Tag Archives: Long Falls Dam Road

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