Tag Archives: Anniversary Park

This Week’s Highlights, 12/6 – 12/12/2025.

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One of likely at least 7 Fish Crows that I encountered along the Auburn Riverwalk posed nicely for me on a chilly morning on the 11th. How many Fish Crows are now in the neighborhood, and how many might overwinter?
I guess I’ll try and find out!

Because it wasn’t wintery enough already in Southern Maine, I drove north for my annual early-December Greater Bangor birding visit, which is always a good way to gauge the coming winter’s food resources and irruption status, for better and for worse! Here are all of my observations of note over the past seven days:

  • 1 American Woodcock, Winslow Park, Freeport, 12/6 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
  • Three days, mostly in Penobscot County, didn’t produce nearly as many irruptives as I had hoped. In fact, all finches other than American Goldfinch were scarce. I encountered a few flocks of American Robins, but few other frugivores so far, despite widespread ample crabapple and other fruit crops. Visiting the same spots as I do every year, plus a few additional locations gave me some idea of food recent and current species compositions. Recent bitter cold rapidly froze up many seasonal hotspots were locked in, but my total of 42 species was nowhere near my lowest tally over the years from this route! My highlights included the following:
  • 1 drake Ring-necked Duck, Fisherman’s Park, Brewer, 12/7.
  • 2 continuing Fish Crows and 3-4 first-cycle Iceland Gulls, Bangor Waterfront Park, 12/7.
  • 1 WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL (FOS), 1 AMERICAN GOSHAWK, and 11 PINE GROSBEAKS (FOY), Stud Mill Road, 12/8.
  • 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Littlefield Gardens, University of Maine – Orono, 12/8.
  • 1 hen Barrow’s Goldeneyes (FOS), Shawmut Dam from River Road, Benton, 12/9.
  • 1+ Lapland Longspur, ~20 Snow Buntings, and 75-100 Horned Larks, Wyman Road, Benton, 12/9.
  • 6-7+ FISH CROWS in Auburn, 12/11. A small colony of Fish Crows have been frequenting Auburn (and sometimes across the river in Lewiston) for several years now. Two may have overwintered here last year, although I stopped seeing them mid-winter around Anniversary Park and the Auburn/Lewiston riverfront where I tend to bird at that time of year. This winter, at least 2 have been reliable at Anniversary Park, with one eating ash seeds across the Little Androscoggin, and another calling to it from the nearby neighborhood. Then, at least 2 more began calling from further up the Little Andy. All four were audible when I left, and then I walked the Auburn Riverwalk.  There, two more were feeding contently in the Bradford/Callory Pears at the Hilton Garden Inn. Walking back south, I encountered another contently-feeding bird eating ash seeds near the pedestrian bridge. Crows can fly faster than I walk, but there was not a perceptible movement or flow of either the Fish or the abundant American Crows at the time. It’s possible there were only 4, but my guess is there were 7 individuals encountered today. I’ll be keeping my ears open all winter to see if they stick around! Of course, with many thousands of American Crows coalescing to roost here it can be a needle in a haystack to find them and see if they are setting up a resident population (most of Maine’s Fish Crows are migratory, but it seems that outlier colonies – like here and Bangor – seem less likely to migrate. A couple of few individuals of the larger Brunswick colony also seem to stick around now. Will it be long before Fish Crows are a widespread, year-round resident of the state? Photo of one of them above.
  • 2 Red Crossbills in Bradbury Mountain State Park, 12/12, were my only Reds anywhere in the state this week.

This Week’s Highlights, 2/22 – 2/28/2025

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These three female Greater Scaup appeared with the Mallard flock off of the Bernard Lown Peace Bridge between Lewiston and Auburn last week, and continued through the 25th

I had an excellent week of late-winter birding this week, with a nice mix of overwintering birds and some new, spring-like arrivals. Towards week’s end, birdsong from our resident species increased dramatically, and winter concentrations of waterfowl are beginning to disperse. But – at the risk of sounding a little corny – I have to say, showing people their first ever Harlequin Duck is always a winter highlight for me! It was also nice to have a tour run, and not postponed or cancelled due to weather. My observations of note over the past seven days included the following:

  • The single Fox Sparrows continues here at the store, and our one at our Durham feeders reappeared in the snow on the 27th after being absent for a few days.
  • At least 2 Turkey Vultures continue in the Cumberland-Freeport corridor of I-295. Part of the local overwintering flock (up to 15 total roosting in Brunswick at the peak), the first northbound migrants of spring are now arriving. This appears to now be a year-round species along Maine’s southern coast, as birds have overwintered locally for the last three years.
  • 1 drake GADWALL, Falmouth Town Landing, Falmouth, 2/22 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
  • 4 Brant (FOY), Dyer Point, Cape Elizabeth, 2/23 (with Birds on Tap – Roadtrip! Tour group).
  • 1 Merlin and 1 Horned Lark, Kettle Cove, Cape Elizabeth, 2/23 (with Birds on Tap – Roadtrip! Tour group).
  • Full trip report here.
  • 1 Northern Shrike (FOY/3rd of winter), Bridge St, Newfield, 2/24 with Jeannette).
  • 1 RUSTY BLACKBIRD and 1 Winter Wren, Florida Lake Park, Freeport, 2/24 (with Jeannette).
  • 2 continuing drake Green-winged Teal and 3 continuing female Greater Scaup, Anniversary Park – Bernard Lown Peace Bridge area, Auburn-Lewiston, 2/25 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 continuing hen AMERICAN WIGEON and 3 Barrow’s Goldeneyes (1 pair plus 1 immature male), Winslow Park, Freeport, 2/26.

Bradbury Mountain Spring Hawkwatch

We’re only two weeks away from the start of our 19th season! Free and open to the public, we welcome Zane Baker back for his record 7th season as Official Counter. 9-5 every day, weather permitting. More information and a link to counts can be found here.

Upcoming Tours:

  1. Woodcocks Gone Wild: Saturday, March 29th.  Registration and more information is here.

Recent Highlights, 2/15 – 2/23/2024

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Barrow’s Goldeneyes will be departing soon, so I needed to get my fill while I still can. This pair (left) was with 17 Common Goldeneyes and a drake Hooded Merganser at Anniversary Park in Auburn on the 20th.

A very busy couple of weeks precluded much birding away from our yard recently. Luckily, the feeder-watching was excellent, as were my few dedicated outings over the past ten days.

  • 1 Red Crossbill, over our yard in Durham, 2/15.
  • 1 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, over Richmond Island from Kettle Cove, Cape Elizabeth, 2/19 (with Paul Doiron, Kristen Lindquist, and Jeannette).
  • 1 pair BARROW’S GOLDENEYES, Anniversary Park, Auburn, 2/19 (with Jeannette). Photo above.
  • 1 continuing hen COMMON EIDER SPP BOREALIS and 6 BARROW’S GOLDENEYES (4 drakes, 2 hens), Winslow Park, Freeport, 2/21. Barrow’s usually peak here at the end of February.

FEEDER BIRDS UPDATE:

There was a widespread dearth of feeder birds in most yards throughout the region this past fall. While a few people are still mentioning a lack of feeder birds this winter, many others are telling us they are seeing a lot of birds now. At our home in Durham, this winter our feeders have been very busy. But just how busy is it, and how does that compare to last winter? I did some feeder watching and counted a bunch of birds to find out.

Are There Actually Fewer Birds at Feeders in the Winter of 2023-24?

After the 16th, activity remained strong, with another surge of Dark-eyed Juncos bringing the total to a high count of 72 on the 17th, along with an increase to 13 American Tree Sparrows. A new peark of 70++ American Goldfinches was reached on 2/21. And our first Red-winged Blackbird of the year appeared in the snow on the 23rd.

Meanwhile, here at the store, the 24 White-throated Sparrows at the feeders 2/16 was a new all-time high count for the winter season for us here.  

TOURS AND EVENTS:

Please join me on Thursday, February 29th at Maine Beer Company to celebrate the release of the completely revised 2nd Edition of Birdwatching in Maine: The Complete Site Guide! 

By the way, the book is now available here at the store.

And, in case you missed it, I was on 207 last night talking about the new edition.