Because it wasn’t wintery enough already in Southern Maine, I drove north for my annual early-December Greater Bangor birding visit, which is always a good way to gauge the coming winter’s food resources and irruption status, for better and for worse! Here are all of my observations of note over the past seven days:

• 1 American Woodcock, Winslow Park, Freeport, 12/6 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).

• Three days, mostly in Penobscot County, didn’t produce nearly as many irruptives as I had hoped. In fact, all finches other than American Goldfinch were scarce. I encountered a few flocks of American Robins, but few other frugivores so far, despite widespread ample crabapple and other fruit crops. Visiting the same spots as I do every year, plus a few additional locations gave me some idea of food recent and current species compositions. Recent bitter cold rapidly froze up many seasonal hotspots were locked in, but my total of 42 species was nowhere near my lowest tally over the years from this route! My highlights included the following:

• 1 drake Ring-necked Duck, Fisherman’s Park, Brewer, 12/7.
• 2 continuing Fish Crows and 3-4 first-cycle Iceland Gulls, Bangor Waterfront Park, 12/7.
• 1 WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL (FOS), 1 AMERICAN GOSHAWK, and 11 PINE GROSBEAKS (FOY), Stud Mill Road, 12/8.
• 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Littlefield Gardens, University of Maine – Orono, 12/8.
• 1 hen Barrow’s Goldeneyes (FOS), Shawmut Dam from River Road, Benton, 12/9.
• 1+ Lapland Longspur, ~20 Snow Buntings, and 75-100 Horned Larks, Wyman Road, Benton, 12/9.

• 6-7+ FISH CROWS in Auburn, 12/11. A small colony of Fish Crows have been frequenting Auburn (and sometimes across the river in Lewiston) for several years now. Two may have overwintered here last year, although I stopped seeing them mid-winter around Anniversary Park and the Auburn/Lewiston riverfront where I tend to bird at that time of year. This winter, at least 2 have been reliable at Anniversary Park, with one eating ash seeds across the Little Androscoggin, and another calling to it from the nearby neighborhood. Then, at least 2 more began calling from further up the Little Andy. All four were audible when I left, and then I walked the Auburn Riverwalk.  There, two more were feeding contently in the Bradford/Callory Pears at the Hilton Garden Inn. Walking back south, I encountered another contently-feeding bird eating ash seeds near the pedestrian bridge. Crows can fly faster than I walk, but there was not a perceptible movement or flow of either the Fish or the abundant American Crows at the time. It’s possible there were only 4, but my guess is there were 7 individuals encountered today. I’ll be keeping my ears open all winter to see if they stick around! Of course, with many thousands of American Crows coalescing to roost here it can be a needle in a haystack to find them and see if they are setting up a resident population (most of Maine’s Fish Crows are migratory, but it seems that outlier colonies – like here and Bangor – seem less likely to migrate. A couple of few individuals of the larger Brunswick colony also seem to stick around now. Will it be long before Fish Crows are a widespread, year-round resident of the state? Photo of one of them above.

• 2 Red Crossbills in Bradbury Mountain State Park, 12/12, were my only Reds anywhere in the state this week.