After beginning a “feeder watching blog” while stuck at home from shoulder surgery in the winter of 2023 (here and here), I continue the tradition for the fourth year now, as I try to compare feeder activity between winters on our property in Durham, Maine, and then attempt to use it as a case-study for what the overall feeder bird activity is like in the area this winter.

Here is the 2024 report, which can be compared to 2025. 

Here in 2026, we have been experiencing a very long (by modern standards) and impressively cold winter, with about an average amount of snow as of now. However, the extreme cold has prevented our recent snowfalls from melting, so the snow depth is piling up (currently about 10” or more in our yard). Deep snow makes some resources (like “weed” seeds in fields) hard to find and pushes birds around in pursuit of safe cover.

Meanwhile, my birding beyond the backyard has proven that the regional abundance of irruptive winter finches is closely tied to Red Spruce, of which we have none on our property and very little here in southern Androscoggin County. Unlike last winter, there are Evening Grosbeaks around, but they cleaned out the remaining ash seeds in our yard before I started my count and had moved on from our property. Only recently has a little surge of Purple Finches especially, and to a lesser extent Pine Siskins and Common Redpolls, made it this far south. Unfortunately, not many of them have visited our feeding station in the past 10 days. 

Let’s start with the numbers. Once again, I dedicated time to counting feeder birds at our feeding station in Durham each day for at least one hour. I was birding elsewhere on February 3rd, so I counted for 10 of 11 days between February 2^nd and February 12^th – the same window as last year. And like in each year, I used the standard methodology of using “high counts” (maximum number of individuals seen at any one time, unless they were readily identifiable as being different).

Every year is different, and every yard is different. Controlling here for time and place, we can make some comparisons, however, or at least try to.

Somewhat surprisingly, 2026 has been a rather average year at our feeders for number of individuals; I was expecting it to be a little lower. Diversity was indeed a little lower than average, as the finches have just not been frequenting our yard of late and we don’t have anything unexpected.

American Tree Sparrows are above average for us, Dark-eyed Juncos are below average, and we are sans White-throated or Song Sparrows again this winter, which makes sense based on the relatively deep and extensive snow cover. I thought Northern Cardinals might be higher due to their concentration in deeper snow, but we don’t have a lot of evergreen cover at this end of our property which they need to not be conspicuous against the bright white background (we’re working on it though!)

As usual, I am sure I undercounted Black-capped Chickadees, and perhaps also Tufted Titmice and White-breasted Nuthatches (even though they were above average) as I think there could be two small mixed species foraging-flocks around. I also think there could be more than two pairs each of Hairy and especially Downy Woodpeckers, but using the “high count” method, I only tabulated the maximum seen at one time. Same for Eastern Bluebirds; there may be two groups around visiting regularly as well.

We didn’t have any seasonal rarities like last year’s Gray Catbird and Fox Sparrow, but we have had a Barred Owl hunting the edge of our “homestead” area including near the feeders on and off for the past couple of weeks. Certainly the excitement of this count period was on the 5^th, when an immature Cooper’s Hawk took a run at something. Everything flushed. Then, a Barred Owl came gliding in and either landed on the Cooper’s Hawk or immediately next to it. The Cooper’s Hawk flew away, the Barred Owl looked around in snow for a moment before flying into tree.

Was this attempted kleptoparasitism (stealing food) instead of a predation attempt? The Barred Owl has been regularly sunning itself in a spot that would provide a good sight line to where this occurred, so it was probably seeing a potential opportunity for brunch. I am just unsure what opportunity it saw.

As for finches, American Goldfinches remain about average for us with our birch-filled yard, and quite a bit higher than last year, which fits with what others are observing at feeders and what I am seeing in the field. Purple Finches are just returning to our feeder, but despite a nice little surge of finches into the area this past week, they were not reflected at our feeders. They’ll probably all show up next week! Black-capped Chickadees are low for us, and we don’t have a Red-breasted Nuthatch this winter – head into Red Spruce forest and you’ll find plenty of each, however.

But despite the patchy distribution of what irruptives are indeed present in the area, and what appears to be relatively low numbers of many feeder birds in general, we are going through a LOT of birdseed (and suet, etc), and customers of our store report the same. In fact, our seed sales are up nearly 20% compared to the average for the previous 3 winters. While there may not be a ton of birds around, they are eating a lot of supplemental food at our feeders, which makes sense given the winter conditions. In hindsight, I should have calculated bird seed poundage that we used from the start of this project in 2023!

The average morning low at our home during this period was a measly +3.1 degrees F. That was 2.4 degrees colder than the ten days I looked at last year. That’s a lot more calories that need to be burned each night! While total number of individuals is slightly up from last year, it’s not particularly significant. Nonetheless, we are going through more seed than we were at this time last year, and the cold and snow are part of this equation this year. It’s clearly not just us, either, as overall seed sales (by poundage) are way up at the store, and well above its long-term average.

As usual, however, the differences from year to year are mostly based on natural food crops. We don’t have any Eastern White Pine cones in the area this year, and Red Oak was low (plus we don’t have much on our property). Eastern Hemlock cones are in good supply, but on our property, they are too far from our feeders to produce birds for this tally. We do have a lot of Paper Birch seeds this year, and that is good for all of our goldfinches.

Once again, we only had one accipiter sighting, a Cooper’s Hawk on one day, the Barred Owl, and a semi-regular Red-tailed Hawk that shows no interest in the area around the feeders but could easily disrupt activity and feeding patterns. But there were times without any birds at the feeders or massive panicked flushing, suggestive of an avian predator hanging around more often than we observed one.

We’re filling almost all of our 11 feeders at least daily (often twice daily when we are home in another snowstorm), and that concurs with comments we receive at the store. But every yard is different, and not everyone has the same results. If your feeders have seemed comparatively slow, consider what you are feeding, and how fresh the seed and suet is. For example, a recent customer complained about how long it’s been since he had any birds at his feeders, which is shocking given what almost everyone else has been reporting. Turns out he hasn’t changed the seed since August! Would you eat that? Even if it wasn’t likely so clogged and moldy as to be inaccessible? These are important and we can help you with that here at the store. It’s worth exploring some of my previous blog posts on the topic that discuss reasons why feeder activity ebbs and flows, such as this one and this one.

We’ve only lived at this location for four years, so it’s too soon to tell what a truly “average” winter is like in terms of volume and diversity for us. Furthermore, we continue to accelerate plantings and habitat improvement that should increase the number of birds our property sustains throughout the year. Given that feeders are only a supplement to natural food supplies, I believe our habitat work will pay dividends for our feeder-watching in years to come. This is one of the trends that I hope to decipher over time.

I enjoy this little project, and time permitting, I’ll plan on doing it again next year. It’s only one yard, but it’s a case study that can answer some questions or at least offer a little detailed context as to what others are reporting. How does our feeder activity compare to yours? Are you seeing anything different? Or do some of our observations and hypotheses fit with your observations?

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.

This juvenile Marbled Godwit posed nicely at Hill’s Beach in Biddeford early in the morning on the 17^th.

I tried to squeeze in as much time with shorebirds as I could muster this week, resulting in the following tallies. 18 (and ½) species of shorebirds was a good week’s total, especially without a visit (due to high water) to the Eastern Road Trail.

• AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER: 5 adults, Ocean Avenue, Biddeford Pool, 8/17 (with Noah Gibb); 1, Pine Point, Scarborough, 8/15; 1 Hill’s Beach, Biddeford, 8/17.
• Black-bellied Plover: 151, Wharton Point, Brunswick, 8/14.
• Killdeer: 21, Crystal Spring Farm, Brunswick, 8/14.
• Semipalmated Plover: 392, Pine Point, Scarborough, 8/15.
• Piping Plover: 5, Hill’s Beach, Biddeford, 8/17.
• Whimbrel: 2, Pine Point, 8/15.
• Ruddy Turnstone: 8, Ocean Avenue, Biddeford Pool, 8/17 (with Noah Gibb).
• Sanderling: 17, Biddeford Pool Beach, Biddeford, 8/17.
• BAIRD’S SANDPIPER (FOY) 1, Hill’s Beach, 8/17.
• Least Sandpiper: 30++, The Pool, Biddeford Pool, 8/17.
• White-rumped Sandpiper: 2, Pine Point, 8/15.
• Pectoral Sandpiper: 1, Hill’s Beach, 8/17.
• Semipalmated Sandpiper: 1600, The Pool, 8/17.
• Short-billed Dowitcher: 34, Biddeford Pool, 8/17.
• Spotted Sandpiper: 4, Ocean Avenue, 8/17 (with Noah Gibb).
• Lesser Yellowlegs: 79, Walsh Preserve, Yarmouth, 8/12 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
• “Eastern” Willet: 14, The Pool, 8/17.
• “WESTERN” WILLET: 1 presumably continuing, The Pool, 8/17.
• Greater Yellowlegs: 36, Walsh Preserve, 8/12 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).

A few non-shorebird highlights this week also included:

• 6 Common Nighthawks, over Rte 136, Auburn, 8/15 (with Jeannette).

• 1 3^rd-cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull, Hill’s Beach, Biddeford, 8/17.

• 2 White-winged Scoter, 2-3 Surf Scoters, 100+ Black Scoters – a rare mid-summer Scoter hat-trick!, Biddeford Pool Beach, 8/17.

• 2 continuing adult RED-NECKED GREBES, Ocean Avenue, Biddeford Pool, 8/17 (with Noah Gibb).

• 1 immature GREAT CORMORANT, East Point, Biddeford Pool, 8/17 (with Noah Gibb).

• Passerine migration is really ramping up, for example, I had 3 Northern Waterthrushes on our Durham property on the morning of the 18^th. They don’t breed here.

TOURS AND EVENTS:

• Tomorrow is our Bird Safe Open House event, with everything from a birdwalk to a keynote speaker. No registration is necessary. Note the Saturday Morning Birdwalk that week meets in Durham at 9:00am.

• Then, on Thursday (8/24) we have a special event here at the store on featuring Maine Authors Paul Doiron and Ron Joseph. You won’t want to miss this one!

While by no means rare, a highlight for us this week was this Great Blue Heron stalking our pond in our Durham yard. It’s exciting to see the ecosystem we built here in less than a year! I’ve noticed a lot of Great Blue Herons undergoing post-breeding dispersal over the past week.

How is it that when you go away for a week, you fall three weeks behind? I’ve never understood that marvel of the universe. Anyway, catching up from our trip resulted in minimal birding for me over these last 6 days. However, a couple of highlights included the following:

• Red Crossbills continue on the coastal plain. My high count this week were 7 flying over our yard on 8/1.

• 1 House Wren, our property in Durham, 8/1 to present (our 140^th Yard Bird!).

• 1 RED-NECKED GREBE and 11 Piping Plovers, Popham State Park, Phippsburg, 8/3.

• Oddly, a Black-billed Cuckoo was singing loudly at around 11pm on the night of the 3rd in our yard in Durham.

TOURS and EVENTS

• Speaking of catching up, here’s (finally) my tour report from our July 22^nd trip out to Seal Island.

And while observations were minimal this week, we do have a few events coming up that were worth posting.

• The first is our Birds of Casco Bay: “Shorebird Special” coming up this Sunday. Due to a recent cancellation, there are now two spaces available.

• Then, we have our Bird Safe Open House event on 8/19, with everything from a birdwalk to a keynote speaker. No registration is necessary, but this is a good way to keep in touch.  Note the Saturday Morning Birdwalk that week meets in Durham at 9:00am.

• And finally, we have a special event at the store on 8/24 featuring Maine Authors Paul Doiron and Ron Joseph. You won’t want to miss this one!

A visit to Popham Beach State Park on the 19^th produced more fog and fewer shorebirds than I had hoped, but a family of Piping Plovers provided plenty of entertainment. Note that I did not approach these birds, but instead sat in the sand (burying my feet and legs mostly to defend against Greenhead Flies!) and let them wander up to me. It was a wonderful moment.

A few observations of note over the past seven days included the following:

• Red Crossbills continue to be widespread in small numbers around the state, by my high count this week was only 4 in Millinocket on 7/18.

• 21 Lesser Yellowlegs, Yarmouth Town Landing, 7/16.

• 1 Mourning Warbler, Knife Edge Brewing, T1-R8, 7/17 (with Jeannette).

• 2 CANADA JAYS, 13 total WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS including several singing males, 1 out of place FIELD SPARROW, 1 Olive-sided Flycatcher, etc., Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, 7/18 (with Jeannette).

• 2 Whimbrels, Popham Beach State Park, Phippsburg, 7/19.

TOURS:

We have some room available for tomorrow afternoon’s charter to Seal Island. With all of the rarities around offshore recently, who knows what we might find!  Hope to see you aboard!

Another busy week of tours and other things produced some interesting observations of note, including some late migrants. However, most of my birding this week was once again focused on our local summer favorites. More noteworthy over the previous six days as I head out on another long tour were the following:

• 2 Red Crossbills, Hunter Cove Wildlife Sanctuary, Rangeley, 6/10 (with Michael Lanzone and Rangeley Birding Festival tour group).
• 1 late Solitary Sandpiper, Rangeley sewerage facility, 6/10 (with Michael Lanzone).
• 1 singing MOURNING WARBLER, our yard in Durham, 6/11.
• 1 pair LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSHES, Big Falls Preserve, New Gloucester, 6/12 (with Jeannette) – I’ve been waiting for a pair here for years!

TRIP REPORTS:

• Still catching up on trip reports, but without any further ado, here’s the complete summary, including lots of photographs and a full trip list, from our June 2nd Zeiss mini-pelagic out of Boothbay Harbor. We really lucked out with the weather, that is for sure!

TOURS AND EVENTS:

• Our next tours with availability is our July 10^th Eastern Egg Rock and Whale Watch with Cap’n Fish’s in Boothbay Harbor and our July 22^nd charter to Seal Island via Stonington. You know we’ll be looking for that Tufted Puffin!

One of two Nelson’s Sparrows at Kettle Cove in Cape Elizabeth on Thursday, this one had much more well-defined streaking than the other. It doesn’t seem crisp and clear enough to be an “interior” subspecies, however, but I can’t help but wonder if there are Saltmarsh Sparrow genes in here, too.

A good week of October birding – at least when it wasn’t pouring again – included a goodly total of 5 Orange-crowned Warblers and a nice mix of “late” migrants. And finally, a morning at Sandy Point! My observations of note over the past seven days included the following:

1 CLAY-COLORED SPARROW and 1 BAY-BREASTED WARBLER, Wolfe’s Neck Center, Freeport, 10/22 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk Group).

1 Orange-crowned Warbler and 1 Common Yellowthroat, Elphis Pond, Biddeford Pool, 10/23.

1 Orange-crowned Warbler and 1 Blackpoll Warbler, etc, East Point, Biddeford Pool, 10/23 (with clients from Maine and Pennsylvania).

Scoter sweep at Sabattus!  All three scoters were present on Sabattus Pond on 10/25 – perhaps only the second time I have ever had the hat trick here.  26 SURF SCOTERS, 21 BLACK SCOTERS, and 16 WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS joined 302 RUDDY DUCKS, 80 Greater and 44 Lesser Scaup, etc. (with Jeannette).

2 Orange-crowned Warblers, 2 Nelson’s Sparrows (see photo above), and 12 Semipalmated Plovers, Kettle Cove, Cape Elizabeth, 10/27.

1 Orange-crowned Warbler, 2 Indigo Buntings, 3 Lincoln’s Sparrows, etc, Private Property in Cape Elizabeth, 10/27.

Sandy Point Morning Flight, 10/28: 692 individuals of 37 species including late warblers and the first Morning Flight record of…House Sparrow! Full count here.

My observations of note over the past five days before I head out to Monhegan with my annual tour group included a Lark Sparrow, lots of vismig, and two stints (including one 3K bird day!) at Sandy Point.

Sandy Point Morning Flight, 9/17: 3,024 migrants of 39 species including 16 species of warblers including my second highest all-time count for Northern Parulas.  Full count here.

Hawkwatching at the store, 9/17: 1,708 raptors of 10 species. Full count here.

8 Red Crossbills and a deafening number of Red-breasted Nuthatches, Littlefield Wood Preserve, Chebeague Island, 9/18 (with Chebeague-Cumberland Land Trust tour group).

1 LARK SPARROW, intersection of Washington Street and Pasture Road, Bailey Island, Harpswell, 9/20 (with Jeannette). Photo above

Sandy Point Morning Flight, 9/21: 322 migrants of 32 species including 14 species of warbler and my second-ever Brown Thrasher.  Full Count here.