Tag Archives: Long Falls Dam Road

This Week’s Highlights 1/31– 2/6/2026.

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Redpolls were our most numerous finch during a day of birding Long Falls Dam Road in Somerset County this week.

With three tours in 4 days, never reaching 20-degrees last week through this weekend, my face needed a couple of days break! I took one. And then, on the “warmest” day of the week, Jeannette and I drove north to spend the day in the field. Here are my observations of note over the past seven days.

  • 1 hen “NORTHERN” COMMON EIDER (ssp borealis) and 1 drake Barrow’s Goldeneye, Winslow Park, Freeport, 1/31 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
  • 1 continuing 1st-cycle Glaucous Gull and 4-5 1st-cycle Iceland Gulls, Old Port, Portland, 2/1 (with Gull Identification Workshop tour group).
  • 1 pair Lesser Scaup with 4 Greater Scaup, along with 24 Brant, Kettle Cove, Cape Elizabeth, 2/1 (with Gull Identification Workshop tour group).
  • 1 drake Barrow’s Goldeneye is back at the Bernard Lown Peace Bridge in Lewiston-Auburn as of the 6th.
  • 2 Fish Crows, Auburn Riverwalk, 2/6.
  • At least one Turkey Vultures continues along the I-295 corridor between Cumberland and Freeport as of this week.

Feeder-watching at home in Durham has been the name of the game on most mornings this week. The excitement came on the 5th, when an immature Cooper’s Hawk took a run at something. Everything flushed. Then, a Barred Owl came gliding in and either landed on the Cooper’s Hawk or immediately next to it. The Cooper’s Hawk flew away, the Barred Owl looked around in snow for a moment before flying into tree.

Was this attempted kleptoparasitism (stealing food) instead of a predation attempt? A Barred Owl has been regularly sunning itself in a spot that would provide a good sightline to where this occurred, so it was probably seeing a potential opportunity for brunch. I am just unsure what opportunity it saw.

This Week in Irruptives.

Here in Greater Freeport, a few more Purple Finches have been around and we had a single Red Crossbill in our yard on the 2nd. Scattered Evening Grosbeak reports continue as well.

Meanwhile, Jeannette and I headed north to Long Falls Dam Road in Somerset County on the 3rd. Birding for most of the day, focusing on irruptives, we tallied:

  • 43 “Common” Redpolls – scattered small flocks (largest was 12) all day.  Not including the 1 roadkill.
  • 8 Evening Grosbeaks – two small groups at feeders in North New Portland.
  • 6 Red Crossbills – gritting on Back Road.
  • 2 Pine Grosbeaks  -flyovers at North Bowtown Road
  • Only 4 American Goldfinches and 1 Purple Finch
  • Well above average numbers of Red-breasted Nuthatches but only average – or slightly below – numbers of Black-capped Chickadees.
  • Red Spruce cones were abundant, Black Spruce was patchy, and there was plenty of alder and birch, but no cones of White Spruce, White Pine, or Balsam Fir.

Recent Highlights, 12/9 – 12/15, 2023

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I had a nice photo session this morning with White-throated Sparrows at the Saco Riverwalk. I enjoyed watching them extracting the seeds from crabapples, the opposite of true frugivores that consume the flesh and cough up or poop out the seeds.

It’s been a productive seven days, with this week’s highlights being decidedly wintery in nature. ‘Tis the season!

  • 7 Red Crossbills, Florida Lake Park, Freeport, 12/9 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
  • 1 CLAY-COLORED SPARROW, Hunter Road, Freeport, 12/9 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).

It’s never a good sign when you must circle the bird in your attempt at a documentation shot! I got one shot off before it flew.

  • 2 Red Crossbills, our property in Durham, 12/10.
  • 39 total WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS in scattered small groups, and 54 total Pine Siskins, Long Falls Dam Road, Somerset County, 12/12 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 Northern Shrike (first of season), our property in Durham, 12/13.
  • 1-2 Swamp Sparrows, Tidewater Farm Preserve, Falmouth, 12/14.
  • 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Saco Riverwalk, 12/15.

NOTES.

Since we’ve had a mix of “the birds are back!” and “there are still no birds at my feeders” at the store recently, I wrote an updated blog talking about the season and the inconsistencies we are seeing with overall feeder activity, which is posted here:

Why There Are Not (or, maybe there are now) Birds at Your Feeders, December 2023 Edition.

This Week’s Highlights, 1/29-2/6, 2022

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While not the rarest bird this week, I have been thoroughly entertained by this Brown Creeper who has taken to picking up bits of seed from under a feeder at our home in Pownal. The horizontal position makes the bird look so different! Sorry for the lousy photos though…they were taken through a screen during the ice/snow storm on 2/4.

The Blizzard of 2022 provided some great opportunities for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing locally for the first time this winter, so I took full advantage of that, even if it did further limit my dedicated birding during this busy week plus.  Interestingly, my most “serious” birding was a half day (post-snowblowing and shoveling) on Sunday searching Portland through Cape Elizabeth for storm-related birds, but that effort turned up nothing at all of note! Here are my observations of note over the past 9 days:

  • 5 WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS, 2 COMMON REDPOLLS (FOY), 6 Pine Siskins (FOY), and 1 Purple Finch, Long Falls Dam Road area of Carrying Place Township, 1/31 (with Jeannette).
  • The Androscoggin River between the downtowns of Lewiston and Auburn remain a surprisingly productive mid-winter hotspot. On 2/1, Jeannette and I discovered an incredible (especially for the interior of Maine) five species of dabblers from the Auburn Riverwalk!  Amongst the Mallards and a couple of American Black Ducks, there were single female GREEN-WINGED TEAL, AMERICAN WIGEON, and NORTHERN PINTAIL.  Making this even more interesting is the fact that it’s usually the drakes that we find overwintering in Maine.  Additionally, the drake RING-NECKED DUCK continues, and we had a single 1st-winter Iceland Gull. Two Bufflehead and 5 Hooded Mergansers joined the usual Common Goldeneyes and Common Mergansers for a goodly inland total of 10 species of waterfowl. A unusually conspicuous Beaver continues to amuse here as well.
  • 3 drake and 1 hen BARROW’S GOLDENEYES and 8 Dunlin (FOW here), Winslow Park, Freeport, 2/13.

Other Notes:

  • My article – a 13-page photo salon – on the Hybrid Herons of Scarborough Marsh (Patches!) has finally been published in the most recent issue of North American Birds. In it, I lay out the theory that at least 5 different individuals have been seen in Scarborough Marsh since I first found an odd juvenile heron in July of 2012 that we now believe is a hybrid between a Snowy Egret and a Tricolored Heron.

I made the case that the two current birds are backcrosses, one with a Snowy Egret (SNEG X TRHE X SNEG) and the other with a Little Egret (SNEG X TRHE X LIEG). I’ll be watching them carefully for the potential of a developing hybrid swarm.

Unfortunately, at this time, the journal is only available online to members of the ABA. However, digital e-memberships (with access to all of the ABA publications) are only $30 a year, and you can purchase issues of the magazine directly from the ABA by emailing info@aba.org. Also, if you wanted to take a peek at the article, I do have a couple of extra copies here at the store for you to peruse.

Believe it or not, a hybrid heron is much rarer than a Steller’s Sea-Eagle, at least from a world perspective…in fact, it’s possible these birds are one of a kind!

North American Birds: Vol. 72, No. 2

Derek’s Birding This Week (including Boothbay Pelagic results), 6/5-10/2021

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

  • 1 3rd-cycle LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL, French Island Ledge, Casco Bay, 6/6 (with “Birds of Casco Bay” tour group). Photo below.
  • 1 Roseate Tern, The Goslings, Harpswell, 6/6 (with “Birds of Casco Bay” tour group).
  • 1 COMMON MURRE, 4 NORTHERN FULMARS, 5 RED-NECKED PHALAROPES (FOY), 103 Wilson’s Storm-Petrels (FOY), 1 Great Shearwater (FOY), etc, Boothbay Mini-Pelagic with Cap’n Fish Whale Watch, 6/7. Full trip list and tour report here.
  • 1 continuing pair Gadwalls, Pelreco Marsh, Scarborough Marsh, 6/8 (with client from California).
  • 3 Olive-sided Flycatchers (FOY), family group of 6 CANADA JAYS, etc, Long Falls Dam Road Area, Somerset County, 6/9 (with client from California).
  • 1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo (FOY), Foothills Land Conservancy, Wilton, 6/9 (with client from California)

Derek’s Birding This Week, 1/16-22/2021.

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White-winged Crossbills always make for a successful day in the woods.

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

  • 1 pair Green-winged Teal, Abbott’s Pond, York, 1/17 (with Terez Fraser and John Lorenc).
  • 1 Northern Shrike, Route 201, Norridgewock, 1/19 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 Canada Jay, Long Falls Dam Road, Carrying Place Township, 1/19 (with Jeannette).
  • 5 RUSTY BLACKBIRDS, Private property in Durham, 1/21.
  • 1 drake Green-winged Teal and 1 1st cycle Iceland Gull, Mill Creek Cove, South Portland, 1/22.
  • 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Mill Creek Park, South Portland, 1/22.

This Week in Finches, at least for the sake of continuing to organize mostly negative data:

  • EVENING GROSBEAK: 0
  • Red Crossbill:
  • WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL: total of 11 (Long Falls Dam Road between North New Portland and Flagstaff Lake, 1/19; with Jeannette).
  • PINE GROSBEAK: 3 (here at the store, 1/17-present); 11 (Yarmouth Town Hall, 2/21); 7 (Cumberland Town Landing, 2/21).
  • Purple Finch High Count This Week: 0
  • Common Redpoll High Count This Week: 0
  • Pine Siskin High Count This Week:  0