I really like October birding. Days are cooler. Lots and lots of sparrows. Raptors are moving through. Seabirds are on the move. Ducks are arriving. Any birding outing can produce a late lingering migrant or an early winter arrival. And October (especially late in the month) is a great time for finding vagrants.

October birding can be bittersweet however. Days are shorter. Fewer and fewer warblers, except for Yellow-rumps, everyday. Fewer shorebirds. And, in another week or two we will see our first American Tree Sparrows. Don’t get me wrong, I really like American Tree Sparrows, but once they show up – we know it is the end. They are the last of the regularly occurring common yard birds to arrive from their arctic breeding grounds. There arrival signals the end of fall migration and the all-too-soon onset of winter. (Actually, migration occurs almost all year long, and there are other birds to arrive later – such as Redpolls – but the bulk of fall migration has passed by the time the Tree Sparrows get here.)

One of the things that I enjoy about October birding are the interesting juxtapositions on a day’s list. A late warbler and an early winter raptor, or a late lingering oriole and a redpoll at the same place at the same time, for example. Yesterday, Jeannette and I birded the Biddeford Pool area with Marshall before he had to head back to the airport.

We began at East Point Sanctuary where a bit of seawatching produced hundreds of Double-crested Cormorants (with an ever-increasing number of Great Cormorants mixed in) and flocks of all three Scoters. A Razorbill flew by, our first of the season. Then, while birding the woods, we encountered a few mixed flocks of birds that contained a few non-Yellow-rumped Warblers, including a Northern Parula, a couple of Blackpoll Warblers and a late Blackburnian Warbler.

The neighborhood, Biddeford Pool Beach, and Hill’s Beach produced little, but we had some very good birding in the marsh behind Hattie’s Deli. In addition to a fair number of shorebirds still hanging around (including at least 35 Black-bellied Plover), we had a great look at a Northern Harrier hunting just over the grass. But, two of the “best” birds of the day were two species you do not normally see at the same time in Maine. Not long after a late Tree Swallow flew overhead, three large sparrow-shaped birds began their descent into the marsh grass. They called a couple of times – identifying themselves for us – but they eventually got low enough for visual confirmation: 3 Lapland Longspurs recently arrived from their (very) High Arctic breeding grounds.

So the day list included a late Blackburnian Warbler and an early Razorbill, a late Tree Swallow, and three early Lapland Longspurs – that’s the odd mix of species that makes October birding so interesting!