With the onshore wind continuing, I again began my day seawatching from the Lobster Shack at Dyer Point in Cape Elizabeth. Two Black-legged Kittiwakes were a highlight, as was a flock of 12 American Wigeon, and my first Lesser Scaup and Long-tailed Ducks of the year. Complete totals are below.

After a couple of hours there, I headed to Dragon Field in Portland. This is the old capped landfill near the corners of Ocean Avenue and Presumpscot Streets near the Falmouth border, behind what is now the Quarry Run Dogpark. This had been one of my favorite places to bird in October while I lived in Portland. The weedy edges and overgrown field are prime sparrow habitat, and a great place to find other mid-October treats such as Orange-crowned Warblers and Dickcissels. The woods can harbor lingering warblers, raptors are frequent (including a resident pair of Red-tailed Hawks that breed in the old quarry), and – as always – you never know what surprises a morning’s birding can hold.

Unfortunately I do not get there as often as I like now that we don’t live in Portland. Plus, ever since they built the dog park there, there are a bit too many dogs loose in the field for even this dog-lover’s tastes. Furthermore, this year the field was mowed, so there are many fewer sparrows to be seen.

But, I haven’t checked it in a while, and I needed to scout it for my upcoming Sparrows of Greater Portland trip for Merrymeeting Audubon this Sunday. There weren’t too many sparrows around – just some Song and White-throats at the edges, and some Savannahs up top, but I did have a couple of treats in my quick check this morning. A late Rose-breasted Grosbeak, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo – new for my Dragon Field List – and a Orange-crowned Warbler, an October favorite of mine.

It’s been an interesting fall for Yellow-billed Cuckoos. They reach the northern limits of their breeding range in Central Maine, but they are widely scattered – few and far between – north of southern York and Oxford Counties (Brownfield Bog is one of the best places in the state to see one of these secretive birds). This fall however, we have seen an impressive autumn influx, with many birders reporting far more than usual throughout the southcoast this fall. I have seen 5 or 6, some of which were in places that I have never seen one before. With many sightings of this species also being reported from the Canadian Maritimes (north of their usual range), we can hypothesize that these birds are riding the persistent southerly winds into the northeast. Reverse migration? Misorientation? Random wanderings? Storm-blown youngsters? Who knows – but they are nice to see!

This morning’s seawatch totals:

Start: 7:15am, ENE 14, Cloudy, Excellent Visibility.
End: 9:15am, ENE 13, Cloudy, Excellent Visibility.

Red-throated Loon: 4
Common Loon: 12
Unidentified Shearwater: 1
Northern Gannet: 100’s feeding and flying in all directions.
Double-crested Cormorants: 186
Great Cormorant: 3
Unidentified Cormorant: 21
American Wigeon: 12
American Black Duck: 7
LESSER SCAUP: 1
Common Eider: 152 (southbound only, many more moving north and on water)
Surf Scoter: 43
White-winged Scoter: 31
Black Scoter: 21
Unidentified Scoter: 16
Long-tailed Duck: 3
Red-breasted Merganser: 26
Unidentified Jaeger: 1
Laughing Gull: 42 southbound; 15+ feeding near shore.
Bonaparte’s Gull: 50+ feeding nearshore
Ring-billed, Herring, and Great Black-backed Gulls
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE: 1 adult
Black Guillemot: 1