Tag Archives: Machias Seal Island

This Week’s Highlights, 7/1-7,2023

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I didn’t hit the shoreline at all this week, other than a quick jaunt to the Brunswick waterfront, so I don’t have a lot of observations of note, other than 2 Upland Sandpipers at Brunswick Landing, Brunswick, 7/1 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group) and continued scattered Red Crossbills.

However, bird-watching was fantastic this week overall, even if it did not produce anything out of the ordinary. From a visit with clients to Salt Bay Farm Preserve in Damariscotta on Thursday to a stroll this morning at Old Town House Park, I found plenty of entertainment in the life and antics of our common breeding species.

In fact, on a couple of mornings, I just couldn’t tear myself away from our feeding station, which is chock-full of activity right now, including multiple pairs each of Baltimore Orioles, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Gray Catbirds, Purple Finches, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and 5 species of woodpeckers, including fledglings of many: Downy, Hairy, Pileated, Red-bellied, and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Yeah, we’re going through a lot of suet right now!

Therefore, I’ll just leave you today with some of my favorite photos from last month’s tour with NJ Audubon.  And maybe next week I’ll have some more time for bird-finding again!

This Week’s Highlights, 6/16-23, 2023

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It’s always exciting to show a tour a one-of-a-kind bird that is found no where else in the world (that we know of!). And “Patches III” the proposed Tricolored Heron x Snowy Egret x Snowy Egret hybrid (I think…maybe) put on quite a show for us on the third day of the tour.

I just finished up a whirlwind 9-day tour with my good friend Scott Barnes for New Jersey Audubon. I’ll be sorting photos for a while and will post more later, but our unexpected observations of note while traveling around Maine (with about 24 hours in New Hampshire and a few hours in New Brunswick) besides all of our wonderful breeding birds, included the following:

  • 1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo (FOY, surprisingly), Brownfield Bog, Brownfield, 6/16.
  • 1 White-rumped Sandpiper, Eastern Road Trail, Scarborough Marsh, 6/18.
  • 1 continuing proposed TRICOLORED HERON X SNOWY EGRET X SNOWY EGRET hybrid (aka “Patches III”), Pelreco Marsh, Scarborough Marsh, 6/18 (photo above).
  • 1 drake Northern Pintail, Pelreco Marsh, 6/18.
  • 1 continuing drake KING EIDER, 3 adult RED-NECKED GREBES (including a pair doing a little light courting), and an impressive 72 Black Scoters, Ocean Avenue, Biddeford Pool, 6/18.
  • 1 pair ORCHARD ORIOLES and one late singing Wilson’s Warbler, Capisic Pond Park, 6/19.
  • 1 pair Sandhill Cranes, Messalonskee Lake, 6/19.
  • 1 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch, and 1 Indigo Bunting, Machias Seal Island, 6/20.
  • 1 MANX SHEARWATER, between Machias Seal Island and Cutler Harbor, 6/20.
  • Scattered Red Crossbills around Washington County.
  • 80+ Razorbills and 12 Surf Scoters, Quoddy Head State Park, 6/21.
  • 1 family group of CANADA JAYS, Wesley Township, 6/22.
  • 4 Black-bellied Plovers, Petit Manan NWR – Hollingsworth Trail, 6/22.
  • 2 American Oystercatchers, Egg Rock, Frenchman Bay, 6/23 (with Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co).
  • 2 American Oystercatchers and 2 Common Murres, Petit Manan Island, 6/23 (with Bar Harbor Whale Watch Company).
  • 1 LEACH’S STORM-PETREL, 1 BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE, 1 Sooty Shearwater (FOY), 25+ Great Shearwaters, etc, off Bar Harbor with Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co).
  • 5+ Black Terns, Plymouth Pond, 6/24.

This Week’s Highlights, June 25 – July 1, 2022

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A displaying pair of Northern Gannets stole the show at Machias Seal Island on our visit there on 6/22.
Atlantic Puffins, Machias Seal Island, 6/22.
Razorbills, Machias Seal Island, 6/22.
Arctic Tern, Machias Seal Island, 6/22.

I had a rather busy week, but not as busy with birding as I would have liked. Therefore, this mostly to share Jeannette’s photography from our visit to Machias Seal Island last week. However, a few observations of note over the past seven days included the following

  • 1 female ORCHARD ORIOLE and 1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Green Point WMA, 6/27 (with Jeannette).
  • 1+ BOREAL CHICKADEE, East Royce Mountain, White Mountains National Forest, 6/26 (with Jeannette).
  • 1-2 LITTLE EGRET X SNOWY EGRET hybrids, Falmouth, 6/30. One bird spotted from the Martin’s Point Bridge appeared to have at least one long, Little Egret-like plume. It was not close enough for photos, but the plume – as well as overall structure was distinctive. After flying upriver with the incoming tide, I found a hybrid at Gilsland Farm (photo below), but no head plumes are visible. Note the greenish-yellow lores (looked darker in the field than this poor, phone-scoped photo), very long and fine bill, and spindly neck.  It’s slightly longer legs and overall slightly larger size was apparent when it joined a distant Snowy. However, did I imagine the plume in the earlier view? Did it fall off in transit? Or, are there actually two again this year?
This presumptive Little Egret x Snowy Egret Hybrid was along the Presumpscot River in
Portland and Falmouth on the 30th. See notes above.

This Week’s Highlights, June 18 – June 24, 2022

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I found this 1st summer Little Gull on Hill’s Beach in Biddeford on 6/19. It was among about 40-50 Bonaparte’s Gulls and hunkered down against the wind. This was my first in southern Maine in quite a few years.

Breeding season is upon us, and Maine’s seabird islands are in full effect – even when they don’t have a Tufted Puffin. I did find a Little Gull, however, and that was fun; I really like Little Gulls! My observations of note over the past seven days included the following:

  • Biddeford Pool shoreline and neighborhood, 6/19: 1 1st summer Great Cormorant, 3 Black Scoters, 1 pair Surf Scoters, and 1 likely-late migrant Magnolia Warbler.
  • 1 first-summer LITTLE GULL and 1 AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER, Hill’s Beach, Biddeford, 6/19 (photos above).
  • 3 Semipalmated Sandpipers and 14 Black-bellied Plovers, The Pool, Biddeford Pool, 6/19.
  • Belgrade PURPLE MARTIN colony, 6/21: Jeannette and I counted at least 25 occupied nests holes, which I believe would be a recent record high of this venerable colony.
  • 1 Red Crossbill, Downeast Sunrise Trail, Machias, 6/21 (with Jeannette).
  • 15-20 Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, Cutler Harbor to Machias Seal Island with Bold Coast Charter Co, 6/22 (with Paul Dioron, Bill Thompson, and Jeannette).
  • 1 pair NORTHERN GANNETS, displaying and early-courtship behavior, Machias Seal Island with Bold Coast Charter Co, 6/22 (with Paul Dioron, Bill Thompson, and Jeannette).
  • 1 Greater Yellowlegs, Machias River Causeway, 6/22 (with Jeannette).  High-flying and heading south, was this our first migrant of “fall?” or just an over-summering bird heading to a roost?
  • 2 Red Crossbills (Typ1 10 fide Matt Young), 1 Bay-breasted Warbler, Palm Warblers, etc, Cutler Coast Maine Public Reserve Lands, 6/23 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 pair AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHERS, Egg Rock off Petit Manan peninsula, with Acadia Nature Tours puffin trip to Petit Manan Island (with Doug Hitchcox, Jeannette, et al).  No Tufted Puffin.
After a couple of failed nesting attempts followed by a 2-3(?) year hiatus, a male Northern Gannet has been hanging out and “prospecting” on Machias Seal Island again this year. Recently, he has attracted the attention of a 4th-cycle, presumed female. We were lucky enough to view them outside of our blind during a tour there on 6/22. This was just a quick snapshot with my phone. Jeannette has over a thousand photos to sort through!