Road, Gray/New Gloucester, 11/25.
1 Common Grackle, feeders here at the store, 11/25 -present.
Sabattus Pond, Sabattus, 11/27:
It was a great morning as the fog lifted and the water was dead calm. Unfortunately, a high-speed fishing boat, several duck hunting parties, and two hunting Bald Eagles made it difficult to make an accurate count as birds were flushing in different directions.
476 Mallards
301 Canada Geese
231 Ruddy Ducks
174 Common Mergansers
144 American Black Ducks
44 Greater Scaup
26 Hooded Mergansers
18 Lesser Scaup
8 Buffleheads
5 GADWALL
4 Green-winged Teal
4 Common Goldeneyes
3 Northern Pintails
2 Common Loons
1 drake American Wigeon
1 probable hen American Wigeon (very brown-headed individual found last week by P. Moynahan and N. Houlihan. Spotted off South Beach but flushed by fishing boat. Refound on west shore and distantly phone-scoped, but flushed by eagle before I could get closer. Appeared to have white bar on upperwing greater coverts to rule out Eurasian, but not conclusively viewed…other details suggestive or ambiguous. Good luck ruling out a hybrid on a hen wigeon, however!)
1 CACKLING GOOSE (FOY) – in distance from South Beach with large group of Canadas. Flushed by fishing boat before I could get to Riley Road to attempt phone-scoping. Very tiny bird with short neck and very short, stubby bill. Barely larger than the Mallards. Flew north, but not relocated, including searching of farm fields along eastern shore.
1 Belted Kingfisher
The Finch-Tastic Fall festivities continue:
EVENING GROSBEAK: 9 continue daily at our feeders at home in Pownal; 1 (Highland Rd, 11/21); 2 (Martin’s Point Park, Sabattus, 11/27.
Red Crossbills: 3 (Highland Road, 11/21).
PINE GROSBEAK: 4 (Highland Road, 11/21); 3 (Yarmouth Library, 11/25).
Purple Finch: 0
Common Redpoll: scattered very few.
Pine Siskin High Count This Week: 6 (our feeders in Pownal, 11/22).
I checked a lot of thickets along the coast this week, hoping for late migrants and vagrants. While those were in rather short supply, I had noticed a significant number of Carolina Wrens. Are they rebounding from a couple of harsh winters in a row, or was there another influx of migrants/dispersing birds into the region this fall. Even the common and fairly common birds have so much to teach us about populations, movements, and vagrancy!
It’s getting colder and quieter out there. But, we are in the midst of the late fall Rarity Season, so I made time to check as many of the migrant and vagrant traps as I could this week. Other than a great morning with Jeannette on Bailey Island on Tuesday, I didn’t find much in the way of “lingering” birds. Did the late-October unseasonable cold snap have something to do with it? And/or the lack of natural food resources because of the drought? Or I was in the wrong places?
My observations of note over the past seven days included the following:
2 PINE GROSBEAKS, Private Property in Durham, 11/14.
1 Red-shouldered Hawk, Wolfe’s Neck Center, Freeport, 11/15.
1 AMERICAN REDSTART, 9 WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS, 1 PINE WARBLER, 1 “Ipswich” Savannah Sparrow, 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and 1 Winter Wren, Bailey Island, Harpswell, 11/17 (with Jeannette).
Well this is sure not something you’ll see everyday! Here’s a vagrant BULLOCK’S ORIOLE from the Western US in front of the Maine state flag!
With only 5-9 previous records in Maine, this visitor to a Freeport backyard was definitely my headliner this week…as it was for most birders in the state!
My observations of note over the past seven days were as follows:
3 immature White-crowned Sparrows continue here at the store’s feeders through 11/11.
1 Lapland Longspur, 1 Red Crossbill, 4 American Pipits, 6 Snow Buntings, 60+ Horned Larks, Mayall Road, Gray/New Gloucester, 11/11.
1 American Pipit, fly-over here at the store, 11/11 (our 130th Yard Bird!).
1 BULLOCK’S ORIOLE, Spring Hill Lane (see previous posts on Maine Birds Google Group or the Maine Birds Facebook Group for directions), Freeport, 11/11.
1 Red Crossbill, Florida Lake Park, Freeport, 11/12.
Pine Siskin High Count This Week: 14, Spring Hill Road, Freeport, 11/11.
Common Redpoll High Count This Week: 2, multiple locations.
EVENING GROSBEAK High Count This Week: 8, over the store, 11/7 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
Pine Siskins have really thinned out this week, but still remain common and widespread. This was one in a small group at Kettle Cove in Cape Elizabeth on 11/1, feasting on Speckled Alder.
This weekly report has been posted on the Maine-Birds Google Group and our store’s Facebook Page for several years. I’m playing around with a new repository for these weekly reports. How does it look here? The archives are searchable at least, and it’s an easy way to encourage me to add more photos (at least one a week is my goal!).
My observations of note over the past seven days included the following:
– a few Evening Grosbeaks in and around our yard in Pownal all week.
– 1 very early BOHEMIAN WAXWING, 1 NORTHERN SHRIKE, 1 LESSER YELLOWLEGS, 4 Common Redpolls, 2 American Tree Sparrows (FOF), and 3 Common Goldeneyes (FOF), Wolfe’s Neck Center, Freeport, 10/31 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
– 10 Snow Buntings (FOF), Sebago Lake State Park, 11/2 (with Jeannette).
– 1 Fox Sparrow, our yard in Pownal, 11/2.
– 300+ Horned Larks, 60+ American Pipits, 8 Snow Buntings, and 2 Lapland Longspurs (FOF), Mayall Road, Gray/New Gloucester, 11/4.
– Sabattus Pond, Sabattus, 11/6:
674 Mallards
644 Ruddy Ducks
277 Common Mergansers
89 Canada Geese
75 Green-winged Teal
68 Greater Scaup
20 American Black Ducks
55 Hooded Mergansers
28 Bufflehead
8 Lesser Scaup
5 American Wigeon
4 GADWALL
2 Northern Pintails
2 Common Loons
1 Red-breasted Merganser
1 Double-crested Cormorant
1 continuing female LONG-TAILED DUCK
1 RED-NECKED GREBE
1 EVENING GROSBEAK
1 Rusty Blackbird
-Pine Siskin High Count This Week: 18+, feeders here at the store most of the week.-Scattered small numbers of Common Redpolls all week and increasing by week’s end.
Leach’s Storm-Petrels were the star of the show today!
We were very excited to kick off a new partnership between Freeport Wild Bird Supply and Cap’n Fish Cruises with a half-day pelagic birding trip out of Boothbay Harbor on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, October 12th. We departed the wharf at 9:00am and returned at about 1:45pm.
Cap’n Fish’s Dominique Caverly joined me in narrating the tour, adding additional natural history information. Captain Tabor did an exceptional job keeping the boat as comfortable as possible, finding some interesting underwater topography, trying to position the boat to view birds in the best light, and catching up with those two jaegers! Ian Carlsen was our chummer extraordinaire, getting fulmars and Great Shearwaters within a few yards of the boat – while simultaneously keeping track of our eBird transects.
With a forecast for 2-3ft seas, we were not all that happy to find them more like 2-4 with the occasional 5-footer, but Captain Tabor did a great job in picking a track that maximized our time with comfortable following seas. There were a few bumps and splashes along the way, but so goes pelagic birding in the fall in the Gulf of Maine. We were just happy to successfully get offshore!
Heading into deeper waters of the Portland shipping channel about 20 miles offshore, we explored an area where the seafloor rises from 500 feet to 300, before dropping off again to over 600. What’s great about departing from Boothbay – and bodes well for future tours from here – is that we don’t have to travel too far to get to some good deep-water and interesting seabed topography.
Fall pelagics in the Gulf of Maine, especially in southern Maine, are a fickle beast, and can be really hit or miss. In fact, I have been out on whale watches in October that failed to record a single tubenose! But, having had a significant amount of success with Cap’n Fish’s whale watches during the fall, I was quite excited for the chance to head out on a dedicated bird-finding mission.
And it did take some work to find birds today. Even Northern Gannets and gulls were in very short supply. However, once we got to that aforementioned ledge, we had a lot of birds all around us.
Great Shearwaters were the most numerous “tubenose” as expected.
But 3 Leach’s Storm-Petrels were anything but expected! Even one would have been a headliner, but today we had three – two of which were seen extraordinarily well for prolonged periods of time. I was hopefully for this species, but they are so hit-or-miss, I only included it on my “possible” list. And then I expected the sighting to be like our first – one zipping by and only seen by a few observers. Those second two, however: wow, just wow!
Any day with a jaeger is a good day in my book, and we had two good sightings of Pomarine Jaegers today, including one that was around us and reigning terror for a while. I called them both “Poms” in the field, but I looked forward to receiving photos to confirm their identify – no one should be above going to instant replay for jaegers! In fact, one early photo I received had me rethinking the first bird, but upon receiving a full set, the play was confirmed as called on the field.
Three Atlantic Puffins and 9 Northern Fulmars were more expected, but no less great to see. Unfortunately, the Razorbill was seen in flight by only a few. My tally of 91 Great Shearwaters is likely woefully conservative. When chumming, it became impossible to keep track of how many birds were circling us rather than just passing by for a look (and sniff!). And while this was indeed a birding-centric tour, we were disappointed to only encounter Harbor Seals and Harbor Porpoises during our travels; yes, this pelagic brakes for whales!
And finally, passerines are always exciting when encountered offshore, and always a challenge. I was a little surprised we didn’t encounter more as there had been a massive flight overnight, but the lack of a westerly component kept those birds from drifting offshore. In fact, both birds we saw were heading southwest, likely “onward” migration rather than compensating for overnight drift. One was relegated to “passerine species,” but photographs confirmed the other as a Yellow-rumped Warbler.
Beginning and ending with Black Guillemots and Common Eiders in the harbor and returning to a lovely warm and calm afternoon in the sheltered town, we can unequivocally call the day’s outing a success…and yes, plans are already in the works for more trips together in 2021! Sat tuned!
Here is the annotated checklist from the day:
Common Eider: 23 beyond mouth of the bay; numerous in harbor.
Surf Scoter: 61
dark-winged scoter sp: 20
Pomarine Jaegers: at least 2 winter adults; possibly a third bird.
#1:
#2:
Razorbill: 1 fly-by spotted by Captain and a few participants.
Black Guillemot: x
ATLANTIC PUFFIN: 3
Ring-billed Gull: 2
Herring Gull: x
Great Black-backed Gull: x
Common Loon: 15
LEACH’S STORM-PETRELS: 3. All photographed. First bird seen only by a few, second two birds seen insanely well and for prolonged periods of time.
#1:
#2:
#3:
Just ridiculously stunning views of this very challenging-to-see species!
Northern Fulmar: 9
Great Shearwater: 91 (very conservative count)
Northern Gannet: 30 (low)
Yellow-rumped Warbler: 1 (about 22 miles from land)
Passerine sp: 1 (probably a warbler but that’s as much as I can say)
Only marine mammals were Harbor Porpoises and Harbor Seals.
Great Shearwaters may have been overshadowed this day, but they too put on a great show!
Maine Birding Field Notes 