It was a good week for Caspian Terns, and it’s always a treat to see one sitting still. This adult was on the Lubec Flats on the 4th.
A busy week of birding included our annual late summer/early fall trip to Washington County and a bunch of guiding, producing the following observations of note:
25-30 Common Nighthawks, over Chebeague Island in the mid-morning, 9/3 (with The Chebeague & Cumberland Land Trust birdwalk group).
1 juvenile LITTLE BLUE HERON, 1 CASPIAN TERN, 1 Great Egret, 5 Surf Scoters, etc, Lubec Flats, Lubec, 9/4 (with Jeannette).
A relatively slow morning in Head Harbor Passage from Eastport on 9/5 (with Beth Edmonds, Dan Nickerson, Jeannette, and friends) was most noteworthy for the continuing large numbers of COMMON MURRES. I tallied 109, but that seems very conservative. We only had 4 Razorbills and 1 adult Lesser Black-backed Gull. Quiet time with just us and a Fin Whale more than made up for it though.
The afternoon whale watch on Eastport Windjammers to the same waters that day (with Beth Edmonds, Dan Nickerson, and Jeannette) yielded an adult LITTLE GULL, 3 CASPIAN TERNS, 1 late ARCTIC TERN, 2 Great Shearwaters, etc. Incredibly experience with 2 Fin Whales, 1 Humpback Whale, and 1 Minke Whale though.
We always enjoy our quality time with Black-legged Kittiwakes in the Head Harbor Passage area at this time of year.
2 American Pipits (FOF), Sanborn Cove, Machiasport, 9/6 (with Jeannette). Interestingly, we had pipits at a number of places throughout the day, with a high count of 22 at Addison Marsh, Addison.
1 Great Egret, Addison Marsh, 9/6 (with Jeannette).
1 Great Egret, Essex Marsh, Bangor, 9/6 (with Jeannette).
High count for warbler species in our Durham backyard this week was 11 on 9/7 (with Angela Woodside).
3 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Popham Beach State Park, Phippsburg, 9/8 (with clients from Texas).
Great whale-watching trumped the bird-watching again this week with 3 lunge-feeding Fin Whales off of Boothbay Harbor aboard Cap’n Fish’s Cruises on 9/8 (with clients from Texas). 3 RED-NECKED PHALAROPES, 1 Great Shearwater, 1 adult Lesser Black-backed Gull, 10 Wilson’s Storm-Petrels and making it back to shore before the violent thunderstorms add to the success of the trip!
Meanwhile, my shorebird high counts this week were as follows. While reduced in diversity by a lack of visitation to southern Maine shorebird hotspots, Downeast yielded some excellent numbers and I found some uncommon species in unexpected places for a goodly total of 18 species (“shorebird season” is far from over!):
AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER: 1, Popham Beach State Park, Phippsburg, 9/8 (with clients from Texas).
Ruddy Turnstone: 1, flying 10 miles off of Boothbay Harbor, 9/8 (with clients from Texas). Odd sighting of a single juvenile bird circling the boat repeatedly in hazy conditions where the mainland was not visible.
Sanderling: 24, Popham Beach State Park, 9/8 (with clients from Texas)
Our Durham yard has been incredibly birdy this week. The most unexpected migrant was this American Bittern that dropped into our new pond for the morning of the 28th.
I didn’t get out to shorebird hotspots as much this week, but still ended up with 17.5 species and some solid high counts. However, much of my best birding this week was from our yard, which apparently is a fantastic fall migration hotspot. And my first visit of the season to Sandy Point on 8/31 produced a new August record!
Black-bellied Plover: 142, The Pool, Biddeford Pool, 9/1.
Killdeer: 3, United Ag and Turf, Auburn, 8/31 (with Jeannette).
Semipalmated Plover: 150+, The Pool, 9/1.
Piping Plover: 1, The Pool, 9/1.
Whimbrel: 4, The Pool, 9/1.
RED KNOT: 16 juv, The Pool, 9/1.
Sanderling: 1, The Pool, 9/1.
Least Sandpiper: 32, Eastern Road Trail, Scarborough Marsh, 8/31.
White-rumped Sandpiper: 11, Wharton Point, Brunswick, 8/28 (with Jeannette).
Pectoral Sandpiper: 2, Eastern Road Trail, 8/31.
Semipalmated Sandpiper: 450-500, Wharton Point, Brunswick, 8/28 (with Jeannette).
A handful of non-shorebird highlights this week also included:
A productive week of birding on our Durham property produced a number of highlights. In fact, most mornings, it was hard to pull myself away from the yard. At least 11 species of warblers have been in our yard daily this week, with a high count of 12 on the 28th. A female MOURNING WARBLER was present 8/27-8/29. A Phildelphia Vireo on the 28th-29th was our 144th yard bird, followed moments later by the arrival of #145: An American Bittern (photo above). A DICKCISSEL (FOF) briefly paused in the yard on the morning of the 1st for our 146th yard bird! 32-38 Common Nighthawks were feeding over the yard late in the day on 9/1 as well.
12 adult SANDHILL CRANES, Mayall Road, Gray/New Gloucester, 8/30 (site high count and noteworthy that no juveniles were present – failed breeding season due to high water and flooding?)
Sandy Point Morning Flight, 8/31 (FOY):
6:00-9:15am
57F, mostly clear, NE 4.7-7.6 increasing to 7.3-9.8 and gusty.
This juvenile Marbled Godwit continues at Hill’s Beach in Biddeford, making a nice addition to my “Shorebird Big Day” effort on Tuesday.
After being thwarted by weather on a couple of days recently, I conducted a “Shorebird Big Day” on Tuesday the 22nd. I birded between Sanford and Brunswick, seeking shorebirds from near-dawn to dusk. My goal was “at least 20” species of shorebirds, so I was happy to finish my day with 22 species. Needless to say, that day dedicated to shorebirding produced the majority of my high counts this week:
AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER: 6 adults, Ocean Avenue, Biddeford Pool, 8/22 (with Luke Seitz).
Black-bellied Plover: 126, Wharton Point, Brunswick, 8/22.
A nice list of non-shorebird highlights this week also included:
At least 12 species of warblers have been in our yard daily this week, with a high count of 15 on the 24th. A Tennessee Warbler that I spotted while conducting our Bird Safe Open House birdwalk on the 19th was our 141st yard species.
Common Nighthawks have been on the move all week, with nightly sightings. My high counts included 16 over the Bates Mill in Lewiston on the 19th (with Dan and Renee Klem) and 244 in an hour over Wharton Point in Brunswick on the 23rd.
1 continuing proposed TRICOLORED HERON X SNOWY EGRET X SMALL WHITE EGRET SP(P) HYBRID, Eastern Road Trail, Scarborough marsh, 8/20.
3 BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER, Green Point WMA, Dresden, 8/21 (with Jeannette).
1 ad. Lesser Black-backed Gull, Hill’s Beach, 8/22 (with Luke Seitz)
Continuing mid-summer scoter Hat Trick off Biddeford Pool Beach, 8/22 (with Luke Seitz): 2 White-winged Scoter, 2+ Surf Scoters, 75-100 Black Scoters.
2 continuing adult RED-NECKED GREBES, Ocean Avenue, Biddeford Pool, 8/22 (with Luke Seitz).
This juvenile Marbled Godwit posed nicely at Hill’s Beach in Biddeford early in the morning on the 17th.
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.
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 18th. 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.
One of two adult American Oystercatchers tending a downy, flightless chick (late) at Upper Green Island in interior Casco Bay, confirming our suspected breeding on this tiny island.
I have spent dreadfully little time enjoying, studying, and counting shorebirds so far this summer, so I tried to make up for that this week! With many species approaching peak numbers, it was a good week to do so. High water in ponds and salt pannes from all of our recent rains impacted some locations and overall diversity, but my shorebird high counts this week were quite good overall:
AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER: 2 ad with 1 downy juv, Upper Green Island, Casco Bay, 8/6 (with Birds of Casco Bay with Seacoast Tours). Confirmed breeding on this tiny island after finding a flighted juvenile with adults last summer at this time. See link below.
Black-bellied Plover: 62, Wharton Point, Brunswick, 8/9.
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 140th 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 22nd trip out to Seal Island.
On July 22nd we boarded the Isle au Haut Boat Service’s The Otter for our special annual charter out of Stonington to the raucous seabird colony on Seal Island. Our partnership began while “Troppy” the world-famous Red-billed Tropicbird that called the area home for 17 years. Unfortunately, Troppy failed to appear last year, but we ran the trip anyway, and had an amazing time!
So we did it again this year. There’s just so much life out there, and it’s such an amazing place to visit, and so I needed an excuse for my annual visit. And sure, if that wily Tufted Puffin that’s been wandering the Gulf for the last two summers wants to be the new Troppy, that would be fine, too. But for now, we headed offshore with all sorts of high hopes.
As we left Stonington Harbor, the fog began to thicken, but not before we spotted a group of 15 Red-necked Phalaropes sitting on the water. Captain Tracy did a great job getting us closer, and then inching up to them when they relocated a short distance away. It’s a treat to get so close to phalaropes on the open water.
A handful of Wilson’s Storm-Petrels were bouncing around, but the action picked up as usual as we approached Saddleback Ledge Light. A 1st summer Great Cormorant was surveying the scene, and our first Atlantic Puffin circled around us for a couple of passes. After we ourselves circled the small island twice, we turned for Seal and immediately ran into dense fog that had slowly been creeping in. The tradeoff for calm waters is often fog, and it was pea soup today.
Not surprisingly, we saw little en route, but soon enough, we were out at Seal. While we heard – and even smelled – the tern colony before we could see the island, once along its shores, visibility was adequate. Arctic Terns put on a particularly good show for us, with several near the boat feeding and bathing. Arctic and Common Tern fledglings were everywhere, and we enjoyed their antics. There were plenty of Atlantic Puffins in the water and on land, including several groups that were remarkably confiding as we sided up to them in the glass-calm waters. And Black Guillemots were numerous, and very busy.
Razorbills were fledgling rapidly, so we only found two on the island, but later, we had great looks at one on the water, too.
We circled around the southern end, spending some time observing the state’s last colony of Great Cormorants (and Double-crested); nests were brimming with chicks!
We kept an eye out for migrant shorebirds in addition to the locally breeding Spotted Sandpipers, but visibility remained a challenge: 4 Short-billed Dowitchers, 3 Least Sandpipers, and some unidentified peeps was the best we could do. A Great Shearwater made a close, but brief, pass as we were on the east side of the island before vanishing back into the fog.
Somehow, it was even foggier on our way back, so seabird sightings – even with a second visit to Saddleback Ledge – were limited to just a couple more Wilson’s Storm-Petrels.
So yeah, the fog was annoying, and did impact photos and our search for the next mega-rarity. But it also produced one of the smoothest boat rides you’ll ever be on in the Gulf of Maine and yielded lots of close puffins and some great looks at phalaropes. And besides, any day birding from a boat is a good day in our book! Especially when a few days prior we thought this trip was going to be cancelled due to wind and thunderstorms.
White-winged Crossbills were amazingly abundant in Northern Aroostook County during our visit last week (see below).
Returning back from a little vacation to the crown of Maine followed by some time in New Brunswick, I apologize for the late report. Last week was a busy and productive week of birding for me, with the following observations of note.
Seal Island Tour, 7/22:
15 RED-NECKED PHALAROPES inside of Saddleback Ledge; 1 1st summer Great Cormorant, Saddleback Ledge Light; 3 Razorbills still at Seal Island; 1 Great Shearwater on trip back. Dense fog impacted our birding all day, but we had a fantastic performance from Atlantic Puffins and Arctic Terns in particular, and the fog cleared enough to enjoy the number of juvenile Great Cormorants in the growing colony on the island’s south end.
2 Red Crossbills, over our yard in Durham, 7/23. Interestingly, we didn’t have a single Red Crossbill in Aroostook County (unless they were all drowned out by all of the White-wings!). However, the Reds in our area seem to be focusing on coastal Red Spruce.
Aroostook County WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS, 7/24-7/27 (with Terez Fraser, John Lorence, and Jeannette). Wow, incredible! Over three days of birding from Fort Kent to Stockholm, we conservatively estimated observing about 50 per HOUR while in appropriate habitat! Our high count was 150-200 total along Square Lake Road in Sinclair on 7/26, with single flock of 70-75 individuals!
EVENING GROSBEAKS: just a couple heard here and there, including 1 on Nixon Siding Road, 7/24, 2 at Christina Reservoir, 7/26; and 2 at Square Lake Road, 7/26.
BOREAL CHICKADEES: Mostly heard, but some were unusually conspicuous, especially one (of 3) at Square Lake Road on 7/26 and 1 of 3 at Moscovic Road, Stockholm, 7/27 (all with Terez Fraser, John Lorence, and Jeannette).
Lake Josephine duck tallies (7/25 with John Lorenc and Jeannette): 125+ Gadwall (including juveniles of all ages); 1 drake American Wigeon, two family groups of Blue-winged Teal, 75+ Ring-necked Ducks, 1 American Bittern, etc. Numbers were lower when Jeannette and I visited on the 27th, likely due to Bald Eagle presence.
3 adult Bonaparte’s Gulls, Arnold Brook Beach Recreation Area, 7/25 (with John Lorenc and Jeannette).
Additional species from Square Lake Road in Stockholm on 7/26 (with John Lorenc, Terez Fraser, and Jeannette): 1 Bonaparte’s Gull, 3+ Bay-breasted Warblers, 1 Mourning Warbler, 1 Olive-sided Flycatcher, 1 Lincoln’s Sparrow, etc.
1 female American Wigeon with 10 chicks, Long Lake, St. Agatha, 7/26 (with Terez Fraser, John Lorence, and Jeannette).
3 Common Nighthawks, over St. John River at dusk, Fort Kent, 7/26 (with Terez Fraser, John Lorence, and Jeannette).
Most of the White-winged Crossbills we saw were in flight, or calling and singing in the distance. This male tee’d up nicely, albeit in unfortunate light. We also watched only one group feeding, and they appeared to be eating mostly buds of Tamarack (and maybe some young or old cones).
A visit to Popham Beach State Park on the 19th 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.
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!
Maine Birding Field Notes 