Monthly Archives: September 2018

Sandhill Crane

If you live along the gulf coast or the great plains, you may have see thousands of Sand Hill Cranes . . . but in Maine they are a rarity.  A Saturday morning excursion to the cornfields of neighboring Brunswick to see the juvenile SHC was successful. Other sightings: [ngg src=”galleries” ids=”130″ display=”pro_mosaic”]  

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Little Blue Heron

A lunch time trip to to the Pelecro Building produced a number of Herons; a huge of Tree Sparrow and a very pretty cardinal. [ngg src=”galleries” ids=”129″ display=”pro_mosaic”]

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#300 ABA Bird of 2018

Ingrid and I got our 300th North American bird of the year today . . . a Bay-breasted Warbler in winter plumage. At sunrise, I drove to Biddeford Pool because a Connecticut Warbler had been seen earlier in the week. No Connecticut but go a Black-throated Blue, a Bay-breasted and a Yellow-rumped Warbler . . […]

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Dunlin

Today I took a late afternoon trip to Popham Beach in an effort to get one bird . . . the Dunlin.   Its a bird that migrates through Maine in mid-September and then poof its gone. Of course I had no luck at Popham . . . saw every common shorebird but no Dunlins. On […]

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The Gray Jay . . . Our Great White Whale

All birders have nemesis species . . . the bird that you just can’t get no matter how many times you try.   Ours is the Gray Jay a social bird of the Boreal Forests.  Skiers at Sugarloaf and other northern New England resorts see this bird all the time . . . but we don’t […]

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Coast of Maine Fallout

Last night we had a big storm with the wind kicking up to 40 miles an hour with heavy rain.  I got up early  hoping that the weather would create a fallout and have migrating birds dropping into ocean front tree groves. I did see lots of warblers  . . . but they all were […]

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Popham Beach at Dusk

With Ingrid hosting her annual 4th grade open house, I took a drive down to Popham Beach to do a little birding at dusk.  I watched a flock of Semipalmated Sandpipers and Plovers perform high speed maneuvers for about 5 minutes. Photographing it was pure luck. Lots of birds in the air . . . but […]

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Northern Waterthrush

After a morning meeting in Bath, Maine . . . I took a quick drive over to one of my favorite birding sports . . . Butler Head for a quick 15 minute stroll.  Birding in a business suit is a bit unorthodox but I soon heard a rhythmic chirp that I was unfamiliar with […]

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St. Petersburg, Florida

I’m down in St. Petersburg, Florida on business and had a little time free in the late afternoon. Braving the 92 degree sun I walked five minutes from the hotel to nearby Mirror Lake.  In  45 minutes I got seven first of year birds including two lifers (Wood Stork and Nanday Parakeet). The Nanday was […]

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Gulf of Maine Pelagic Trip

We took Maine Audubon’s pelagic trip out of Bar Harbor this morning. An amazing 8+ hours on a high speed Cat (33+kt/p/h) took us into Canadian waters. We saw numerous seabirds . . . many of which spend 10 months a year in the ocean and only return to land to nest. The highlight was […]

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Heron Convention

Ingrid recommended a new birding spot this morning, Ferry Beach in Scarborough, Maine. In the distance I saw the biggest congregation of Herons I have ever seen . . . dozens of Snowy Egrets; a bunch of Great Egrets; a handful of Great Blue Herons; and even a Little Blue Heron. Unfortunately the convention was a […]

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Birding while Ingrid runs

Daily runs have been a part of my life since middle school . . . and Ingrid and I ran together most days since we met.  Unfortunately I had to get my left knee replaced last March and my right knee goes under the knife in January . . . so Ingrid is running alone […]

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Crystal Beach

Ingrid recommended a new birding spot . . . Crystal Beach in Cape Elizabeth . . . and boy was she right. House Wren, Brown Thrasher, flycatchers and shorebirds galore . . . what a morning.

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Gnats at Sunrise

Birding early this morning in Cape Elizabeth on the first day of school. The sunrise was great and lots of gnats were in the air . . . but didn’t see many birds.

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Fish Crow

I had read some posts about a colony of Fish Crows at the Windham Mall . . . a town thirty miles inland from Portland. On Labor Day afternoon I braved 90 degree weather and tourist traffic to add this unusual bird to our life list. Drove in behind the Bank of America branch (as […]

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Warblers are Moving South

Ingrid and I were up at the crack of dawn for to look for migrating warblers.  Within a few minutes of arriving we were thrilled to see the trees filled with Cape May, Black-throated Green and Yellow Warblers, Common Yellowthroats and American Redstarts. On the way home we saw a beautiful American Bald Eagle.

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