Well, it wasn’t exactly how I had planned the weekend. After so many beautiful weekends in a row we had to expect one like this. But why this weekend?

Today (Saturday) was a big event for us many Maine, and non-Maine, birders. It was the annual Maine Audubon Pelagic birding trip out of Bar Harbor. This all-day trip travels to deep water and upwelling areas out towards the offshore Mount Desert Rock in search of true seabirds – things like Northern Fulmar, jaegers, shearwaters, alcids, kittiwakes, and maybe even a Skua. I was going to be one of the “spotters” of the trip – assistant tour leaders stationed around the boat searching the horizon and helping participants see whatever happens to be flying by.

Last year, (my first year on the trip), was a great success, with a highlight being a fantastic close-up view of a young Long-tailed Jaeger, one of my favorite birds. What would this year bring? Great Skua? South Polar Skua?

Well, as you might of expected if you looked out the window on Saturday, the trip was cancelled. It was certainly no day to be out on the water – and it’s not like there would have been any visibility if we had gone out. Yes, Thursday afternoon, the trip was called off due to the very ugly forecast, which has essentially come to fruition.

So, needless to say, this was a major disappointed. HOWEVER, since I was planning to take a couple of days off anyway, I now had the flexibility for a last-minute run out to Monhegan Island. No, not for muskrat (or whatever it is) trapping, but for a bird smaller than the size of my thumb.

On Thursday morning, Marshall Iliff, leading his tour group at Monhegan Island discovered Maine’s first ever Calliope Hummingbird, a small hummer (about ¾ the size of our familiar Ruby-throat) that has been showing up once a year or so on the East Coast recently (as close as Cape Cod a couple of years back). This is just the type of bird we hope for when we suggest keeping your hummingbird feeders out into October!

The Calliope was found feeding on Scarlet Salvia blooms right in front of the Monhegan House inn. So, a bird of this magnitude – a true “Mega” – eventually led me to the last-minute decision to “chase” this bird.

So, I met Peter and Don at the Port Clyde ferry dock at 7:00am. We ventured out through the fog to Monhegan (which we didn’t see until the boat stopped at the dock!) and through the dense fog were able to catch a glimpse of a Greater Shearwater and a rare-for-nearshore-and always fun Northern Fulmar (some consolation for the missed pelagic).

We tracked down Marshall to receive the bad news that the bird has not been seen since late Thursday morning, but he had not spent as much time looking for it. After being shown the location and the bird’s favorite spots from the day before, Don, Peter, and I waited. And waited. Davis arrived from New Hampshire. We waited some more. No Hummingbird.

But, we weren’t just going to sit still! We combed the town looking for more flowers, hummingbird feeders, or anything else that tickled the fancy of a wayward Calliope Hummingbird. But, alas, it was not to be found. Disappointing (Disappointment #2), BUT, no day on Monhegan is without its birding highlights.

As the consolation prize, we did see 57 species on the island, with some highlights including a Red-bellied Woodpecker, the Fulmar, 10 species of warblers including a single Cape May, and a fun group of sparrows at the legendary feeders of Tom Martin – which at one point hosted 8 species of sparrows together, including an impressive 3 Clay-colored Sparrows. 2 Dickcissels and an Indigo Bunting also joined them.

Don and Davis took off on earlier ferries, but Peter and I stayed as late as we could (the 4:30 ferry) hoping maybe, just maybe, the Hummer would show up – or we’d find something even better. But, as the day wore on, and our hopes for the Hummingbird diminished, the fog finally lifted, the sun came out, and we enjoyed a beautifully warm (you can’t expect to be wearing only a t-shirt on Monhegan Island in October) day and a very pleasant boat ride back, which included a nice view of a Black-legged Kittiwake (my first of the season), a dozen or so Northern Gannets, and another close pass from a Greater Shearwater.

No Hummingbird, yeah, that’s disappointing. No Pelagic today, yeah that’s disappointing to. But, 64 total species on a pleasant day on Monhegan, with some nice birds mixed in was not a bad consolation prize at all!

(P.S. We did not see any muskrats or other unidentified furry goblins during our visit, unfortunately – although a yearling Ring-necked Snake was a treat.)

Here’s the complete species list:
Common Loon
Greater Shearwater: 2-3
Northern Gannet
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Cormorant
American Black Duck
Mallard
Common Eider
Black Scoter
American Kestrel
Merlin
Peregrine Falcon
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL: 1
Great Black-backed Gull
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE: 1
Black Guillemot
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER: 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker: lots!
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Winter Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Gray Catbird
Cedar Waxwing
Nashville Warbler: 1
Northern Parula: 2
Yellow Warbler: 1 (late)
CAPE MAY WARBLER: 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler: many
Black-throated Green Warbler: 1
Pine Warbler: 6+ (a bit more than usual)
Palm Warbler: (only a few “Western” Palms, but a surprising 50+ of the “Yellow” subspecies.
Black-and-white Warbler: 1
Common Yellowthroat: handful
Chipping Sparrow
CLAY-COLORED SPARROW: 3
Savannah Sparrow (including one of the “Ipswich” subspecies)
Song Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow: 1-2
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting: 1
DICKCISSEL: 2
Rusty Blackbird: 3
Purple Finch
American Goldfinch