Strong onshore winds? You know where to find me – seawatching from the porch of the Lobster Shack at Dyer Point in Cape Elizabeth! Highlights for the day included hundreds of Northern Gannets – many (especially before the winds changed) quite close to shore. One distant Jaeger was just a little too far for me to be completely certain that it was in fact a Pomarine. Two Black-legged Kittiwakes, one adult and one in the snazzy juvenal plumage, were nice to see but the highlight was probably the Wood Duck that flew by offshore – not sure I have ever seen one over salt water before!

Start: 7:45: Rain. Winds NE 20, gusting to 31. Seas 6-8ft. Poor visibility.
(Switching to north at about 8:45)
End: 10:45: Light rain. Winds N 26, gusting to 31. Seas 10+ feet. Moderate visibility.

WOOD DUCK: 1
American Black Duck: 21
Mallard: 3
Green-winged Teal: 1
Common Eider: 129
Surf Scoter: 27
White-winged Scoter: 59
Black Scoter: 57
Unidentified “dark-winged” scoter: 11
Unidentified Scoter: 13
Long-tailed Duck: 52
Bufflehead: 1
Red-breasted Merganser: 19
Unidentified ducks: 20
Red-throated Loon: 12
Common Loon: 26
Red-necked Grebe: 1
Northern Gannet: 326
Double-crested Cormorant: 244
Great Cormorant: 11
Unidentified Cormorant: 50
Unidentified Jaeger: 1 (probable Pomarine)
Laughing Gull: 7
Bonaparte’s Gull: 6
Ring-billed, Herring, and Great Black-backed Gulls
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE: 1 adult, 1 juvenile.
Black Guillemot: 1

Rich showed up just as I was heading out, so we decided to spend an hour poking around some other Cape Elizabeth spots. A lone Brant, our first of the fall, was grazing at Kettle Cove. Brief visits to Alewife Brook Farm, Great Pond, and Spurwink Marsh produced little, but at our last stop at Maxwell’s Farm was quite productive. There, amongst a flock of Savannah Sparrows in the field, we located one Dickcissel.