Tag Archives: Pelreco Marsh

This Week’s Highlights 8/21– 8/27/2026.

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It’s been another great summer for Forster’s Terns, and Biddeford Pool has been the epicenter of their appearance. On the 24th, Jeannette enjoyed a photo session with several of the 4 1st-cycle birds
that were present that day.

Thanks to an 18-species shorebird pseudo-Big Day on 8/24, I tallied 19 species of shorebirds this week. During that day, we may have experienced lower numbers of most shorebird species than we had hoped, but overall had an exceptional day, including a lot of “uppercase” observations of note of more than just shorebirds. That productive day fueled an excellent week of noteworthy observations for me over the past seven days:

  • Highlights from our Durham property this period included a fist fall female MOURNING WARBLER and 1 continuing Cape May Warbler on the 21st; 3 Common Nighthawks (FOF) at dusk on the 22nd; at least 10 Cape May Warblers and 1 Tennessee Warbler on 8/23 (with Dan Nickerson); 9 Common Nighthawks, 8/24; daily multiple Cape May Warblers continuing through week’s end.
  • 1 adult RED-NECKED GREBE, Sabattus Pond, Sabattus, 8/23 (with Dan Nickerson).
  • 1 continuing proposed HYBRID TRICOLORED HERON X SMALL WHITE EGRET(S), aka “Patches,” 1 DICKCISSEL (FOF), 1 American Wigeon (FOF), 3 Gadwall, etc, Eastern Road Trail, Scarborough Marsh, 8/24 (with Jeannette). 
  • 2 female Blue-winged Teal, Great Pond, Biddeford Pool, 8/24 (with Jeannette).
  • 4 1st-cycle FORSTER’S TERNS, Biddeford Pool Beach, 8/24 (with Jeannette).
  • 2 continuing pairs of Red-necked Grebes and 1 continuing 1st-summer Great Cormorant, Ocean Avenue, Biddeford Pool, 8/24.
  • 1 3rd-cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull, Hill’s Beach, Biddeford, 8/24 (with Bill Sheehan and Jeannette).
  • 2 1st-cycle FORSTER’S TERNS, Pine Point, Scarborough, 8/24 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 juvenile YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON (FOY), Jones Creek, Pine Point, Scarborough Marsh, 8/24 (with Jeannette). Pretty sure we were about the last birders to see one this year!
  • 1 DICKCISSEL and 2 Roseate Terns (1 adult and 1 juvenile; very rare within Casco Bay), Wharton Point, Brunswick, 8/26.

Jeannette and I observed 18 species of shorebirds on 8/24, and I only managed a single additional species all week! But here are my shorebird high counts over the past 7 days:

  • AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER: 9 Pine Point, Scarborough, 8/24 (with Jeannette).
  • Black-bellied Plover: 238, The Pool, Biddeford Pool, 8/24 (with Bill Sheehan and Jeannette).
  • Killdeer: 6, Winding Brook Turf Farm, Lyman, 8/24 (with Jeannette).
  • Semipalmated Plover: 225, The Pool, Biddeford Pool, 8/24 (with Bill Sheehan and Jeannette).
  • Piping Plover: 3, Hill’s Beach, Biddeford, 8/24 (with Bill Sheehan and Jeannette).
  • Hudsonian Whimbrel: 1, Pine Point, 8/24 (with Jeannette).
  • Ruddy Turnstone: 28, Biddeford Pool Beach, 8/24 (with Jeannette).
  • Sanderling: 8, Biddeford Pool Beach, 8/24 (with Jeannette).
  • Least Sandpiper: 146, Eastern Road Trail, Scarborough Marsh, 8/24 (with Jeannette).
  • White-rumped Sandpiper: 3, Wharton Point, Brunswick, 8/26.
  • Semipalmated Sandpiper: 396, Wharton Point, 8/26. (SESA counts have been dreadfully low this season, but this flock of 100% juveniles was a really good sign).
  • WESTERN SANDPIPER: 1 juv (FOY), Pelreco Marsh, Scarborough Marsh, 8/24 (with Jeannette).
  • Short-billed Dowitcher: 48, The Pool, Biddeford Pool, 8/24 (with Bill Sheehan and Jeannette).
  • Spotted Sandpiper: 6, Ocean Avenue, Biddeford Pool, 8/24 (with Jeannette).
  • Solitary Sandpiper: 3, Bridge Street, Yarmouth, 8/22 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group) and Auburn Riverwalk, 8/23 (with Dan Nickerson).
  • Lesser Yellowlegs: 65, Walsh Preserve, Freeport, 8/25.
  • (Eastern) Willet: 4, Pine Point, Scarborough Marsh, 8/24 (with Jeannette).
  • Greater Yellowlegs: 19, Walsh Preserve, 8/25.
  • RED-NECKED PHALAROPE: 5, off Boothbay Harbor with Cap’n Fish’s Cruises, 8/27.

Upcoming Tours with Space:

​Monhegan Birding Workshop with Down East Magazine: September 11-13, 2026. 

Join me for three days of birding at Maine’s famous Migration Mecca. As the summer crowds dwindle, the island becomes a birders’ paradise, with birding opportunities around every corner. This tour will spend three days sampling what the island has to offer during the peak of migration, from warblers to hawks to sparrows to the unexpected. Weather (and sometimes, lack thereof) will dictate how much we do or do not see, but every day is different out there. We’ll learn that fall warblers are rarely if ever “confusing” and why migrants – and vagrants from any direction – drop by this offshore migrant trap.

 This Week’s Highlights 7/15– 7/24/2026.

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While Ian Doherty, Bill Thompson, and I had two Tricolored Herons off of Eastern Road on the 24th, they were fairly distant. This photo was from a much closer encounter with one of the two birds last week from the same location.

Boat trips and shorebirds are the name of the game at this time of year, yet many of my notable species were wading birds during this recent period! Here is a very photo-laden report of my observations of note over the past 10 days, including my aggregated Shorebird High Counts:

  • 1 Glossy Ibis, Florida Lake Park, Freeport, 7/15 (my 175th Patch Bird here!). There’s been an impressive showing of GLIB well inland this summer.
  • A trip to Eastern Egg Rock via the Cap’n Fish’s Puffin Cruise out of Boothbay Harbor on 7/16 with a group from the American Bird Conservancy enjoyed a great visit to the island with above-average numbers of Atlantic Puffins in the water, particularly good looks at Roseate Terns, and two seasonal rarities: a drake Long-tailed Duck in the Inner Harbor and a kleptoparasiting PARASITIC JAEGER about 1/2 mile off of the west side of Eastern Egg.
  • 1 continuing SANDHILL CRANE, Bar Harbor Airport from Rte 3 as we were heading into town to catch our boat, 7/18 (with Bill Thompson).
  • Highlights from the Bar Harbor Whale Watch/Flukes Seabird Island and Lighthouse Tour (with Kelley Sharp, Bill Thompson, et all) on 7/18 included 150+ Red-necked Phalaropes, 1 Sooty Shearwater and 60++ Great Shearwaters in all, many hundreds of Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, scattered migrant shorebirds, oh yeah, and a few thousand Atlantic Puffins, Razorbills, and Common Murres and all three terns, etc. And breaching Humpback Whales!
  • 2 TRICOLORED HERONS, Eastern Road Trail, Scarborough Marsh, 7/24 (with Ian Doherty and Bill Thompson.
  • 1 presumed/suspected WHITE-FACED IBIS, Eastern Road Trail, Scarborough Marsh 7/24 (with Ian Doherty and Bill Thompson). Bill likely has better photos from Eastern Road, but the photos below are of what appears to be the same bird an hour or so later at Pelreco Marsh (with Ian).  Adult bird in post-breeding plumage aspect and beginning to molt, showing pure red eyes, wide but faded white border to the face and behind the eye, pale pinkish-flesh facial skin, but too far past high breeding to fairly ascertain color. Vocal difference when it took flight: less croaky, and more of a goose-like honking tone. Red knees seen well at Pelreco. While nothing is suggestive of a hybrid, the lack of useful facial skin coloration might make it impossible to fully discount a hybrid given the season and plumage aspect.

As I do every year at this time of year, I post my shorebird high counts. Since most of my – and just about everyone else’s birding at this time of year is focused on migrant shorebirds – I use it to synthesize my observations of the ebbs and flows of the protracted fall shorebird migration season. Each period, I am sure to visit at least one of each: high tide hotspot, a low tide hotspot, freshwater hotspot, Wharton Point in Brunswick, Walsh Preserve in Freeport, and a Killdeer/grasspiper hotspot. In previous years, I have done this every week, but due to my current life and schedule, I’m going to do it every 10 days (which is a long time in fall shorebird migration) this year instead, just to be sure that I hit all 6 of my “data” points each period. Therefore, here are my shorebird high counts over the past 10 days (no Biddeford environs this period):

  • Black-bellied Plover: 2, Wharton Point, Brunswick, 7/22.
  • Killdeer: 9, Highland Road, Brunswick, 7/22.
  • Semipalmated Plover: 55, Pine Point, Scarborough, 7/21 (with Jeannette).
  • Piping Plover: 5, Popham Beach State Park, Phippsburg 7/20 (with Jeannette).
  • Hudsonian Whimbrel: 3, Pine Point,7/24 (with Ian Doherty). 1 on 7/21 (with Jeannette) was my FOY:
  • Ruddy Turnstone: 9, Matinicus Rock via Bar Harbor Whale Watch/Flukes Seabird Island and Lighthouse Tour, 7/18 (with Kelley Sharp, Bill Thompson, et all).
  • Sanderling: 6, Popham Beach State Park, 7/20 (with Jeannette).
  • Least Sandpiper: 30+, Eastern Road Trail, Scarborough Marsh, 7/24 (with Ian Doherty).
  • Semipalmated Sandpiper: 125, Pine Point, 7/21 (with Jeannette).
  • Short-billed Dowitcher: 17, Pine Point, 7/21 (with Jeannette).
  • Spotted Sandpiper: 1, Walsh Preserve, Freeport, 7/15.
  • Solitary Sandpiper: 3 (FOF), Florida Lake Park, Freeport, 7/15.
  • Lesser Yellowegs: 103, Walsh Preserve, 7/24.
  • (Eastern) Willet: 24, Pine Point, 7/21 (with Jeannette).
  • Caption: photo from the Eastern Road Trail on 7/14…I just didn’t get my photos sorted in time for the last blog entry…but I had to share this one!
  • Greater Yellowlegs: 21, Walsh Preserve, 7/24.
  • RED-NECKED PHALAROPE: ~150 between Machias Seal Island and Mt. Desert Rock via Bar Harbor Whale Watch/Flukes Seabird Island and Lighthouse Tour, with Kelley Sharp, Bill Thompson, et all, 7/18.

Upcoming Tours (that have space):

Boothbay Harbor Whale-Puffin Cruise with Cap’n Fish’s Cruises

This Sunday, July 26 – 9:00AM.

​​This is the second of the two trips this summer where Derek will be onboard as a Guest Naturalist for this special “Whale Watch & Birding Buffs Combo” Cruise. The itinerary will include a visit to Eastern Egg Rock as well as whale feeding grounds. Nesting colonies and pelagic sightings will be highlighted. Around EER at this time we can expect to find Atlantic Puffins, Common Terns, Arctic Terns, Roseate Terns, Laughing Gulls, Double-Crested Cormorants, Common Eider, Black Guillemots, with a chance of Razorbill and Common Murre. Off-shore sightings may include Northern Gannets, up to 4 species of Shearwaters (Great, Sooty, Cory’s, and Manx), and Wilson’s Storm Petrels. Who knows? Perhaps the wandering TUFTED PUFFIN will be spotted! Sorry, no chumming this time, but we tend to get a little more time around Eastern Egg, and if there’s enough of us, a little more freedom to chase birds offshore!

Trip Report:

Speaking of photo-laden reports, here is my trip report from our new “The Magic of Machias Seal Island,” tour which took place on July 5th and 6th.

The Magic of Machias Seal Island Trip Report, July 2026

And finally this week, Jeannette had some quality time photographing Roseate Terns on our 7/21 visit to Pine Point.