Don’t forget to take a break from treating your Rarity Fever to hit the polls on Tuesday to vote YES ON 5. Voting yes on Ballot Question #5 will secure a “12,000,000 bond issue to purchase land and conservation easements statewide from willing sellers for conservation, water access, wildlife and fish habitat, outdoor recreation, including hunting and fishing, farmland preservation and working waterfront preservation to be matched by at least $7,000,000 in private and public contributions."

Voting “Yes on 5” is crucial to securing funding for the very popular and successful Land for Maine’s Future Program. Extremely valuable bird (and everything else) habitat will be protected with this money, so I ask everyone who has an interest in protecting birds and open space in Maine to vote “Yes on 5” on Tuesday. I also suggest contacting your local representatives and tell them that the $12 million bond is only a start – long term funding of the Land for Maine’s Future program is essential to our quality of life in Maine – and our quality of birding life!

Speaking of birding, I spent the morning birding the Portland Peninsula. A Merlin and an increasing number of Red-breasted Mergansers, Long-tailed Ducks, and Common Loons were at the Eastern Promenade. 2 Hermit Thrushes were seeking shelter in the First Parish Church Memorial Garden on Congress Street, and a small flock of Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows were in Deering Oaks Park.