Tag Archives: Red-necked Phalarope

 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.

2025 Fall Half-Day Pelagic with Freeport Wild Bird Supply and Cap’n Fish’s Cruises.

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Considering most people would have been happy with a single Northern Fulmar, our tally of at least 18 was fantastic…but the photo opportunities of this winter visitor could not be beat,
including of this much less common dark morph.

Fall pelagics in the Gulf of Maine are notoriously hit or miss. Suffice to say, our Half-Day Pelagic out of Boothbay Harbor on 10/5, with our partner, Cap’n Fish’s Cruises, was most definitely a hit!

And not just because of the ridiculously pleasant weather! The birding was great, the marine mammals were fantastic, and I don’t think a single person was seasick! What a difference a year makes.

We departed the harbor at 9:00am, with clear and calm skies, less than a foot of swell offshore, and high hopes (I had a productive scouting trip on a whale watch two days prior). But even with the always-lofty expectations of pelagic trips, we would not be disappointed this day.

Black Guillemots are always a nice way to begin and end all of our local pelagic trips since they
are usually only seen in inshore waters.

Perhaps the one complaint I had was that we didn’t get all that far offshore! In fact, our furthest point was only about 20 miles south-southwest of Monhegan. There was just too much to look at, and every time we were about to head further offshore, something else of note appeared.

We started picking up a few seabirds, including our first of what would be a remarkable total of mostly juvenile Atlantic Puffins, the first of our sought-after Northern Fulmars, scattered Red-necked Phalaropes (mostly), along with a few Great Shearwaters, all around Murray Hole, but we hit paydirt right around the edge of the incoming shipping channel to Portland.

Great Shearwaters and Northern Fulmars were constant companions in our deeper water time.
All of the photographed phalaropes so far that we encountered were Red-necked Phalaropes, so the checklist has been adjusted accordingly, even though we believe we had some Reds over the course of the trip.

There, in about 500-600 feet of water (but otherwise “in the middle of nowhere”), our chum slick of fish oil and pork fat (generously donated by Durham’s Old Crow Ranch!) worked its magic. Will Broussard, with both the honor and burden of his first time as Chummer, was the hero, bringing Northern Fulmars and Great Shearwaters in for close looks.]

Passerines would appear on occasion, a total of somewhere between 4 and 8 White-throated Sparrows, including one that rode right back to port with us in the cabin. A male Purple Finch took a break on the boat, resting and preening on our radar, as a female did later. Passerines are always a fun addition to a pelagic birding experience.

Less fun, perhaps, but most amazing and insightful, however, was watching a Peregrine Falcon chasing a passerine, driving it into the water, and then, unable to snatch it off the surface, moved on, leaving an Ovenbird helpless on the ocean’s surface, likely becoming waterlogged and hypothermic. It was impossible for us not to, so we attempted a water rescue, with the crew putting in a valiant effort to save the hapless warbler. Unfortunately, it perished, but we had to try!

This might be one of the most incredible photos of non-pelagics ever taken on a pelagic. Awesome work, Bill!

Repeated sightings of Atlantic Puffins continued to surprise us, and we spent some time with two different Fin Whales, including getting to see one doing a little lunge-feeding. While we looked at whales, birds were all around us, thanks to the chum, so we had something for everyone.

A big and bright-billed adult Atlantic Puffin.
Both of our Razorbills were hanging out with juvenile puffins.

While this was of course a birding tour, we made sure to enjoy the marine mammals we encountered, along with a Blue Shark, but the highlight for most everyone was the incredible and awesome experience we had with a small pod of 25-30 Common Dolphins. Amid all of our seabird activity, the pod approached us in the glass-calm warblers. Captain Nate added a little speed to build up a wake, and the dolphins had come to play. They rode the bow, did some surfing, and otherwise created constant “oohs and aahs.”  The photos don’t quite do it justice…it was really a special experience, a life mammal for most of the crew, and one of the best dolphin encounters I have experienced in the Gulf of Maine.

Puffins and fulmars, Fin Whales and dolphins, and all on just the most ridiculous weather possible for a fall pelagic in Maine! We’ll see you on board next year!

I want to thank Captain Nate for his skilled maneuvering of the boat – even more remarkable as this was his first pelagic, too! Naturalist Trinity shared the narration duties with me, taking over for local landmarks and non-feathered marine life, and Valentin and Joe took care of everyone at the galley – and did the work of our attempted Ovenbird rescue. Thanks to my team, chummer Will Broussard, and our checklist-keeper Noah Gibb.  And a special thanks to Tabor and Seamus at Cap’n Fish’s for working with me to make this memorable trip a reality.

Subadult Northern Gannet

Here’s the complete trip list, including birds seen while docked before departure marled with an *. We know counts of several species, such as Common Eider and Herring Gull are likely extremely low, but we chose to be conservative with our Northern Fulmar and Great Shearwater tallies as we covered a relatively small area during our deeper-water time, and the chumming kept birds with us, and perhaps, coming back for more.

267 Common Eider

89 Surf Scoter

3 White-winged Scoter

36 Black Scoter

25 Rock Pigeon*

54 Red-necked Phalaropes

21 unidentified phalaropes

1 Pomarine Jaeger

28 ATLANTIC PUFFINS

15 Black Guillemots

2 Razorbills

1 Black-legged Kittiwake (only spotted from photos later, unfortunately)

10 Laughing Gulls

3 Ring-billed Gulls

385 American Herring Gulls

86 Great Black-backed Gulls

4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

1 Red-throated Loon

14 Common Loons

18 NORTHER FULMARS

55 Great Shearwaters

13 Northern Gannets

8 Great Cormorants

165 Double-crested Cormorants

3 Great Blue Herons

1 Bald Eagle

1 Peregrine Falcon

2 American Crows*

4 House Sparrows*

2 Purple Finches

1 Dark-eyed Junco

8 White-throated Sparrows

1 OVENBIRD

Mammals:

2 Fin Whales

2 Minke Whales

30+ Common Dolphin

X  Harbor Porpoise

X  Gray Seal

X Harbor Seal

This Week’s (Plus) Highlights and Shorebird High Counts, 8/19 – 8/28/2025

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For the last 13 summers now, hybrid herons have occurred in Scarborough Marsh, with one individual continuing this summer. Likely also present last summer, this bird is significantly darker on the neck and back than the only bird present from about 2021 to 2023, possibly suggesting yet another backcross (Gen 4?) with Tricolored Heron (especially when observed with its breeding plumes earlier in the summer). It does appear quite similar to my proposed 2nd or 3erd generation Tricolored Heron x Snowy Egret x Little Egret that was present from 2016 to at least 2020, so it could possibly by the same bird (Labeled 3A in my article Hybrid Herons of Maine from my North American Birds article in 2021, Volume 72, Number 3. At this point, I believe the hybrids are best described as “Tricolored Heron x small white Egretta species,” or, “Patches” as I dubbed it and most birders refer to it now. Whatever it is, this year’s individual cooperated for me along the Eastern Road Trail on the 26th.

It was another busy period for me, with most of my mornings spent only birding our property before work. Luckily, the yard has been fantastic as it turns out to be this time of year, with a nice variety of migrants, and lots of local breeders fattening up on our plentiful Black Cherry trees. Some of the migrants detected this week included a Prairie Warbler on 8/19, a Swainson’s Thrush on 8/20, Canada Warbler on 8/21, Cape May Warbler 8/24-25, a single Common Nighthawk at dusk on 8/26, and a BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER on 8/27.

Otherwise, it was a weekend trip to Bar Harbor and a shorebird little-big day on the 26th that kept me going, with the following observations of note over the past 10 days.

  • 1 continuing COMMON GALLINULE, Essex Marsh, Bangor, 8/22 (with Bill Thompson).
  • The big adventure this week was the 12-hour pelagic/whale watch out of Bar Harbor with Flukes and Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co to Cashes Ledge in the Gulf of Maine. I’ll leave the complete checklist to others, but my highlights from the trip were the total of 33* Leach’s Storm-Petrels, repeated great view of a total of 15* Pomarine Jaegers, the feeding frenzy of Wilson’s Storm-Petrels (day total of 1,573*) at Ammen Ledge, and the scattered flocks of Red-necked Phalaropes.

Pomarine Jaeger (above) and Great Shearwater (below)

  • 2 Horned Grebes (oversummering or really early?) and 2 Red Crossbills, Hollingsworth Trail, Petit Manan NWR, Steuben, 8/24 (with Bill Thompson).
  • 2 FORSTER’S TERNS, The Pool, Biddeford Pool, 8/26.
  • 2-3 continuing adult RED-NECKED GREBES, Ocean Avenue, Biddeford Pool, 8/26.
  • 1 continuing postulated TRICOLORED HERON X SMALL WHITE EGRETTA SPP, aka “Patches,” Eastern Road Trail, Scarborough Marsh, 8/26. Photo and notes above.

Fueled by a 19 shorebird species day on the 26th, I tallied 22 species of shorebirds this week, with my high counts over these past 10 days (see last week’s post for explanation) being the following:

  • American Oystercatcher: 7 (4 ad, 3 juv), Hill’s Beach, Biddeford, 8/26 (with Noah Gibb and Stacey Huth).
  • Black-bellied Plover: 156, The Pool, Biddeford Pool, 8/26.
  • Killdeer: 46, Crystal Spring Farm, Brunswick, 8/25.
  • Semipalmated Plover: 150+, Eastern Road Trail, Scarborough Marsh, 8/26.
  • Piping Plover: 15, Hill’s Beach, Biddeford, 8/26 (With Noah Gibb and Stacey Huth).
  • Whimbrel: 2, The Pool, 8/26.
  • Ruddy Turnstone: 12*, Mt Desert Rock via Cashes Ledge boat trip, 8/23.
  • Red Knot: 8, The Pool, 8/26 and 3, Wharton Point, Brunswick, 8/25.
  • Sanderling: 5, Hill’s Beach, 8/26.
  • Dunlin: 1 adult, Wharton Point, 8/25 (early).
  • Least Sandpiper: 98, Eastern Road Trail, 8/26.
  • White-rumped Sandpiper: 10+, The Pool, 8/26.
  • Pectoral Sandpiper: 2, Eastern Road Trail, 8/26.
  • Semipalmated Sandpiper: 512, Wharton Point, 8/25.
  • Short-billed Dowitcher: 18, Hill’s Beach, 8/26.
  • Spotted Sandpiper: 2, Ocean Ave, Biddeford Pool, 8/26.
  • Solitary Sandpiper: 1, Rte 136, Durham, 8/26.
  • Lesser Yellowlegs: 19, Eastern Road Trail, 8/26.
  • “Eastern” Willet: 8, The Pool, 8/26.
  • Greater Yellowlegs: 41, Wharton Point, 8/25.
  • RED-NECKED PHALAROPE: 218*, Cashes Ledge boat trip, 8/23.
  • RED PHALAROPE: 1* but I had at least 3 more, Cash’s Ledge boat trip, 8/23.

*Official trip tallies kept by others, although my personal numbers would likely have been similar.

Recent Highlights, 8/26 – 9/2/24

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Jeannette and I spotted these four Red-necked Phalaropes from the Casco Bay Ferry Mailboat run with visiting family on the 26th.

It was a very busy week for me, but when I did get out, birding was productive – especially in the backyard which hosted at least 15 species of warblers this week. Meanwhile, shorebirding continues to be hot. My observations of note over the past 8 days included the following

  • 1 Black Scoter, 2 White-winged Scoters, and 2 Blue-winged Teal with Common Eiders, Reid State Park, Georgetown, 8/27. As scoters begin to increase in September, I’ll forgo reporting the “oversummering” groups from now on.
  • 1 TRICOLORED HERON, Mill River Park, Thomaston, 8/29 (with Jeannette).
  • 2 SANDHILL CRANES, Mayall Road, Gray/New Gloucester, 8/30.
  • 1 Northern Pintail (first of fall) and 1 juv, Little Blue Heron, etc, Eastern Road Trail, Scarborough Marsh, 8/30.
  • 3 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Seawall Beach, Phippsburg, 9/2 (with Ed Hess).

My shorebird high counts for 18 species this week were solid considering I didn’t make it to Biddeford Pool (or Pine Point) during this period. Focusing on mostly lesser-visited hotspots, I found several goodies and had a few decent high counts.

  • Black-bellied Plover: 67, Wharton Point, Brunswick, 9/2 (with Ed Hess).
  • Killdeer: 43, Colonial Acres Sod Farm, Gorham, 8/30.
  • Semipalmated Plover: 100+, Thomaston Public Landing, 8/29 (with Jeannette).
  • HUDSONIAN GODWIT: 2 adults, Wharton Point, 9/2 (with Ed Hess)
  • Ruddy Turnstone: 1, Reid State Park, Georgetown, 8/27.
  • RED KNOT: 1 juv, Wharton Point, 9/2 (with Ed Hess).
  • Sanderling: 82, Seawall Beach, Phippsburg, 9/2 (with Ed Hess).
  • BAIRD’S SANDPIPER: 1 juv, Seawall Beach, 9/2 (with Ed Hess).
  • Least Sandpiper: 92, Eastern Road Trail, Scarborough Marsh, 8/30.
  • White-rumped Sandpiper: 3, Eastern Road Trail, Scarborough Marsh, 8/30.
  • Pectoral Sandpiper: 3, Eastern Road Trail, Scarborough Marsh, 8/30.
  • Semipalmated Sandpiper: 1500, Thomaston Public Landing, 8/29 (with Jeannette).
  • Short-billed Dowitcher: 16, Walsh Preserve, Freeport, 8/31 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
  • Spotted Sandpiper: 5, Reid State Park, Georgetown, 8/27.
  • Solitary Sandpiper: 1, several locations this week.
  • Lesser Yellowlegs: 45, Walsh Preserve, Freeport, 8/31 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
  • Greater Yellowlegs: 24, Walsh Preserve, 8/31 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
  • RED-NECKED PHALAROPE: 4, Casco Bay between Little Chebeague and Cow Islands from the Casco Bay Lines Mailboat run, 8/26 (with Jeannette).

Recent Highlights, 5/11– 5/17/2024

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John Lorenc and I finally caught up with this continuing WHITE-WINGED DOVE at Donna Cundy’s feeders on Monhegan Island in our brief visit on the 17th.  It appeared minutes after we walked away for the” last time,” but we were alerted by friends and raced back. My photos have a twig in front of that beautiful powder blue eyering, so I’m borrowing Kristen’s photo.

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

  • 15 species of warblers, led by only about 20 Black-and-white Warblers and about 15 Northern Parulas, Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, 5/12 (with Down East Adventures Spring Songbird Workshop group).
  • 1-2 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Evergreen Cemetery, 5/12 (with Down East Adventures Spring Songbird Workshop group).
  • 15 species of warblers, led by 9 Ovenbirds and 7 American Redstarts, our property in Durham, 5/13.
  • 1 Louisiana Waterthrush, Suckfish Brook Conservation Area, Falmouth, 5/13 (with Jeannette).
  • 18 species of warblers (FOY), led by 40+ Yellow-rumped and 13 Common Yellowthroats, Florida Lake Park, Freeport, 5/14 (with Jeannette).
  • 15 species of warblers, led by 10+ each of Ovenbirds and Black-throated Green Warblers, our property in Durham, 5/14.
  • 15 species of warblers, led by 19 Common Yellowthroats and 10 Ovenbirds, Florida Lake Park, 5/15.
  • 5 Red Crossbills, around the store’s yard, 5/15. More impressive was the 23 that Jeannette had fly over early in the day on the 18th.
  • A very productive ferry crossing from Port Clyde to Monhegan on 5/17 included 4-6 ATLANTIC PUFFINS (FOY), a group of 6 (or possibly 9) RED-NECKED PHALAROPES (FOY), 6 Black Scoters, several Long-tailed Ducks, etc. (with John Lorenc, Jess Bishop, Ron Joseph, Kristen Lindquist, Bill Thompson, et al).  On the trip back, John and I had a total of 10 ATLANTIC PUFFINS and more Long-tailed Ducks.
  • 1 continuing WHITE-WINGED DOVE (photo above) and 1 female-type SUMMER TANAGER, Monhegan Island, 5/17 (with John Lorenc).

Additional personal first-of-years this week also included:

  • 1 Blackpoll Warbler, Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, 5/12 (with Down East Adventures Spring Songbird Workshop group).
  • 1 Red-eyed Vireo, Evergreen Cemetery, 5/12 (with Down East Adventures Spring Songbird Workshop group).
  • 1 House Wren, Evergreen Cemetery, 5/12 (with Down East Adventures Spring Songbird Workshop group).
  • 2 Bay-breasted Warblers, Florida Lake Park, 5/14 (with Jeannette).
  • 2 Eastern Wood-Pewees, Morgan Meadow WMA, 5/16.
  • 4 Laughing Gull, ferry from Port Clyde to Monhegan, 5/17 (with John Lorenc).
  • 4+ Indigo Buntings, Monhegan Island, 5/17 (with John Lorenc).

It was a great week of birding on our Durham property this week, including local breeding birds on territory often put on a show. Jeannette photographed this Yellow Warbler on our property on the 15th, for example.

Tours and Events:

  • There will not be a Saturday Morning Birdwalk on 5/25 as I’ll be on Monhegan with our tour group. 

This Week’s Highlights, 9/2-9/8, 2023

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It was a good week for Caspian Terns, and it’s always a treat to see one sitting still. This adult was on the Lubec Flats on the 4th.

A busy week of birding included our annual late summer/early fall trip to Washington County and a bunch of guiding, producing the following observations of note:

  • 25-30 Common Nighthawks, over Chebeague Island in the mid-morning, 9/3 (with The Chebeague & Cumberland Land Trust birdwalk group).
  • 1 juvenile LITTLE BLUE HERON, 1 CASPIAN TERN, 1 Great Egret, 5 Surf Scoters, etc, Lubec Flats, Lubec, 9/4 (with Jeannette).
  • A relatively slow morning in Head Harbor Passage from Eastport on 9/5 (with Beth Edmonds, Dan Nickerson, Jeannette, and friends) was most noteworthy for the continuing large numbers of COMMON MURRES. I tallied 109, but that seems very conservative. We only had 4 Razorbills and 1 adult Lesser Black-backed Gull. Quiet time with just us and a Fin Whale more than made up for it though.
  • The afternoon whale watch on Eastport Windjammers to the same waters that day (with Beth Edmonds, Dan Nickerson, and Jeannette) yielded an adult LITTLE GULL, 3 CASPIAN TERNS, 1 late ARCTIC TERN, 2 Great Shearwaters, etc. Incredibly experience with 2 Fin Whales, 1 Humpback Whale, and 1 Minke Whale though.

We always enjoy our quality time with Black-legged Kittiwakes in the Head Harbor Passage area at this time of year.

  • 2 American Pipits (FOF), Sanborn Cove, Machiasport, 9/6 (with Jeannette). Interestingly, we had pipits at a number of places throughout the day, with a high count of 22 at Addison Marsh, Addison.
  • 1 Great Egret, Addison Marsh, 9/6 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 Great Egret, Essex Marsh, Bangor, 9/6 (with Jeannette).
  • 3 SANDHILL CRANES, Plymouth Pond, Plymouth, 9/6 (with Jeannette).
  • High count for warbler species in our Durham backyard this week was 11 on 9/7 (with Angela Woodside).
  • 3 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Popham Beach State Park, Phippsburg, 9/8 (with clients from Texas).
  • Great whale-watching trumped the bird-watching again this week with 3 lunge-feeding Fin Whales off of Boothbay Harbor aboard Cap’n Fish’s Cruises on 9/8 (with clients from Texas). 3 RED-NECKED PHALAROPES, 1 Great Shearwater, 1 adult Lesser Black-backed Gull, 10 Wilson’s Storm-Petrels and making it back to shore before the violent thunderstorms add to the success of the trip!

Meanwhile, my shorebird high counts this week were as follows. While reduced in diversity by a lack of visitation to southern Maine shorebird hotspots, Downeast yielded some excellent numbers and I found some uncommon species in unexpected places for a goodly total of 18 species (“shorebird season” is far from over!):

  • AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER: 1, Popham Beach State Park, Phippsburg, 9/8 (with clients from Texas).
  • Black-bellied Plover: 75, Lubec Flats, Lubec, 9/4 (with Jeannette).
  • Killdeer: 56, Mayall Road, Gray, 9/6 (with Jeannette).
  • Semipalmated Plover: 600, Lubec Flats, 9/4 (with Jeannette).
  • Ruddy Turnstone: 1, flying 10 miles off of Boothbay Harbor, 9/8 (with clients from Texas). Odd sighting of a single juvenile bird circling the boat repeatedly in hazy conditions where the mainland was not visible.
  • Sanderling: 24, Popham Beach State Park, 9/8 (with clients from Texas)
  • BAIRD’S SANDPIPER: 1, Yarmouth Town Landing, 9/2 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
  • Least Sandpiper: 25+ Sanborn Cove, Machiasport, 9/5 (with Jeannette).
  • White-rumped Sandpiper: 125!, Lubec Flats, 9/4.
  • Semipalmated Sandpiper: 2500-3000!, Lubec Flats, 9/4 (with Jeannette).
  • WESTERN SANDPIPER: 1 juv, Lubec Flats, 9/4 (with Jeannette).
  • Short-billed Dowitcher: 4, Lubec Flats, 9/4 (with Jeannette).
  • American Woodcock: 1, over Rte 1, Pembroke, at dusk on 9/5 (with Jeannette).
  • Spotted Sandpiper: 1, multiple locations.
  • Solitary Sandpiper: 1, over our yard in Durham, 9/2.
  • Lesser Yellowlegs: 9, Yarmouth Town Landing, 9/2 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
  • Greater Yellowlegs: 2, Red Point Nature Preserve, Lubec, 9/4 (with Jeannette).
  • RED-NECKED PHALAROPE: 7, Passamaquoddy Bay, Eastport-New Brunswick, 9/5 (with Beth Edmonds, Dan Nickerson, Jeannette, and friends).

Seal Island Tour Report, July 2023

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On July 22nd we boarded the Isle au Haut Boat Service’s The Otter for our special annual charter out of Stonington to the raucous seabird colony on Seal Island.  Our partnership began while “Troppy” the world-famous Red-billed Tropicbird that called the area home for 17 years. Unfortunately, Troppy failed to appear last year, but we ran the trip anyway, and had an amazing time!

2022 Seal Island Trip Report (The “not-so-search for Troppy), 7/23.

So we did it again this year. There’s just so much life out there, and it’s such an amazing place to visit, and so I needed an excuse for my annual visit. And sure, if that wily Tufted Puffin that’s been wandering the Gulf for the last two summers wants to be the new Troppy, that would be fine, too. But for now, we headed offshore with all sorts of high hopes.

As we left Stonington Harbor, the fog began to thicken, but not before we spotted a group of 15 Red-necked Phalaropes sitting on the water. Captain Tracy did a great job getting us closer, and then inching up to them when they relocated a short distance away. It’s a treat to get so close to phalaropes on the open water.

A handful of Wilson’s Storm-Petrels were bouncing around, but the action picked up as usual as we approached Saddleback Ledge Light. A 1st summer Great Cormorant was surveying the scene, and our first Atlantic Puffin circled around us for a couple of passes.  After we ourselves circled the small island twice, we turned for Seal and immediately ran into dense fog that had slowly been creeping in. The tradeoff for calm waters is often fog, and it was pea soup today.

Not surprisingly, we saw little en route, but soon enough, we were out at Seal. While we heard – and even smelled – the tern colony before we could see the island, once along its shores, visibility was adequate. Arctic Terns put on a particularly good show for us, with several near the boat feeding and bathing. Arctic and Common Tern fledglings were everywhere, and we enjoyed their antics.  There were plenty of Atlantic Puffins in the water and on land, including several groups that were remarkably confiding as we sided up to them in the glass-calm waters. And Black Guillemots were numerous, and very busy.

Razorbills were fledgling rapidly, so we only found two on the island, but later, we had great looks at one on the water, too.

We circled around the southern end, spending some time observing the state’s last colony of Great Cormorants (and Double-crested); nests were brimming with chicks! 

We kept an eye out for migrant shorebirds in addition to the locally breeding Spotted Sandpipers, but visibility remained a challenge: 4 Short-billed Dowitchers, 3 Least Sandpipers, and some unidentified peeps was the best we could do.  A Great Shearwater made a close, but brief, pass as we were on the east side of the island before vanishing back into the fog.

Somehow, it was even foggier on our way back, so seabird sightings – even with a second visit to Saddleback Ledge – were limited to just a couple more Wilson’s Storm-Petrels.

So yeah, the fog was annoying, and did impact photos and our search for the next mega-rarity. But it also produced one of the smoothest boat rides you’ll ever be on in the Gulf of Maine and yielded lots of close puffins and some great looks at phalaropes.  And besides, any day birding from a boat is a good day in our book! Especially when a few days prior we thought this trip was going to be cancelled due to wind and thunderstorms.

Harbor Seals on the way out of the harbor.

This Week’s Highlights, 7/22-28/2023

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White-winged Crossbills were amazingly abundant in Northern Aroostook County during our visit last week (see below).

Returning back from a little vacation to the crown of Maine followed by some time in New Brunswick, I apologize for the late report. Last week was a busy and productive week of birding for me, with the following observations of note.

  • Seal Island Tour, 7/22:

15 RED-NECKED PHALAROPES inside of Saddleback Ledge; 1 1st summer Great Cormorant, Saddleback Ledge Light; 3 Razorbills still at Seal Island; 1 Great Shearwater on trip back. Dense fog impacted our birding all day, but we had a fantastic performance from Atlantic Puffins and Arctic Terns in particular, and the fog cleared enough to enjoy the number of juvenile Great Cormorants in the growing colony on the island’s south end.

  • 2 Red Crossbills, over our yard in Durham, 7/23. Interestingly, we didn’t have a single Red Crossbill in Aroostook County (unless they were all drowned out by all of the White-wings!). However, the Reds in our area seem to be focusing on coastal Red Spruce.
  • Aroostook County WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS, 7/24-7/27 (with Terez Fraser, John Lorence, and Jeannette).  Wow, incredible! Over three days of birding from Fort Kent to Stockholm, we conservatively estimated observing about 50 per HOUR while in appropriate habitat!  Our high count was 150-200 total along Square Lake Road in Sinclair on 7/26, with single flock of 70-75 individuals!
  • EVENING GROSBEAKS: just a couple heard here and there, including 1 on Nixon Siding Road, 7/24, 2 at Christina Reservoir, 7/26; and 2 at Square Lake Road, 7/26.
  • BOREAL CHICKADEES: Mostly heard, but some were unusually conspicuous, especially one (of 3) at Square Lake Road on 7/26 and 1 of 3 at Moscovic Road, Stockholm, 7/27 (all with Terez Fraser, John Lorence, and Jeannette).
  • Lake Josephine duck tallies (7/25 with John Lorenc and Jeannette): 125+ Gadwall (including juveniles of all ages); 1 drake American Wigeon, two family groups of Blue-winged Teal, 75+ Ring-necked Ducks, 1 American Bittern, etc.  Numbers were lower when Jeannette and I visited on the 27th, likely due to Bald Eagle presence. 
  • 3 adult Bonaparte’s Gulls, Arnold Brook Beach Recreation Area, 7/25 (with John Lorenc and Jeannette).
  • Additional species from Square Lake Road in Stockholm on 7/26 (with John Lorenc, Terez Fraser, and Jeannette): 1 Bonaparte’s Gull, 3+ Bay-breasted Warblers, 1 Mourning Warbler, 1 Olive-sided Flycatcher, 1 Lincoln’s Sparrow, etc.
  • 1 female American Wigeon with 10 chicks, Long Lake, St. Agatha, 7/26 (with Terez Fraser, John Lorence, and Jeannette).
  • 3 Common Nighthawks, over St. John River at dusk, Fort Kent, 7/26 (with Terez Fraser, John Lorence, and Jeannette).
  • 150+ Ring-necked Ducks, 6 Pied-billed Grebes, etc, Christina Reservoir, 7/27 (with Jeannette).

UPCOMING TOURS:

Most of the White-winged Crossbills we saw were in flight, or calling and singing in the distance. This male tee’d up nicely, albeit in unfortunate light. We also watched only one group feeding, and they appeared to be eating mostly buds of Tamarack (and maybe some young or old cones).

This Week’s Highlights, May 27-June 3, 2022

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After trying to string one on Monhegan, an Acadian Flycatcher found me!  A friend heard it first as he joined me for a bird survey on private, posted property in Durham on 6/2.  This was an incredible record for Androscoggin County and really shocked me.  It continued at least as of the next morning.
This photo nicely shows the very long (for an Empid primary projection, the greenish tone to the upperparts, the complete eyering, and the large, wide and orange mandible. It took a while to see all of the pertinent details,
even though the song is so distinctive.
When we first saw it, the appearance of no green above and no yellow below through us for a loop, but once we got into the shade with it, those diagnostic tones were readily apparent.
  • My annual Monhegan Spring Migration Tour took place on 5/27 through 5/30, followed by another day on the island with Jeannette. It was very slow, and significant highlights were few. However, it was still, well, birding on Monhegan for five days, so I am not complaining. I’ll have a full tour report and checklist in the coming days.  Highlights included daily crippling views of Black-billed Cuckoo; a CLAY-COLORED SPARROW that we found on 5/30 but was seen by all on 5/31; 3 WILLETS that arrived from the open ocean south of Lobster Cove before landing in the harbor on 5/31; a good Atlantic Puffin commuting flight in the morning of 5/31, and an immature male ORCHARD ORIOLE each day.

Other non-Monhegan and non-flycatcher highlights this week included:

  • 2 RED-NECKED PHALAROPES, Hardy Boat from Monhegan to New Harbor, 5/31 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH, Mill Brook Preserve, Westbrook, 6/1.
  • 3 AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHERS, 1 Dunlin, 8 Ruddy Turnstones, 26 Black-bellied Plovers, 1 adult Little Blue Heron, etc, Pine Point, Scarborough, 6/1.

It’s June, so we are busy with events and tours here at the store and beyond:

  • Tomorrow is Zeiss Day at the store, with events including a whole range of products to try on our Saturday Morning Birdwalk, free optics cleaning, and a digiscoping demonstration. Check it out here.
  • Our first pelagic with our partners Cap’n Fish’s Cruises out of Boothbay Harbor will run on Monday, June 6th. It includes a visit to Eastern Egg Rock and chumming deeper offshore.  Info here.

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)