Tag Archives: Evening Grosbeak

This Week’s Highlights, 4/15-21/2023

Leave a reply

For the third week of April, this is not a very impressive report – especially in terms of new arrivals! However, we were in Boston for three days cheering on Jeannette in the Boston Marathon (she did great…Go Jeannette!) and well, now I have frozen shoulder. So, field time remains woefully limited.  Nonetheless, I had some observations of note (in Maine) over the past seven days:

  • ~40 Yellow-rumped Warblers (FOY), 40+ Palm Warblers, 8 Pine Warblers, etc, Florida Lake Park, Freeport, 4/15 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
  • 3 EVENING GROSBEAKS, our feeders in Durham, 4/19-20.

My other personal FOY’s this week also included:

  • 2 Swamp Sparrows (FOS), Florida Lake Park, 4/15 (with Saturday Morning birdwalk group).
  • 1 Pied-billed Grebe, Morgan Meadow WMA, 4/21
  • 1 LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH, Morgan Meadow WMA, 4/21.
  • 1 Broad-winged Hawk, over I-295, Yarmouth, 4/21 (with Jeannette. Finally! I have really been missing spending time at the Brad!)

TOURS AND EVENTS:

Next weekend (April 29-30) is the 13th Annual Feathers Over Freeport that we sponsor with public and private partners at Bradbury Mountain and Wolfes Neck Woods State Parks. We have a full slate of events all day, each day once again, plus a Thursday night (4/27) kick-off presentation at Patagonia in Freeport!

The entire schedule and more information can be found here. All events are free with park admission.

This Week’s Highlights: 4/8-14, 2023

Leave a reply

Our first tour of the season, a roadtrip for work, lots of new arrivals, and more good feeder-watching,  but the highlight of the week for me was the awesome congregation of Ring-necked Ducks at Corinna Marsh.

  • Evening Grosbeaks continued at our feeders in Durham, with 5 on 4/8 and 2 on 4/9.
  • Great performance by American Woodcocks (at least 5-6) including one landing in the open before dusk during our “Woodcocks Gone Wild!” Tour at Pineland Farms on 4/8.
  • 1 Evening Grosbeak, Shawmut Dam, Fairfield, 4/10.
  • Incredible concentration of _576_ Ring-necked Ducks on the partially-open Corrina Marsh, Corrina, 4/10.

Personal first-of-years and new arrivals:

  • 1 Brown Thrasher, our feeders in Durham, 4/8 (Yard Bird #126!)
  • 1 Osprey, Highland Road, Brunswick, 4/9 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 Savannah Sparrow, Highland Road, Brunswick, 4/9 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Corinna Marsh, Corinna, 4/10.
  • 2 SANDHILL CRANES, Corinna Marsh, 4/10.
  • 1 Palm Warbler. Bangor Waterfront Park, 4/10.
  • 1 Chipping Sparrow, our feeders in Durham, 4/13.

Tour and Events:

  • Saturday Morning Birdwalks return tomorrow, 4/15! As always, meet at the store at 8:00am for a carpool to a local park.
  • Join us at Maine Beer Company on Wednesday, April 19th for their monthly Community Pizza Night to support Feathers Over Freeport!  20% of food sales between 4:00 and 8:00pm will be donated to the upcoming event. https://mainebeercompany.com/visit-us/calendar/community-pizza-night-5
  • Speaking of Feathers Over Freeport, Community Pizza Night at MBC is the first of two pre-event events leading up the fun-filled weekend. For a full schedule, see: http://www.maine.gov/feathersoverfreeport

This Week’s Highlights: 4/1-7, 2023

Leave a reply

Three Evening Grosbeaks at our feeders in Durham on the 3rd was a highlight this week; they were our first here this year.

It didn’t feel like it on most days this week, but spring was still in the air. My observations of note over the past seven days included the following:

  • 3 male Evening Grosbeaks, our feeders in Durham, 4/3.
  • 1 Pine Warbler (FOY), Brown’s Point Road, Bowdoinham, 4/4.
  • I enjoyed a fantastic visit to the Mouth of the Abby in Bowdoinham on 4/4. The tally:
    • 1 drake “EURASIAN” GREEN-WINGED TEAL
    • 1 drake “EURASIAN” X “AMERICAN” GREEN-WINGED TEAL HYBRID
    • 269 American Black Ducks
    • 264 Green-winged Teal
    • 90 Canada Geese
    • 28 Mallards
    • 13 Wilson’s Snipe (FOY)
    • 11 Common Mergansers
    • 6 Ring-necked Ducks
    • 4+ Mallard x American Black Duck hybrids
    • 2 American Wigeon
    • 2 Common Goldeneyes
    • 2 Buffleheads
    • 2 Lesser Scaup
    • 1 pair NORTHERN SHOVELERS (FOY)
    • 1 pair Blue-winged Teal (FOY)
  • 1 Hermit Thrush (FOS), Florida Lake Park, Freeport, 4/5.
  • 2 male Evening Grosbeaks, our feeders in Durham, 4/7.

Now that I am back in the field and at work a little more, my feeder-watching at home is just a little less frequent. However, as you can see above, we had some good visitors this week. For continued weekly updates, you can follow “Feeder Watching Friday” posts each Friday on our store’s Facebook page.  This week was certainly interesting at the feeding station.

Tour Notes:

Our annual “Woodcocks Gone Wild!” trip at Pineland Farms was rescheduled to Saturday, 4/8 and we are a go. More info here.

This Week’s Highlights: October 29 – November 4, 2022

Leave a reply

Evening Grosbeaks are predicted to head south in good numbers this fall and winter, and the first indications of that are appearing locally. Here’s one of the 8 that arrived at our
Durham feeders on the morning of the 3rd.

My observations of note over the past seven days included the following:

  • 2 Rusty Blackbirds, Wolfe’s Neck Center, 10/29 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
  • 4+ Red Crossbills and 1 Eastern Phoebe, Morgan Meadow WMA, 10/31 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 “Ipswich” Savannah Sparrow (FOF), 1 Semipalmated Plover, etc, Reid State Park, Georgetown, 11/1 (with Jeannette).
  • Sandy Point Morning Flight, 11/2: 154 individuals of 18 species in what was likely my last visit of the season. Complete count here.
  • Sabattus Pond, 11/3 (with Dan Nickerson): 469 Ruddy Ducks, 79 Greater Scaup, 55 Lesser Scaup, 2 Common Goldeneyes (FOF), etc.
  • 8 EVENING GROSBEAKS, our feeders in Durham, 11/3 (first of fall locally; photo above).

This Week’s Highlights: October 15 -21, 2022

Leave a reply
I spent a lot of time looking at sparrows this week, as I love to do in October. This snappy immature White-crowned Sparrow was at Wolfe’s Neck Center on the 16th.

My observations of note over the past seven days included the following:

  • 1 continuing HUDSONIAN GODWIT, Wharton Point, Brunswick, 10/15 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group; the 247th all-time Saturday Morning Birdwalk species!). Observed at closer range later from the Maquoit Bay Conservation Land.
  • 1 Indigo Bunting, Wolfe’s Neck Center, Freeport, 10/16.
  • Incredibly morning at Bailey Island, Harpswell with Jeannette on 10/17: 1 ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER, 1 CAPE MAY WARBLER, 1 Blue-headed Vireo, 1 Red-eyed Vireo.  6 total species of warblers; 7 species of sparrows. 400+ Dark-eyed Juncos, 200+ Yellow-rumped Warblers, 150+ White-throated Sparrows, 150+ Song Sparrows, etc, etc.
  • 1 ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER, our yard in Durham, 10/17.
  • 1 Red Crossbill, our yard in Durham, 10/19.
  • 353 Ruddy Ducks, 1 Spotted Sandpiper, 61 Lesser Scaup, 18 Greater Scaup, etc, Sabattus Pond, Sabattus, 10/20.
  • 2 EVENING GROSBEAKS, 1 Common Yellowthroat, 50+ Swamp Sparrows, etc, Old Town House Park, North Yarmouth, 10/21.
I whiffed on phone-binning an Orange-crowned Warbler at Bailey Island on the 17th as I apparently followed the wrong bird. Turned out the other bird was this tardy Blue-headed Vireo, however.

Derek’s Birding This Week, 4/24-30/2021

Leave a reply
I always say that Yellow-rumped Warblers would be everyone’s favorite warbler if they weren’t so common. Big personalities and easy to identify, and the spring males are just gorgeous. Even when photographed through drizzle and mist, as was this one at Legion Pond in Kittery on 4/30.

My highlights over the past seven days included the following:

  • 1 Great Cormorant, over the store with a flock of Double-crested Cormorants, 4/24 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk Group. Store Yard Bird #131).
  • 1 Savannah Sparrow, our yard in Pownal, 4/24 (Home Yard Bird # 130).
  • 19 Red Crossbills, Waterboro Barrens Preserve, 4/27.
  • 9 Fish Crows (low, tight, southbound flock) and 1-2 EVENING GROSBEAKS, Bradbury-Pinelands Corridor Trail, Pownal, 4/29.
  • 1 drake NORTHERN SHOVELER, 109 Yellow-rumped Warblers, numerous first of years, etc, Fort Foster, Kittery, 4/30.
  • 17 Harlequin Ducks, The Nubble, Cape Neddick, 4/30.

And my personal first-of-years and new spring arrivals included:

  • 3 LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSHES (FOY), Morgan Meadow WMA, 4/25 (first time I have had more than 2 singing males here).
  • 1 Brown Thrasher, feeders here at the store, 4/25.
  • 1 Field Sparrow, Waterboro Barrens Preserve, 4/27.
  • 1 Ruby-throated Hummingbird, our yard in Pownal, 4/29.
  • 3 Black-and-white Warblers, Fort Foster, Kittery, 4/30.
  • 3 House Wrens, Fort Foster, 4/30.
  • 1 Gray Catbird (FOS), Fort Foster, 4/30.
  • 3 BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHERS, Fort Foster, 4/30.
  • 5 Greater Yellowlegs, Fort Foster, 4/30.
  • 3 Northern Rough-winged Swallows, The Nubble, Cape Neddick, 4/30.
  • 1 Cliff Swallow, The Nubble, 4/30.

Derek’s Birding This Week, 3/27-4/2/2021

2 Replies

My highlights over the past seven days included the following:

  • 5 Fox Sparrows continue in our yard in Pownal.
  • 7 SANDHILL CRANES (FOY), Bradbury Mountain Spring Hawkwatch, 3/27.
  • 2 Pine Siskins (FOS), feeders here at the store, 3/27 – present.
  • 5 RUDDY DUCKS (FOY) and 1 first-cycle Iceland Gull, Sabattus Pond, Sabattus, 3/28.
  • 1 Eastern Phoebe (FOY), Sebago Lake State Park, 3/29 (with Jeannette).
  • 8 EVENING GROSBEAKS (FOS), our yard in Pownal, 4/2.
  • 3 Red Crossbills, feeding in the yard here at the store, 4/2.

Derek’s Birding This Week: 12/19-25

Leave a reply
The good thing about birding is that it can be done anywhere at anytime, such as between errands in Auburn where I enjoyed this Peregrine Falcon hunting around Great Falls. I snapped this photo with my phone through my binoculars on the Hampton Inn in Auburn.

I don’t usually get out birding much in the week before Christmas, and this year it was even less. But a few quick stops, dog-walks, and incidental observations produced only the following observation of note over the past seven days.

  • 1 GRAY CATBIRD, Saco Riverwalk, 12/20.

This Week in Finches:

Although my birding was limited, the dearth of finches was noteworthy. Has the flight passed us by? Did the largest volume of redpolls simply move southward to the west of us? Are there more in the pipeline, or will we have a rather quiet January and February?

  • EVENING GROSBEAK: 1 (Old Town House Park, North Yarmouth, 12/21).
  • Red Crossbill: 0
  • WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL:  0
  • PINE GROSBEAK: up to 10 daily (in and around the yard here at the store all week).
  • Purple Finch: 0
  • Common Redpoll: 0
  • Pine Siskin High Count This Week: 3 (Merrill Road Ext, Freeport, 12/19).

Derek’s Birding This Week, 12/12-18, 2020.

1 Reply

Starting the day with Evening Grosbeaks at our home feeders and enjoying Pine Grosbeaks everytime we carry seed out to someone’s car really isn’t too shabby.

My observations of note over the past seven days included the following:

  • Unusually large number of Red-throated Loons in the northwest corner of Casco Bay all week.
  • 1 BOHEMIAN WAXWING and 1 Savannah Sparrow, Wolfe’s Neck Center, Freeport, 12/13.
  • 1 RING-NECKED DUCK with about 450 mixed Lesser and Greater Scaup with about 1,000 White-winged Scoters, Wharton Point, Brunswick, 12/14.
  • 425+ mixed Lesser and Greater Scaup, Simpson’s Point, Brunswick, 12/14.
  • 1 Hermit Thrush, Harraseeket Yacht Club, Freeport, 12/18.

This Week in Finches:

  • EVENING GROSBEAK: 12 (flying over our yard in Pownal, 12/13); 2 (Verrill Road, Pownal, 12/13); after a several day absence, up to 4 were in our Pownal yard on 12/15; 1 (Verrill Road, 12/17).
  • Red Crossbills: 1 (Wolfe’s Neck Center, Freeport, 12/14); 4 (Cumberland Town Forest, 12/16);
  • WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL:  0
  • PINE GROSBEAK: 6-10 daily (in and around the yard here at the store all week); 4 (Rte 1, Brunswick, 12/14); 10 (Cumberland Town Landing, 12/16); 4 (Rte 88, Cumberland, 12/16).
  • Purple Finch: 0
  • Common Redpoll: 5 (Cumberland Town Landing, 12/16).
  • Pine Siskin High Count This Week: 2 (Cumberland Town Landing, 12/16).

Derek’s Birding This Week, 12/5-11, 2020

Leave a reply

I didn’t get out birding much this week, but my morning on Bailey Island was fantastic! But the good news is that Pine Grosbeaks have been around our store daily, and this morning lost getting snow tires on my car produced the biggest flock I have seen in the area so far this season. It is nice when the birds come to you!

My observations of note over the past seven days included the following:

  • 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 1 Hermit Thrush, and 1 Northern Flicker, Bailey Island, Harpswell, 12/7.
  • 1 SNOWY OWL (FOS) and 28 Snow Buntings, Brunswick Landing, 12/7.
  • 1 Turkey Vulture, over the store, 12/7.

This Week in Finches:

  • EVENING GROSBEAK: Up to 3 continue daily at our feeders at home in Pownal through the early part of the week; 2 (Memak Preserve, North Yarmouth, 12/10).
  • Red Crossbills: 4 (Bailey Island, Harpswell, 12/7); 12 (Waterboro Barrens Preserve, 12/8).
  • WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL: 2 (Bailey Island, 12/7).
  • PINE GROSBEAK: 4 (in and around the yard here at the store, 12/2-8); increased to 6 (12/9 – present); 6 (Mayall Road, Gray, 12/9); 3 (Westbrook Riverwalk, 12/11); 18 (Saunders Way, Westbrook, 12/11).
  • Purple Finch: 1 (Bailey Island, 12/7).
  • Common Redpoll High Count This Week: 7 (Bailey Island, 12/7).
  • Pine Siskin High Count This Week: 3 (Bailey Island, 12/7).