Jeannette and I spent a few days last week again assisting Dr. Adrienne Leppold of Maine IF&W with a project to put radio transmitters on Wood Thrushes, a species that is declining dramatically throughout its range. This one was particularly feisty, especially for a thrush!

Although breeding season is in full swing locally, it’s already “fall” for a number of species. Swallows are aggregating and some are heading south, some early and failed nesters are already departing, and the first wave of southbound shorebirds have now arrived!  My observations of note over the past seven days including the following:

• Cuckoos became more vocally-conspicuous as they usually do this time of year along the coastal plain, including a daily Black-billed in our Durham yard and 2-3 Yellow-billed at Suckfish Brook Conservation area in Falmouth on 7/8 (with Jeannette).

• 1 fresh juvenile Ring-billed Gull, Auburn Riverwalk, Auburn, 7/5 (seems really early to have one so far away from a breeding lake).

• 1 female ORCHARD ORIOLE, Old Town House Park, North Yarmouth, 7/6 (with Saturday Morning Birdwalk group).

• 1 Least Sandpiper (first southbound shorebird migrant of fall!), Green Point WMA, 7/7.

• 2 AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHERS, Pine Point, Scarborough, 7/9.
• 9 Lesser Yellowlegs (first of fall), 4 Greater Yellowlegs, and a smattering of Least Sandpipers, Pelreco Marsh, Scarborough Marsh, 7/9.

Tours and Events:

• Please join me in Jay on Thursday at 4pm as I give a presentation and answer questions about Birdwatching in Maine: The Complete Site Guide at the Jay-Niles Memorial Library. Free and open to the public.

Adult Summer Reading Program-Birdwatching in Maine: The Complete Site Guide (Visit with Derek J. Lovitch, editor)

• There will not be a Saturday Morning Birdwalk on either 7/13 or 7/27.