Tag Archives: Stilt Sandpiper

This Week’s Highlights, July 9- July 15, 2022.

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The local “bird of the summer,” Henslow’s Sparrow, continues this week in Brunswick. (Note: photographed only via patience, no playback or other harassments).

Another dandy week of summertime birding produced the following highlights for me.

  • 2 continuing HENSLOW’S SPARROWS, Crystal Spring Farm, Brunswick. Quite a bit of my birding time this week was spent enjoying this exceptional visitor.  I saw it on 7/9 with our Saturday Morning Birdwalk group for our 246th all-time Saturday Morning Birdwalk bird!  On 7/11, Jeannette and I, along with two other birders saw both individuals at the same time for the first time – as two scopes had both birds in view at once in the opposite direction here. No disputing that!  However, the echo and acoustic issues are very apparent here – at one point, we could easily have argued there were four birds! Interestingly, on 7/12, Cameron Cox and I were unable to confirm the presence of two birds, as was the case in my visits prior to the 11th.  Phone-scoped video from the 11th here.
  • HYBRID HERONS of Scarborough Marsh. On 7/11, Cameron Cox and I spotted both continuing birds. The proposed Snowy Egret x Tricolored Heron x Little Egret was off of Eastern Road, while the proposed Snowy Egret x Tricolored Heron x Snowy Egret was incredibly close and cooperative at Pelreco Marsh. Video of the latter bird here.
  • 1 subadult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL, Pine Point Beach, Scarborough, 7/11 (with Cameron Cox).
  • 2 Fish Crows, Point Sebago Resort (private), Casco, 7/14 (with Point Sebago Resort birdwalk group).  Are these two from the Windham colony or outliers of this slowly expanding species?
  • Eastern Egg Rock/Whale-watching/and mini-pelagic tour out of Boothbay Harbor with our partners Cap’n Fish’s Cruises, yielded the following highlights in addition to a fantastic show at Eastern Egg Rock from Atlantic Puffins; Roseate, Common, and Arctic Terns; Black Guillemots; etc): 2 Razorbills on Eastern Egg, a mere two Wilson’s Storm-Petrels and handfuls of Northern Gannets offshore, but an insane show from a breaching Humpback Whale. And for the record, the Tufted Puffin appeared there a mere 3 hours after our boat left.

Each summer, I begin reporting my “shorebird high counts this week” here. Really, I do it for my own note-keeping and organization, but I hope at least a few folks find value in it. This year, I am starting it early, even though diversity is expectedly low and I didn’t get to a lot of shorebird sites this week. However, numbers are picking up dramatically, and this bears watching. Unfortunately, large numbers of adult shorebirds in early July could portend widespread breeding failure. Therefore, I will organize my counts here so I can compare it to previous seasons.

  • Black-bellied Plover: 2 first-summer, Pine Point Co-op, Scarborough, 7/11 (with Cameron Cox).
  • Killdeer: 35, Crystal Spring Farm, Brunswick, 7/12 (with Cameron Cox).
  • Piping Plover: 4+, Western Beach from Pine Point Beach, 7/11 (with Cameron Cox).
  • STILT SANDPIPER (FOF, Early!): 2, Pelreco Marsh, Scarborough Marsh, 7/11 (with Cameron Cox).
  • Least Sandpiper: 60, Eastern Road Trail, Scarborough Marsh, 7/11 (with Cameron Cox)
  • Pectoral Sandpiper (early, FOF): 2, Eastern Road Trail, 7/11 (with Cameron Cox).
  • Semipalmated Sandpiper: 15, Eastern Road Trail, 7/11 (with Cameron Cox).
  • Short-billed Dowitcher: 60, Eastern Road Trail, 7/11 (with Cameron Cox).
  • Spotted Sandpiper: 2, Eastern Egg Rock, 7/15 (with Cap’n Fish’s Cruises Pufifn/Whale Watch Combo tour group.)
  • Lesser Yellowlegs: 30, Eastern Road Trail, 7/11 (with Cameron Cox).
  • “Eastern” Willet: 20+ Pine Point, Scarborough, 7/11 (with Cameron Cox)
  • Greater Yellowlegs: 20, Eastern Road Trail, 7/11 (with Cameron Cox).

Our next boat trip is on Saturday, July 23rd to Seal Island. No “Troppy” this year, but you know we’ll be looking hard for the Tufted Puffin! A limited amount of space on this extended charter is available here.

The stellar Roseate Tern show continues at Pine Point Beach. Cameron Cox and I enjoyed
a nice photo session with them there on the 11th.

Biddeford in Shorebird Season

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“Shorebird Season” is in full swing, and the greater Biddeford Pool area is one of the best places in the state to observe and study shorebirds.  Although numbers usually pale in comparison to the Lubec Flats and Scarborough Marsh, and diversity usually lags well behind the latter as well, the area often provides some of the best opportunities to study shorebirds, between Ocean Avenue and Biddeford Pool beach on the high tide, and Hill’s Beach at low tide.

Today, Phil McCormack and I birded the area thoroughly, beginning with viewing of the extensive mudflats of The Pool itself.  Birds were already well dispersed by the time we arrived this morning, so it was a challenge to really study and sort through the masses, but our tally was as follows:
196 Short-billed Dowitchers
~75 Semipalmated Sandpipers
57 “Eastern” Willets (plus one distant bird that may have been a “Western”)
~ 20 Black-bellied Plovers
~10 Semipalmated Plovers
4 Whimbrels (first of fall for me)
4 Least Sandpipers
2 Greater Yellowlegs
1 Lesser Yellowlegs
1 Ruddy Turnstone

At dead low, Biddeford Pool Beach was shorebird-free (which is often the case, as birds take advantage of the ephemeral mud and sand flats of The Pool and Hill’s Beach), but as we birded the neighborhood and Ocean Avenue, we picked up a few birds of note, led by 2 breeding-plumaged Red-necked Grebes.  Three Black-crowned Night-Herons and a few migrant passerines such as two Eastern Kingbirds and an Indigo Bunting were also noted.

As the tide began to turn, we headed over to Hill’s Beach, and hit it perfectly!  Here, the rapidly approaching water pushed birds towards us, and concentrated them in the highest spots for last-minute feeding.  We were able to carefully and critically sort through each individual, checking for rarities and studying variation.  Our effort turned up a few “good” birds, led by a trio of “Hendersonii” Short-billed Dowitchers (the prairie subspecies), a fairly-rare-but-regular stray to Maine.

The third bird we found, was the brightest of the lot, and was very obvious with its rufous coloration throughout its underparts.
HendersoniiSBDO1,HillsBeach,7-28-13_edited-1 HendersoniiSBDO1a,HillsBeach,7-28-13_edited-1
 (Phone-scoped Photos)

The other two were quite a bit paler, so were a little tougher to tease out.   I managed a crummy photo of one of them.
HendersoniiSBDO2,HillsBeach,7-28-13_edited-1
(Phone-scoped Photo).

Another highlight was a single adult Stilt Sandpiper, along with an adult Red Knot.  The complete tally was as follows:
119 Semipalmated Sandpipers
114 Short-billed Dowitchers (ssp griseus)
6 Black-bellied Plovers
3 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS (ssp HENDERSONII)
2 Ruddy Turnstones
2 Sanderlings
2 Least Sandpipers
1 STILT SANDPIPER
1 Red Knot

So if the shorebird show was quite good, the tern show was simply great.  At least a hundred Common Terns, including many begging juveniles were present, along with at least 30 Roseate Terns.  A few Least Terns also joined the fray, including this adult standing watch on its fledgling.
LETEwFL,HillsBeach,7-28-13_edited-1
(Phone-scoped photo).