Tag Archives: Brewer’s Sparrow

Birds on Tap – Monhegan!

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“Coffee Warbler” would be a better name for the Magnolia Warbler due to their affinity, and perhaps even reliance, on shade-grown coffee plantations in winter.

Beer + bird-friendly coffee + birds + migration + Monhegan + Dr. Steve Kress* = Epic.

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You never know what will show up on Monhegan on Memorial Day weekend, like this female Hooded Warbler.

For a while now, I have been hinting at a big event in the works for Memorial Day Weekend on Monhegan Island. Partnering with Birds & Beans Coffee, Monhegan Brewing, and The Trailing Yew, Freeport Wild Bird Supply is pleased to announce:

Birds on Tap – Monhegan!

We have the “Birds on Tap!” lecture series at Rising Tide in partnership with Dr. Noah Perlut, and the Birds on Tap – Roadtrip! series in conjunction with the Maine Brew Bus, and now, we’re going even bigger with a weekend on the birding Mecca of Monhegan Island!
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Eastern Kingbirds.

But now we’re adding coffee to the mix, specifically bird-friendly, shade-grown, organic, and fair-trade certified – not to mention absolutely delicious – Birds & Beans coffee! Roasted right here in Maine, Birds & Beans (available at Freeport Wild Bird Supply and several other retailers around the state) coffee carries the “gold standard” of certification, the “Bird Friendly” label of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. With this level of certification, we can protect the rainforest habitat required for the Neotropical migrants that us birders flock to places like Monhegan Island in spring and fall to see.
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Want to see warblers, vireos, tanagers, and orioles? Well then we really can’t afford to lose more rainforest where these birds spend up to eight months of every year. So this year, while enjoying the migrants that pass over and through Monhegan, we’re going to work to save them. By drinking coffee…and a little beer.
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Northern Parula on springtime apples on Monhegan.

Dr. Stephen Kress will be giving a program titled: “Saving Seabirds: Lessons from Puffins and Terns”. Worldwide, about one third of all seabird species are globally threatened due to human caused threats. A recent study has shown that 70% of all seabirds have vanished in the last 60 years. Now, often at the last hour, there is a bold approach emerging to help some of the most threatened species. Dr. Kress will review how techniques developed on Maine islands have led to the restoration of puffins and terns to historic nesting islands. He will also discuss how these techniques are helping to expand breeding ranges and reduce risks to extinction worldwide while serving as a bellwether to the effects of commercial fishing and climate change. His lecture includes reviews of several inspiring and hopeful seabird restoration projects worldwide. Dr. Kress will also share the recent discovery of the previously unknown winter home for puffins- to an area known as New England’s remarkable ‘coral canyons and seamounts’ off the NE continental shelf. Discovery of the puffin wintering area provides an additional reason to protect this biologically diverse habitat.

Dr. Kress is Vice President for Bird Conservation for the National Audubon Society and Director of Project Puffin and the Hog Island Audubon Camp. His career has focused on developing techniques for managing colonial nesting seabirds. In this role, he manages 13 seabird nesting islands in Maine that are home to more than 42,000 seabirds of 27 species. Each year his program trains about 25 interns; hundreds of professional seabird biologists can trace their first interest in seabirds to Project Puffin. Methods first developed in Maine such as seabird chick translocations and social attraction are now standard practice worldwide. Dr. Kress received his Ph.D. from Cornell University and his Master’s and undergraduate degrees from Ohio State University. In the summer he lives in Bremen and winters in Ithaca, NY with his wife Elissa and daughter Liliana. He is author (with Derrick Jackson of the Boston Globe) of a new autobiography (Project Puffin: the Improbable Quest to Bring a Beloved Seabird Back to Egg Rock). The book tells the inside story of how puffins were brought back to Egg Rock and other Maine islands.

The Trailing Yew will be serving Birds & Beans Coffee for its guests all weekend, and there will be an ample supply available to fuel Sunday Morning. We’ll begin by sipping coffee while observing the “Morning Flight” above the Trailing Yew and keeping an eye on the spruces around the property – often one of the most productive patches on the island at sunrise! After breakfast, local experts will lead a birdwalk to some of the nearby hotspots, departing the Yew at 9:00am and returning around 11:00am.

Memorial Day weekend is prime time to view migrants on their way north, in full breeding garb, and we’ll also be seeking rarities – unusual species from all directions often show up on this weekend; expect the unexpected.

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Such as near-annual Summer Tanagers…

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… or, as in 2014, Maine’s first-ever Brewer’s Sparrow!

“But wait,” many of you are saying, “you said something about beer!” It is called “Birds on Tap!” afterall, so beer will definitely be at the forefront of this special weekend. But not just any beer, Monhegan Brewing’s fantastic beer! In fact, the event kicks off on Saturday afternoon with an exclusive, limited-edition, small-batch coffee stout brewed with Birds & Beans! “Beer-listers” will want to head out just for this one-time offering, just like birders flock to Monhegan for those once-in-a-lifetime bird sightings!
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Kenn and Kim will be signing books, birds will be discussed, and beer will be imbibed. And that’s just the kickoff!

Sold yet?

This is going to be a one of a kind event, so you’ll want to make your reservations soon. You can join my MonhegZen Birding Weekend Tour for 1, 2, or 3 days (see details on the “Tours, Events, Workshops, and Programs” page of our website) or make your reservations to spend a night on the island (our group, and our guest speakers, will be staying and dining at the Trailing Yew if you would like to join us!) and join us for some of these outstanding events…all of which are completely free (with books and beer available for purchase). Edit (5/12): NOTE: The tour is full, but all of the following events are free and open to the public, with no registration necessary.

Here’s the complete schedule of events.
Saturday, May 28th:
3:00pm – Release of Monhegan Brewing Company’s coffee-infused Milk Stout. Location: Monhegan Brewing Co.
7:30pm – Presentation by Dr. Stephen Kress. Location: community church. (Note: Trailing Yew will be offering an early dinner service at 6pm).

Sunday, May 29th:
6:30-7:30am – Casual birding while sampling B&B coffee with local experts around the Trailing Yew
9:00-11:00am – Guided birdwalk with local experts (Location: begins and ends at the Trailing Yew)

You often hear birders on Monhegan exclaim “it doesn’t get any better than this!” Except now, it has! I sincerely hope you’ll join us on the island for this fun-filled weekend, as if you needed more incentive than visiting Maine’s premier migration hoptspot!

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BBlogofinal This. Is. Going. To. Be. Awesome.

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2015 Maine State List Predictions

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It’s that time of the year again! Time for me to look into my birding crystal ball, and make random guesses…err, insightful, educated, prognostications about what the next year will bring to Maine and birders’ state lists.

But first, let’s, as usual, review the previous year. For the full list of 2014 species predictions, you can visit my blog from last January here.

Two species were added to Maine’s all-time list in 2014, a Brewer’s Sparrow on Monhegan in May, and a Crested Caracara in Unity (and later in Norridgewock) in August. While both species were on my “long list” for future additions, neither made the top 25. Following the report in the spring of 2014 of a Crested Caracara in New Brunswick (the 2013 caracara in Nova Scotia – and NJ – was apparently not a fluke…albeit distinctly possible to have been the same individual), there’s little doubt Crested Caracara would have made it onto the list this year. But I don’t update the list as the year progresses, so alas, no credit for me.

Meanwhile, perhaps even more remarkable, was the Tufted Puffin seen sporadically off of Machias Seal Island in June and July. Without getting into geopolitical boundary disputes, I believe both Maine (waters to south and east of island at least) and New Brunswick (definitely when it was on land) can claim this bird. While the puffin was not technically new for Maine, it was the first record – and unequivocal record – since a somewhat-disputed record claimed by Audubon in 1834.

Next, I would like to call attention to #23 – Bermuda Petrel, an annual species that is on my list, but this is the lowest it has appeared. However, it very already occurred in Maine. Geolocator (“data-loggers”)data from researchers puts the birds well into the Gulf of Maine, and even within the margin of error, perhaps several birds have appeared within the usual boundaries association with state bird lists (it is well beyond the 3 mile political zone).

“Conservation and At-Sea Range of Bermuda Petrel” by Jeremy Madeiros, Bob Flood, and Kirk Zufelt in the June-July 2014 issue of North American Birds (V.67, no. 4) includes a map (p.555) of hundreds of locations from around the Atlantic Basin, including about a half-dozen within the Gulf of Maine.

(Members of the American Birding Association can read the article in its entirety here)

Whether or not we “believe” geolocators are accurate enough to document an occurrence is a discussion for another time, but I predict a bird will be seen or confidently tracked into nearby waters in the future. Therefore, that species has moved up the list. Neotropic Cormorant’s continued increase to the north and east, with increasing frequency of vagrants, bumps that species up quite a bit as well. I shuffled things around near the end as well, including replacing Yellow-legged Gull with Black-tailed Godwit

Otherwise, I have made few changes to my list of the next 25 species to appear in Maine:
1) California Gull
2) Graylag Goose
3) Neotropic Cormorant
4) Roseate Spoonbill
5) Ross’s Gull
6) Fieldfare
7) Hammond’s Flycatcher
8) Bermuda Petrel
9) Black-chinned Hummingbird
10) Spotted Towhee
11) Audubon’s Shearwater (on “hypothetical” list, but I think the record is a good one)
12) Little Stint
13) Anna’s Hummingbird
14) Redwing
15) Barolo Shearwater
16) Allen’s Hummingbird
17) Black-tailed Gull
18) Common Ground-Dove
19) Western Wood-Pewee
20) Spotted Redshank
21) Gray Flycatcher
22) Black-tailed Godwit
23) Brown-chested Martin
24) Long-billed Murrelet
25) Common Scoter

Personally, I added two species to my own “State List” this year, the Brewer’s Sparrow (not on my predictions list) during my MonhegZen Spring Migration Weekend:

And, on the MonhegZen Fall Migration Weekend, I finally added Yellow-headed Blackbird to my state list (after moving it out if the top 10 for the first year, dropping it all the way down to #24 for some reason – probably out of frustration about still not having seen one…it worked!)

(And yes, this is why birders go to Monhegan Island!)

Once again, I didn’t make it up north to look for American Three-toed Woodpeckers (#2), which were again reliable near Baxter State Park, and despite Great Skua (#3) being seen regularly off of Bar Harbor this summer, I only made it offshore on a whale watch there once in October – on a skua-free day. I did not see the reported Western Grebe (#9) off of Harpswell last week, and I missed the Crested Caracara three times! I also did not chase a Tundra Swan (#12) in Winterport in October, or a Virginia’s Warbler (long list) on Monhegan. I also did not see a Cerulean Warbler (long list) that was on Monhegan this fall as well.

So, without any further ado, here are my predictions for the next 25 species to be added to my personal list here in Maine (with quite a bit of reshuffling this year):
1) American Three-toed Woodpecker
2) Great Skua
3) Eurasian Collared-Dove
4) Slaty-backed Gull
5) Gyrfalcon
6) Graylag Goose
7) Say’s Phoebe
8) Western Grebe
9) American White Pelican
10) Boreal Owl
11) Fork-tailed Flycatcher
12) Tundra Swan
13) Yellow Rail
14) Sabine’s Gull
15) Franklin’s Gull
16) Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
17) California Gull
18) Ivory Gull
19) Calliope Hummingbird
20) Cerulean Warbler
21) White Ibis
22) Gull-billed Tern
23) Hammond’s Flycatcher
24) Loggerhead Shrike
25) Neotropic Cormorant

So there it is, the annual list. Now, it’s time to go birding!

2014 MonhegZen Spring Migration Birding Weekend.

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Ahh, Monhegan Island.

If only I could bird there every day for a full spring (or fall; I won’t be picky). But for now, I will relish my weekends there, and last weekend was our MonhegZen Migration Spring Birding Weekend…and the island did not disappoint.

So while we always expect the unexpected, we most definitely were not expecting this one.
(Click on the photos for a larger image).

This first state record Brewer’s Sparrow was definitely not high on anyone’s list of next birds for Monhegan, or Maine (certainly not mine!). But more on the sparrow later.

Half of the group arrived with me on the Hardy Boat out of New Harbor on Friday morning, greeted by a veil of fog.

While the shroud of mist offered a lovely scene, it did put a damper on the birding for a little while (excuse the pun), but soon it cleared, and as the ceiling rose, so did the bird activity. In fact, this was the start of a fine weekend of weather – OK, it was rather chilly; extra blankets were dispersed for the night – but other than a few brief, very light showers, our Gore-Tex remained tucked away. We’ll call that a win.

Just about the first bird that we glassed upon our arrival was an immature male Orchard Oriole. That’s the way we like to start a MonhegZen Birding Weekend!

The rest of Day 1 was highlighted by re-finding one of two immature male Summer Tanagers that had been frequenting the island lately. Friends picked up some seed on their way down (yes, the guy that owns a birdseed store and has several tons of seed on hand forgot to bring seed and had to have someone slum it at a hardware store. Gasp!), and we restocked the stash that kept the tanager visible for all through the weekend.

The tanager was our first “good” bird of the trip, but most of us agreed that the kingbird show near the pumphouse was the highlight of the first day. Indeed, it was a highlight for the entire weekend. Sheltered from a persistent, but raw and cold, easterly wind, the back corner of the town marsh was just about the only place with flying insects out and about. Therefore, flycatchers had piled up here, led by 21 Eastern Kingbirds (growing to 25 by Saturday afternoon, before diminishing on Sunday and Monday).

Other flycatchers were present here, including a couple of cooperative Eastern Wood-Pewees, and several Least Flycatchers.

Little to no migration was visible on the radar overnight Friday into Saturday, and the lack of reorienting birds overhead after sunrise on Saturday morning confirmed the minimal movement overnight. Although I awoke to a singing Mourning Warbler out my window, we never did catch up with one over the weekend.

But over the course of the day (as our group grew in size), we beat the bush and slowly but surely built up our species total. The Summer Tanager, the immature male Orchard Oriole, a very entertaining Peregrine Falcon over Manana, and 16 species of warblers were the day’s headliners. But yeah, by Monhegan standards, this was a slow day.

Sunday was not.

A light to moderate migration clearly produced some turnover, and plenty of new birds. Some warblers were reorienting over the Trailing Yew after sunrise – always a good sign – and our walk to Lobster Cove was much slower in pace than on Saturday. A singing Field Sparrow, a calling Common Nighthawk, and a streaking Gray-cheeked/Bicknell’s Thrush were among the species that we added to our tally.

Then the text came through.

When describing our itinerary – or lack thereof – for the coming days upon our arrival, I talked about how chasing birds (dropping everything and running across the island) is often a futile exercise here, and instead we would work our way towards good birds, keeping our eyes open for them – and enjoying everything in our path. I joked that “but if I need it for my island list, all bets are off.”

First state records? Fuhgettaboutit. Off we went. And I make no apologies…luckily, the coffee pot was on the way. I might not have gotten away with it otherwise.

So yeah, “Maine’s International Birder of Mystery” discovered a Brewer’s Sparrow. First found at the edge of the road at its terminus at the Ice Pond, it soon made its way into a nearby yard. Dandelion seeds were its quarry.

There were other birds to look at too. While I scrutinized the extent of streaking on the nape and crown of the sparrow and took way too many photos, the more sane of the group enjoyed a splash of color at the nearby feeders – at least 3 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and an Indigo Bunting.

Elsewhere, a Clay-colored Sparrow on one of my other seed stashes, several great views of Philadelphia Vireos, the continuing Summer Tanager, a second Orchard Oriole (an adult male) and a variety of warblers were the other highlights.

All weekend long we had been enjoying lots of warblers, but somehow we only amassed 19 species (we missed singles of Nashville and Prairie seen by others). But of those that we did see, most of them we saw stunningly well. Magnolia, American Redstart, Yellow, and Common Yellowthroat dominated each day, but we had a bunch of Northern Parulas and Chestnut-sided on Sunday as well. And the views of Canada Warblers and one particular Northern Waterthrush will be tough to beat.

Like each of our first two days on the island, Sunday’s tour came to an end at the Monhegan Brewing Company. On Sunday night, the Brewer’s Sparrow was celebrated, and ideas for a “Brewer’s Brew” or something like that was hatched.

The group had accumulated 89 species (including the aforementioned 19 species of warblers), which was actually well below average for my MonhegZen Spring Birding Weekends. But at least for me, I had one day left to add to the total, as I extended my stay for another night.

A very strong flight overnight suggested that this was a good call, but I was surprised by how many fewer birds were around on Monday morning than on Sunday. Especially when surrounded by fog – as we were overnight and into the morning – I have found that on really strong flights with favorable conditions, birds probably fly over the island. Perhaps the shroud of fog prevented them from even knowing there was an island below.

However, nearly three hours after sunrise, the winds shifted to the southwest, the ceiling lifted, and all of the sudden, there were warblers in the air. Had they been silently creeping around the forests, waiting for some clearing to reorient to the mainland? Or, were these birds that were overhead, lost above the fog, looking for a place to finally land?

Hard to say, but for a couple of hours, the birding was quite good. Blackpoll Warblers had increased dramatically, and I had more Bay-breasted and Tennessee Warblers than the previous days, and the Cedar Waxwing flock increased dramatically.

Jeannette and Sasha (finally making her first trip here at the age of 14) arrived, and our friends Paul and Kristen joined us for the next couple of hours. Blackpoll and Bay-breasted Warblers continued to put on a good show, as did the Brewer’s Sparrow. More importantly for Jeannette, she was able to successfully twitch all three things she was after today: Hardy Boat cinnamon rolls, Novelty pizza, and Monhegan Brewing. Yeah, she looked at the sparrow, too.

While Sasha was unable to successfully add Brewer’s Sparrow to her list, she did carefully study plumage variation in Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls.

She also joined us at the brewery for one final pint.

When many of us present for the weekend’s excitement boarded the boat at 3:15, I was sorry to go, as usual. I eked out 94 species when all was said and done (still below average for a spring weekend out here) including 19 species of warblers (I almost never miss hitting 20 here). While the overall list might have been a little low, the quality of views of most species was hard to beat. The overall quality of the bird list wasn’t too shabby, either. A first state record doesn’t hurt.

The following is my checklist for the group for Friday through Sunday. Monday’s total included birds seen with Jeannette, Paul, and Kristen. The included numbers for each day are conservative estimates or counts of the number of individuals of each species we saw and/or heard on the island (not including the ferry rides).

Species: Friday, May 23^rd/Saturday May 24^th/Sunday, May 25^th/Monday, May 26^th.

American Black Duck: 1/0/0/0
Mallard: 15/21/10/10
Black Scoter: 0/0/0/2
Common Eider: x/x/x/x
Red-breasted Merganser: 0/0/0/1
Ring-necked Pheasant: 3/4/5/4
Common Loon: 4/6/6/4
Northern Gannet: 5/6/6/12
Double-crested Cormorant: x/x/x/x
Great Blue Heron: 0/3/0/0
Osprey: 1/3/1/0
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 0/0/0/1
Peregrine Falcon: 0/1/0/0
Merlin: 1/0/0/0
Virginia Rail: 1/1/1/1
Laughing Gull: 5/12/4/2
Herring Gull: x/x/x/x
Great Black-backed Gull: x/x/x/x
Black Guillemot: x/x/x/x
RAZORBILL: 0/1/0/0
Mourning Dove: 6/6/8/4
Common Nighthawk: 0/0/1/0 (FOY)
Chimney Swift: 1/1/2/0
Ruby-throated Hummingbird: 2/4/4/3
Downy Woodpecker: 2/0/0/0
Northern Flicker: 1/0/2/2
Eastern Wood-Pewee: 2/2/2/3
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher: 0/1/2/2
Alder Flycatcher: 0/0/0/3 (FOY)
“Traill’s” Flycatcher: 0/0/0/5
Least Flycatcher: 3/1/6/6
Eastern Phoebe: 1/0/0/0
Eastern Kingbird: 27/25/14/15
Blue-headed Vireo: 0/0/0/1
Philadelphia Vireo: 0/0/2/4
Red-eyed Vireo: 2/2/12/20
Blue Jay: 8/12/8/8
American Crow: x/x/x/x
Common Raven: 2/2/2/2
Tree Swallow: 8/5/6/6
Bank Swallow: 2/2/2/0
Cliff Swallow: 0/0/1/0
Barn Swallow: 2/2/1/2
Black-capped Chickadee: x/x/x/x
Red-breasted Nuthatch: 0/1/2/3
Carolina Wren: 4/8/6/6
Winter Wren: 0/0/1/0
Golden-crowned Kinglet: 0/2/2/4
Ruby-crowned Kinglet: 0/0/0/1 (late)
Veery: 1/1/1/0
GRAY-CHEEKED/BICKNELL’S THRUSH: 0/0/1/0
Swainson’s Thrush: 0/0/1/0
Hermit Thrush: 0/0/1/0
American Robin: 10/10/8/6
Gray Catbird: x/x/x/x
Brown Thrasher: 0/1/1/0
European Starling: 6/4/8/6
Cedar Waxwing: 3/4/18/60
Tennessee Warbler: 0/2/0/4
Northern Parula: 3/12/30/15
Yellow Warbler: 25/25/35/30
Chesnut-sided Warbler: 6/5/20/10
Magnolia Warbler: 25/20/25/20
Black-throated Blue Warbler: 6/8/8/4
Yellow-rumped Warbler: 6/8/0/0
Black-throated Green Warbler: 10/15/15/15
Blackburnian Warbler: 2/0/2/3
Bay-breasted Warbler: 0/1/0/8 (FOY)
Blackpoll Warbler: 4/3/10/50
Black-and-white Warbler: 5/5/10/5
American Redstart: 10/15/35/30
Ovenbird: 0/0/2/0
Northern Waterthrush: 0/3/3/3
MOURNING WARBLER: 0/1/0/0 (FOY)
Common Yellowthroat: 35/35/30/30
Wilson’s Warbler: 4/0/5/1
Canada Warbler: 2/4/4/2
SUMMER TANAGER: 1/1/1/0
Chipping Sparrow: 10/10/6/8
CLAY-COLORED SPARROW: 0/0/1/0
BREWER’S SPARROW!!!!: 0/0/1/1
Field Sparrow: 0/0/1/1
Savannah Sparrow: 1/1/3/1
Song Sparrow: x/x/x/x
Swamp Sparrow: 1/2/2/1
White-throated Sparrow: 1/0/10/10
Northern Cardinal: 6/8/8/6
Rose-breasted Grosbeak: 0/0/4/3
Indigo Bunting: 1/3/4/2
Bobolink: 8/6/4/4
Red-winged Blackbird: x/x/x/x
Common Grackle: 10/15/15/10
ORCHARD ORIOLE: 1/1/2/1
Baltimore Oriole: 0/1/3/4

American Goldfinch: 6/12/8/6

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Maine Birding Field Notes

Trip Reports, Essays, Rare Bird Reports, and More from Derek Lovitch's and Freeport Wild Bird Supply's birding in Maine and beyond.

Tag Archives: Brewer’s Sparrow

Birds on Tap – Monhegan!

Birds on Tap – Monhegan!

2015 Maine State List Predictions

2014 MonhegZen Spring Migration Birding Weekend.