Tag Archives: Wilson’s Snipe

This Week’s Highlights 11/29 – 12/5/2025.

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This Nashville Warbler (above) was one of two still on Peak’s Island as of the 1st, and this Orange-crowned Warbler (below) was one of four or five still on the island. Orange-crowned Warblers are pretty hardy, but if the Nashvilles are still hanging on, they would be questioning their life decision this morning! Speaking of, best wishes, wherever you are, to the Virginia’s Warbler that has not been seen since the 11/29. 

Well, winter set in rather quickly this week, didn’t it? And no doubt much to the chagrin of the many vagrants, “pioneers,” and “half-hardies” that we have been enjoying recently. Despite the widespread below-zero temperatures by week’s end, I still saw four species of warblers this week. But I won’t expect that next week. Here are my observations of note over the past seven days.

  • 1 continuing MACGILLIVRAY’S WARBLER, Grist Mill Park, Yarmouth, 11/29 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).
  • 2 continuing NASHVILLE WARBLERS, 3 Orange-crowned Warblers (at least 2 continuing), and 1 continuing COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, but no sign of the Virginia’s, Peak’s Island, Portland, 12/1 (with Jeannette. Photos above).
  • 1 1st cycle Iceland Gull, Maine State Pier, Portland, 12/1 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 Hermit Thrush, Commercial Street, Portland (near cruise ship terminal), 12/1 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 ad. Red-shouldered Hawk, Ann St, Lisbon Falls, 12/4 (with Bill Thompson).
  • 2 WILSON’S SNIPE and 4 Lesser Scaup, Lake Auburn, 12/4 (with Bill Thompson).
  • 1 Fish Crow, Anniversary Park, Auburn, 12/4 (with Bill Thompson). 2-4 Fish Crows have been reliable here since April, including in the past few weeks.
  • 1 Northern Flicker, our feeders in Durham, 12/4.
  • Scattered Evening Grosbeaks and Red Crossbills continue in the area this week as well.
The Peregrine Falcon pair of Lewiston-Auburn is back to frequenting their favorite winter perches, such as this rooftop tower near the Bernard Lown Peace Bridge.
One of the pair had returned here after taking a run at a Bald Eagle.

This Week’s Highlights, 12/18-24, 2021

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After receiving photos of what appeared to be an all-dark Euphagus blackbird reported as being “glossy” at times- and without the bill visible – a few of us went out to get better looks in the freezing rain on the 22nd. It wasn’t until the bird showed up at a feeder and we were able to photograph it at close range that we confirmed it was just a truant, exceptionally dark-for-the-season Rusty Blackbird (note the very subtle rufous fringes
on the head and breast and the thin, slightly downcurved bill).

Southern York County CBC, “Moody Sector” of Wells and Ogunquit, 12/20 (with Jeannette).

As usual, our incredibly productive territory produced a number of “good birds” and a decent 57 total species:

  • 144 Canada Geese
  • 232 Mallards
  • 2 Mallards x American Black Duck hybrid
  • 81 American Black Ducks
  • 3 NORTHERN PINTAIL (Beach Plum Farm)
  • 4 GREEN-WINGED TEAL (Furbush Avenue)
  • 64 Common Eider
  • 46 Surf Scoter
  • 31 White-winged Scoter
  • 287 Black Scoter
  • 39 Long-tailed Duck
  • 22 Bufflehead
  • 9 Common Goldeneye
  • 22 Red-breasted Merganser
  • 3 Red-throated Loon
  • 5 Common Loon
  • 9 Horned Grebe
  • 26 Red-necked Grebe
  • 1 Northern Gannet
  • 1 Great Blue Heron
  • 1 Bald Eagle
  • 78 American Crow
  • 1 Northern Harrier
  • 1 Cooper’s Hawk
  • 2 Red-tailed Hawks
  • 1 WILSON’S SNIPE (Wells sewerage. 5th count record.)
  • 22 Ring-billed Gull
  • 161 Herring Gull
  • 1 Great Black-backed Gull
  • 2 Razorbill
  • 67 Rock Pigeon
  • 2 Mourning Dove
  • 1 SNOWY OWL (Bourne Ave)
  • 1 Belted Kingfisher
  • 12 Downy Woodpecker
  • 6 Blue Jay
  • 19 Horned Lark
  • 65 Black-capped Chickadee
  • 16 Tufted Titmice
  • 11 White-breasted Nuthatch
  • 1 Brown Creeper
  • 4 Carolina Wren
  • 3 Golden-crowned Kinglet
  • 1 RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET (Seaview Street).
  • 12 Eastern Bluebird
  • 1 HERMIT THRUSH (Wells sewerage)
  • 3 Northern Mockingbird
  • 97 European Starling
  • 1 AMERICAN PIPIT (Bourne Avenue)
  • 16 American Tree Sparrow
  • 1 CHIPPING SPARROW (Wells sewerage)
  • 17 Song Sparrow
  • 48 Dark-eyed Junco
  • 5 White-throated Sparrow
  • 25 Northern Cardinal
  • 48 House Finch
  • 22 American Goldfinch
  • 137 House Sparrow

8 hours: 13.3 miles by car; 9.5 miles by foot.

  • No Steller’s Sea-Eagle in Massachusetts, 12/21 (with Weston Barker, Michael Boardman, and Matthew Gilbert)…but we had to try!
  • 1 RUSTY BLACKBIRD, Cathance River Preserve, Topsham, 12/22 (with Weston Barker and John Berry. Photos above and below).
  • 1 continuing drake NORTHERN PINTAIL, Androscoggin River along Rte 136, Durham, 12/23.

Derek’s Birding This Week, 3/6-12/2021

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Lingering winter birds and arriving spring migrants. Here are my highlights over the past seven days:

  • 1 Red-winged Blackbird (FOY), feeders here at the store, 3/6. Small flocks around the area by week’s end.
  • 1 drake BARROW’S GOLDENEYE, River Road, Benton, 3/8 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 light morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK and 10 Horned Larks, Wyman Road, Benton, 3/8 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 Northern Shrike, Sunkhaze Meadows NWR, 3/9 (with Jeannette).
  • 3 continuing WILSON’S SNIPE, U of Maine-Orono Steam Plant, 3/9 (with Jeannette).
  • 1 Common Grackle (FOY), Veazie, 3/9 (with Jeannette…sure didn’t expect my FOY in Penobscot County, but numbers increased in southern Maine by week’s end).
  • 1 Killdeer (FOY), Highland Road, Brunswick, 3/11.
  • 2 Lesser Scaup, Mill Creek Cove, South Portland, 3/12.
  • 4 Brown-headed Cowbirds (FOY), feeders here at the store, 3/12.

This Week in Finches:

  • EVENING GROSBEAK: 0
  • Red Crossbill: 9 (Type 10 fide Matt Young at FiRN, Viles Arboreteum, Augusta, 3/8 with Jeannette).
  • WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL:
  • PINE GROSBEAK: 1 (Viles Arboretum, Augusta, 3/8 with Jeannette).
  • Purple Finch High Count This Week: 0
  • Common Redpoll High Count This Week: 7 (continuing at Back Cove, Portland, 3/7 with Ian Doherty and Ilsa Tucker).
  • HOARY REDPOLL: 1 (continuing at Back Cove, Portland, 3/7 with Ian Doherty and Ilsa Tucker).
  • Pine Siskin High Count This Week:  1 (Cumberland Town Landing, 3/7).

Huge Morning Flight at Sandy Point!

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My last blog entry ended with a little bit of foreshadowing, did it not? But before we get to Sandy Point this morning, let us take a moment to review the radar images from the weekend for comparison.

This is the 12:00am image from Sunday.  This is what “no migration” looks like on the radar.  You can also see the rain approaching from the west.
12am radar, 9-22-13

Now this is the midnight image from Saturday.  This is what “I have no idea what’s going on” looks like on the radar.  While anything from some weird warping of the radar beams from changes in air temperature to a simple malfunction could result in this, what it is NOT is a lot of birds.  It’s too irregular…and bird’s don’t “explode” in narrow bands!
IMG_1575_edited-1 IMG_1576_edited-1

So, compare those to what “a whole boatload” of birds looks like.  Here are the 10pm, 12am, 2am, and 4am base reflectivity and velocity images from last night.

10pm radar, 9-22-13 10pm velocity, 9-22-13

12 am radar, 9-23-13 12 am velocity, 9-23-13

2am radar, 9-23-132am velocity, 9-23-13

4am radar, 9-23-134am velocity,9-23-13

Yeah, it would have been nice to be on Monhegan this morning.  But I was in my other sanctuary – my office at Sandy Point.  And this is what happened:

6:28 – 10:05am.
43F, increasing W to NW, clear.

1338 Unidentifed (*2nd highest)
416 Northern Parulas (* Seriously, how are there any more parulas to come through!  This is the second highest count of all time, and now all three of the highest tallies are from this year!)
281 Northern Flickers
179 Black-throated Green Warblers (*2nd highest)
163 Blackpoll Warblers
91 Yellow-rumped Warblers
43 Black-and-white Warblers (*record high)
39 Red-eyed Vireos
35 American Redstarts
29 Blue Jays
29 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
23 Yellow Warblers
22 Blue-headed Vireos
21 Scarlet Tanagers (*record high)
21 Dark-eyed Juncos
19 Cedar Waxwings
18 Magnolia Warblers
17 Nashville Warblers (*record high)
17 American Goldfinches
13 Black-throated Blue Warblers
12 Eastern Phoebes (* ties high)
11 Swainson’s Thrushes
9 Palm Warblers
6 Rusty Blackbirds
5 American Robins
4 Unidentified vireos
4 Chestnut-sided Warblers
4 White-throated Sparrows
3 Least Flycatchers
3 Cape May Warblers
3 Bay-breasted Warblers
2 Common Loons
2 Broad-winged Hawks
2 TUFTED TITMICE (rarely seen crossing)
2 Unidentified thrushes
2 Golden-crowned Kinglets
2 Blackburnian Warblers
2 Common Yellowthroats
1 Osprey
1 American Kestrels
1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
1 Eastern Wood-Pewee
1 Common Raven
1 Philadelphia Vireos
1 Veery
1 Tennessee Warbler
1 CONNECTICUT WARBLER (My third of the season here; it’s the fall of the CONWs in Maine!)
1 Northern Waterthrushes
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
1 DICKCISSEL (third of the season here)
1 Baltimore Oriole

Total = 2, 905 (4th highest tally all time for me)

DSC_0016_REVIonAlternate-leafedDogwood,Sandy Point, 9-23-13DSC_0026_SWTH_onWinterberry2,Sandy Point,9-23-13
Some of the migrants pause long enough at Sandy Point to do a little snacking.  Here’s a Red-eyed Vireo eating Alternate-leafed Dogwood fruits, and a Swainson’s Thrush stepping out into the sun to dine on Winterberries.

DSC_0034_WISN,GreelyRoad,9-23-13_edited-1
A little post-Sandy Point birding yielded two Wilson’s Snipe trying to stay hidden along the edge of a puddle along Greely Road in Cumberland.

And tonight looks just as good…perhaps even a little better with a more northwesterly flow.  See ya at the bridge at sunrise!
wind forecast, 9-23-13