Tag Archives: Barrow's Goldeneye

This Week’s Highlights: November 26 – December 2, 2022

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I found this rather cooperative, late Orange-crowned Warbler at Pond Cove in Cape Elizabeth – my 10th of the fall. Unfortunately, my camera was insisting it was the sticks I wanted a photo of, so this is the best I did.

Some of my highlights over the past seven days included the following. For the most part, my birds of note were decidedly more wintery than in the past weeks, although “late/lingering” oddities are making an appearance with the slow progression of the season and resultant concentration at seasonal hotspots.

  • 1 Red Crossbill, private property in Freeport, 11/24 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
  • 1 Hermit Thrush, private property in Freeport, 11/25.
  • 1 light morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK (FOS), Hinckley Road, Clinton, 11/28 (with Jeannette).
  • 59 Green-winged Teal (late, especially for such a large number), 1 Wood Duck, 6 Lesser Scaup, etc, Sebasticook Lake, 11/28 (with Jeannette).
  • 4 drake BARROW’S GOLDENEYES (FOS), University of Maine – Orono Steam Plant Nature Trail, 11/28 (with Jeannette).
  • 1+ PINE GROSBEAK (FOS), Sunkhaze NWR, 11/29 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 immature Northern Shrike (FOS), Veazie Waterfront Park, 11/29 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 1st-winter Iceland Gull, Bangor Waterfront Park, 11/29 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER and 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Pond Cove, Cape Elizabeth, 12/2.
  • 1 FIELD SPARROW, 2 RUSTY BLACKBIRDS, 1 imm. White-crowned Sparrow, and 1 Winter Wren, Private property in Cape Elizabeth, 12/2.
  • 4+ Red Crossbills, flying over the store, 12/2.

This Week’s Highlights, 1/15-21, 2022

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Barrow’s Goldeneyes are one of my favorite visitors to Maine in winter. The hens provide a nice challenge to pick out, too. This was one of two distinctive Barrow’s visible from the
Bernard Lown Peace Bridge in Auburn/Lewiston on the 13th.

Especially in November – and often again with the first cold snap in December – I talk about “rarity fever,” when there is that additional motivation and encouragement to go birding thanks to the expectation of the unexpected. And usually we in Maine talk about the “winter doldrums” in an non-irruption year. And this year, there are virtually zero irruptives in the southern half of Maine – other than Snowy Owls. But with the Steller’s Sea-Eagle (as you may have heard!), a Bullock’s Oriole at a feeder in Damariscotta Mills, a Townsend’s Warbler in Cape Elizabeth (I missed it twice this week with a limited amount of effort), and a Barnacle Goose in Rockland, there is no doubt I – and many other birders – are experiencing a little mid-winter Rarity Fever!  And that has helped motivate me to get out birding as often as I can. The to-do list can wait until February, right?

With the fairly sudden arrival to a bitter “real winter” cold, once again “pioneering” waterfowl made up most of my highlights this week, as I spent most of my birding time searching for the next big deal. My observations of note over the past seven days include the following:

  • 1 Northern Flicker, Village Crossings/Cape Elizabeth Greenbelt Trail, 1/16 (with John Lorenc).
  • 7 Brant, Kettle Cove, Cape Elizabeth, 10/18 (with Jeannette).
  • At least 2 hen BARROW’S GOLDENEYES.  A third hen is suggestive of an odd Barrow’s or a Common x Barrow’s hybrid (see photo captions), Bernard Lown Peace Bridge, Auburn/Lewiston, 1/20.
  • Fun to hear two Carolina Wrens counter-singing across the Androscoggin River – one in Lewiston and one in Auburn – from Little Andy Park, Auburn, 1/20.
  • 1 drake Northern Pintail and 3 1st-winter Iceland Gulls, Auburn Riverwalk, 1/20.
  • 1 female Northern Pintail, Westbrook Riverwalk, 1/21.
In addition to a bright-orange-billed classic Barrow’s, and the perfectly good smudgy-billed individual above (and here, on the left), there was a third bird that I am pondering. It’s either a third female Barrow’s (a great tally, especially for Androscoggin County) or perhaps a hybrid between Barrow’s x Common – the males of which do occur in Maine and are fairly straightforward to identify.