The weather put a damper (pun intended) on me and Jeannette’s plans to go hawkwatching on our day off today, so instead we headed out for a morning of birding around Biddeford Pool.

Few passerines were moving overnight last night due to the southerly winds and fog, so the trees at East Point Sanctuary were rather quiet. A handful of warblers, mostly Yellow-rumped and Common Yellowthroats were around, and we did see a Yellow-billed Cuckoo – always a treat. A bright ochre sparrow in the weeds at the point may have been one of the interior subspecies of the Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow (I would be happy to email you my notes on that, if it is of interest, but I’ll avoid subjecting everyone else to the tedium of subspecific identification of little brown jobs!). I have sent my notes to a few other birders who may be more familiar with the interior subspecies of Neslon’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow (the subspecies that breeds here in Maine is Ammodramus nelsoni subvirgatus by the way). I like being stumped by the identification of a bird – it shows how much I need to learn!

A walk around the neighborhood produced little, other than quite a few more Common Yellowthroats, and a decent total of 5-6 House Wrens. A few White-throated Sparrows and a couple of Dark-eyed Juncos were sure signs fall is upon us.

As we walked Biddeford Pool beach, tallying shorebirds (mostly Sanderling and Semipalmated Sandpipers, but also including at least 40 White-rumped Sandpipers – the most I have seen in Maine so far this fall), a thunderstorm was slowly approaching, hidden by the dense fog. When the drizzle became larger, heavier, and steadier drops, and the wind picked up, and the thunder crashed, we quickly realized standing on the beach holding a metal tripod was probably not the best thing to be doing. Double-timing it back to the car, we were rather wet, but just made it before the skies really opened up.

Tomorrow I head to Monhegan Island for two days – one spent guiding two clients, other on my own. I have very much been looking forward to this trip since it was booked a couple of months ago. It is prime time for birding on Monhegan – one of the best places in the state to find rarities!

But, I’ll leave you today with a bit of good news. The hazardous of migration through the Eastern Megapolis are innumerable, but at least one leg just got a little safer as New York City is turning out the lights!