Tag Archives: Androscoggin County

This Week’s Highlights: January 13-17, 2023.

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A remarkable bird for Maine, let alone in under-birded (away from Sabattus Pond anyway) Androscoggin County, I was privileged to be able to visit this Harris’s Sparrow on private property in Turner on the 13th, the day after we returned from vacation. It was most cooperative, being constantly in view for the 35 minutes I was there. Unfortunately, it was a dark and dreary morning, so my photos leave something to be desired!

A few observations of note over the past five days as I tried to squeeze in as much birding as I could before I undergo shoulder surgery included the following. Even if I missed the Livermore Falls Townsend’s Solitaire twice (darn it), it was a very productive week, headlined by my second Harris’s Sparrow in Maine (and one of my favorite sparrows, too!).

  • 1 female Barrow’s Goldeneye, Bernard Lown Peace Bridge, Lewiston/Auburn, 1/13.
  • 1 adult Iceland Gull, North River Road boat launch, Auburn, 1/13.
  • 1 continuing HARRIS’S SPARROW (present since 1/11), private property in Turner, 1/13 (photo above).
  • 1 Pine Grosbeak (first of season), Hillman Ferry Road, Livermore Falls, 1/13 (did not find the Townsend’s Solitaire that day, unfortunately).
  • 2 drake BARROW’S GOLDENEYES, between Winslow Park and the Harraseekett Yacht Club, South Freeport, 1/14 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
  • 8 Black-legged Kittiwakes, Short Sands Beach, York, 1/15 (with Down East Adventures Winter Waterbirds Workshop group).
  • 1 adult Iceland Gull, The Nubble, York, 1/15 (with Down East Adventures Winter Waterbirds Workshop group).
  • 374!!! BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS, Pearl Road, Turner, 1/16 (with Jeannette). Photo below.
  • 1 female Green-winged Teal and 1 1st-winter Iceland Gull, Mill Creek Cove and Park, South Portland, 1/17.

A very small portion of the 374 Bohemian Waxwings that Jeannette and I counted on Monday in Turner. It was a big week for Androscoggin County!

This Week’s Highlights, May 27-June 3, 2022

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After trying to string one on Monhegan, an Acadian Flycatcher found me!  A friend heard it first as he joined me for a bird survey on private, posted property in Durham on 6/2.  This was an incredible record for Androscoggin County and really shocked me.  It continued at least as of the next morning.
This photo nicely shows the very long (for an Empid primary projection, the greenish tone to the upperparts, the complete eyering, and the large, wide and orange mandible. It took a while to see all of the pertinent details,
even though the song is so distinctive.
When we first saw it, the appearance of no green above and no yellow below through us for a loop, but once we got into the shade with it, those diagnostic tones were readily apparent.
  • My annual Monhegan Spring Migration Tour took place on 5/27 through 5/30, followed by another day on the island with Jeannette. It was very slow, and significant highlights were few. However, it was still, well, birding on Monhegan for five days, so I am not complaining. I’ll have a full tour report and checklist in the coming days.  Highlights included daily crippling views of Black-billed Cuckoo; a CLAY-COLORED SPARROW that we found on 5/30 but was seen by all on 5/31; 3 WILLETS that arrived from the open ocean south of Lobster Cove before landing in the harbor on 5/31; a good Atlantic Puffin commuting flight in the morning of 5/31, and an immature male ORCHARD ORIOLE each day.

Other non-Monhegan and non-flycatcher highlights this week included:

  • 2 RED-NECKED PHALAROPES, Hardy Boat from Monhegan to New Harbor, 5/31 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH, Mill Brook Preserve, Westbrook, 6/1.
  • 3 AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHERS, 1 Dunlin, 8 Ruddy Turnstones, 26 Black-bellied Plovers, 1 adult Little Blue Heron, etc, Pine Point, Scarborough, 6/1.

It’s June, so we are busy with events and tours here at the store and beyond:

  • Tomorrow is Zeiss Day at the store, with events including a whole range of products to try on our Saturday Morning Birdwalk, free optics cleaning, and a digiscoping demonstration. Check it out here.
  • Our first pelagic with our partners Cap’n Fish’s Cruises out of Boothbay Harbor will run on Monday, June 6th. It includes a visit to Eastern Egg Rock and chumming deeper offshore.  Info here.

Sabattus Pond Season-in-Review

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Sabattus Pond was frozen on Monday morning, as I expected, thanks to this recent bout of unseasonably cold weather.  While 35 Mallards, 3 Hooded Mergansers, 2 American Black Ducks, and 1 Mallard x black duck hybrid were present in the outlet stream, this likely brings my Sabattus birding season to a close.

But it is just after Sabattus’s freeze-up that LakeAuburn is its most productive.  Today, 117 Canada Geese, 58 Greater Scaup, 46 Lesser Scaup, 41 Ruddy Ducks, 22 Common Goldeneyes, 8 Hooded Mergansers, 1 Bufflehead, and 1 continuing hen Black Scoter were tallied in a less-than-exhaustive search of the large lake.  The Black Scoter is a great bird inland, and she’s been present for at least five weeks now.  Meanwhile, among the Canada Geese, there was this funky mutt – apparently a hybrid with some sort of domestic thing.
CANGhybrid1,LakeAuburn,12-2-13

CANGhybrid2,LakeAuburn,12-2-13

Between visiting the two lakes, I scoured Upper Street in Turner for Snowy Owls (none) or other raptors (just one Red-tailed Hawk), but I did happen upon a small flock of 35 Horned Larks that contained two Lapland Longspurs.  They were feeding at the edge of Pearl Road, taking advantage of where the plow had scraped the sides of ice and snow.  I got this lucky shot of one of the Lapland Longspurs in flight with the Horned Larks.  Unfortunately, the light mist and heavy cloud cover prevented a really great shot.
DSC_0154_LALOwithHOLA,Turner,12-2-13

But back to waterfowl…

Sabattus Pond is one of my favorite birding locations from mid-October through freeze-up.  The diversity of ducks is rarely matched in this part of Maine, and the proximity and ability to study birds (such as Lesser vs. Greater Scaup) is unsurpassed.  Each fall I tell myself I needed to visit Sabattus more often, so this fall I committed to visiting once a week, beginning on 10/30 – I would have started a little earlier in the month, but the weather at the time had been so warm that waterfowl were not yet arriving en masse prior to the end of the month.

I tallied all waterbirds (except for Herring and Ring-billed gulls) on each visit.  I was curious to document the ebbs and flows of respective species throughout a full season here.  I also hoped to find some rarities of course.

Here’s my weekly tally (on 10/30 I birded with Cameron Cox, and on 11/21, Dan Nickerson):

10/30    11/7    11/14   11/21   12/2
Canada Goose                        2          0          0          0          0
American Black Duck          14        53        63        24         2
Mallard                                154      301     254      255       35
Mallard x black duck              2          4          8          6          1
NORTHERN PINTAIL               1          1          0          1          0 (same bird)
Green-winged Teal                 0          0          1          0          0
Greater Scaup                       15        22        27        20         0
Lesser Scaup                       133      185      204      174        0
WHITE-WINGED SCOTER        0          0          0          1         0
Bufflehead                              12          9          5          8         0
Common Goldeneye               2        29          4          2         0
Hooded Merganser               11        17        15        19        0
Red-breasted Merganser        7          1          0          0        0
Common Merganser                0         3          7      224        0
Ruddy Duck                           470     531      541      273        0
Common Loon                          2          4          9          3        0
Horned Grebe                           1          0          0          0        0
RED-NECKED GREBE                0          0          1          0         0
Great Blue Heron                     0          0          0          3         0
Great Black-backed Gull          0          0          0          1         0
American Coot                          0          0          1          0         0
Belted Kingfisher                      0          0          0          2         0

Other highlights at Sabattus included a Peregrine Falcon and 40 Snow Buntings on 11/7 and 3 White-rumped and 3 Pectoral sandpipers on 11/14 (both late and noteworthy inland).

Overall, it was probably only an average season at Sabattus.  The only week I missed was last week, due to my schedule and Thanksgiving, which is unfortunate, as the pre-ice-up week would have provided some interesting data.  There were no fallouts, and only a few unexpected (or at least, expected to be seen rarely) birds (in caps above).   The Ruddy Duck numbers were well above average, but a lot of other things – especially the scaup – were average or below my high counts of recent years.  And why don’t coots visit here much anymore? And really, not a single Ring-necked Duck!? Nevertheless I find it very rewarding to regularly check one location, so I thoroughly enjoyed my extra effort this year.

On each visit, I also visited LakeAuburn, which is a much different body of water (deeper, sandier, and apparently without the invasive Chinese Mystery Snail that provides the sustenance for most of the birds on Sabattus).  Note, however, that as the numbers of ducks decrease on Sabattus, they begin to increase on LakeAuburn – the last lake to freeze in the region.

11/7     11/14   11/21   12/2

Canada Goose                        0          0          0      117
American Black Duck             1          0          0          0
Mallard                                     3          6          0          0
Greater Scaup                         0          0        38        58
Lesser Scaup                           8          0        31        46
SURF SCOTER                          1          0          1          0 (probably same bird)
BLACK SCOTER                       1          0           1          1 (probably same bird)
Bufflehead                              0          2           0          1
Common Goldeneye             0          5         21        22
Hooded Merganser               0        14           5          8
Common Merganser             0          3           0          0
Ruddy Duck                           20         2           0        41
Common Loon                        7         9           1          4
Horned Grebe                         1          0          0          1
RED-NECKED GREBE              0          1          0          0

I can’t help but wonder if some of the birds on the lake on Monday would return to Sabattus if a warm spell opens the pond back up, and if it does, I am sure birds from points north might drop in as well as they are frozen out of lakes and rivers.  In other words, the duck-watching season on Sabattus may not be over yet, but I think I will be turning my attention elsewhere unless it warms up dramatically.

Meanwhile, on all of my visits to the two lakes, I added at least a few other stops in between in the hopes of finally finding a really “good” bird in Androscoggin County (away from Sabattus, that is).  Uh…nope.  My only real highlights away from the two lakes were the two Lapland Longspurs on Monday.  My rarity drought in AndroscogginCounty might continue, but the waterbird watching is certainly exceptional.

By the way, in a series of spring visits, I have found very, very few ducks on Sabattus Pond, for reasons unknown.  Therefore, other than my annual check on Maine Maple Sunday, I’ll have to anxiously await next October!