One thing that this weather is great for is seawatching! I spent another enjoyable morning at Dyer Point today. I’m always amazed by how different seabird flights can be from one day to the next. Yesterday, I had hundreds of scoters, today just over 200. Only a trickle of cormorants yesterday - over a thousand today. True seabirds however, were again scarce with only two very distant shearwaters seen. (Totals below)

My next stop was a visit with the Sandhill Crane that has been hanging out for about 2 weeks now at Maxwell’s Farm in Cape Elizabeth. While enjoying and photographing the crane, 14 Horned Larks flew over, and I tallied 29 Killdeer in the fields nearby.

Maxwell’s Farm have been great hosts to this magnificent bird, allowing folks to walk the dirt road through their farm (between Spurwink and Sawyer Roads) to look for the bird that has been reliably seen most days as the bird forages in the plowed fields and loafs with Canada Geese (I recommend thanking them with a quick stop at their farm stand for some great fresh produce). Interestingly, a couple pairs of Sandhill Cranes have recently been found breeding in Central Maine, but there is no way to know if the Maxwell Farm bird is one of those, or simply a bird from farther west that has wandered a bit off course.

Here is the totals from this morning’s Seawatch from the Lobster Shack at Dyer Point:
Start: 7:45. Wind NNE 11, Cloudy, excellent visibility.
End: 9:45. Wind NNE 14, cloudy, excellent visibility.

Common Loon: 26
GREATER SHEARWATER: 1
SOOTY SHEARWATER: 1
Northern Gannet: 100's heading north, south, and feeding offshore -some incredibly close.
Double-crested Cormorant: 1006
Great Cormorant: 16
Unidentified Cormorant: 50
American Black Duck: 5
Northern Shoveler: 1
Green-winged Teal: 2
Common Eider: 109 (southbound, other heading north or on water)
Surf Scoter: 29
White-winged Scoter: 50
Black Scoter: 11
Unidentified “dark-winged” Scoter: 4
Unidentified Scoter: 157
Red-breasted Merganser: 6
Unidentified Duck: 6
Unidentified "Peep": 1
Laughing Gull: 24
Ring-billed, Herring, and Great Black-backed Gulls
Black Guillemot: 2