Rarity Fever is spreading! Forget this Bird Flu hysteria, the joy of birding – especially searching for the unexpected - is spreading like wildfire. Yesterday 7 teams of 15 birders scoured the coast between Portland and Kittery in search of vagrants in the Second Annual Rarity Roundup.

I organized this event last year (I can’t take credit for the idea, I “borrowed” the Rarity Roundup name and idea from folks in the Mid-Atlantic) as a way of getting a coordinated effort to find and tally unusual birds, late lingering migrants, early northern arrivals, and anything else of note. Basically, it’s an attempt to census rare birds. As I have been mentioning (harping on?) late October through mid November is Rarity Season, so we conducted the Rarity Roundup once again on the first Sunday in November. It’s an excuse to get out to scour the Maine coast with a fine-toothed comb looking for birds with good friends, and then drinking a few beers at the end of the day talking about what we had seen! All day long, we were in constant contact via cell phone, finding out what other teams were seeing, coordinating coverage, and preparing for the next call that would make everyone abandon their routes and head for the “Mega.” As each team contacted me with good birds, I passed those sightings along and called Jeannette at the store. After Jeannette covered a few Portland sites prior to opening (someone has got to keep this place running!), she manned the phones and immediately posted noteworthy sightings onto the Bird News section of our website. Therefore, all other birders could stay tuned to the finds of the day, either to enjoy “armchair birding” in the warmth and dryness of their home, or to monitor the discoveries to plan their next chase.

Most of the teams had a fantastic day, despite the weather. Hey, it could have been a LOT colder, and a lot wetter! The fog and drizzle prevented seawatching, but our total of species was probably somewhere around 125 for the day (I’m still receiving and tallying data sheets) with a number of excellent discoveries. I won’t rehash all of them here, so if you are interested you can take a look at the Southcoastal Maine Rare Bird Alert Special Edition.

We really needed one extra team this year, and one team could not spend the whole day, so I was forced to do my best Tom Delay impression (minus the illegal stuff) and gerrymander the coverage routes in order get all of the prime sites between Scarborough and Portland checked. John and I did most of the Portland Area, but then did the northern half of the South Portland Area. It was “urban birding” at its best. John, a Rarity Roundup rookie, enjoyed some of the nooks and crannies that I took him too that he never knew about despite having lived in the area for 30 years! Some of the best birds are often found off the beaten path, and that is one of the reasons to have so many people out on the same day.

We began at dawn at Portland’s Eastern Promenade. Poor visibility limited our duck and gull observations, but we did locate two Fox Sparrows – a long overdue addition to my Eastern Promenade list, which now stands at 149 - so close to my goal of 150! An addition for my original Maine Patch List was a great way to start the day for me!

A quick check of the fish piers in Portland did not produce any noteworthy gulls (a bit early for that), and a walk along West Commercial Street produced a late immature Black-crowned Night Heronbut little else. The Western Promenade area was rather birdy, but nothing too excited was found. A walk around the new bypass construction and future site of the Mercy Hospital was very productive. More Fox Sparrows, a flock of 25 Snow Buntings, and a lone Yellow-rumped Warbler (surprisingly the only warbler of the day for me and John) were additions to the day’s list.

Our “best” bird of the day generated some real excitement, as we did our best to turn it into an even better bird! A very good, but all too brief, view of MOST of the bird immediately told us this was an Oriole, a good bird in Maine for early November. But, WHICH ORIOLE? It was not an easily identified adult male. At this time of year, we cannot assume it is a Baltimore Oriole, and since this is the Rarity Roundup, we wouldn’t of minded adding a stray Bullock’s Oriole to the list. But, we never did see the face pattern well, so we were forced to draw our conclusions based on the rear ¾ of the bird - but the all important wing pattern was at least well studied. I have little experience with Bullock’s Oriole, so I dialed up a friend who used to live among Bullock’s Orioles in California. Thanks to that conversation, John and I were happy to confidently identify the bird as an immature male Baltimore Oriole, a good bird, no question, but not good enough to pick up the phone and call the other teams!

Lysle and Rob (who were covering various sites between Prout’s Neck and South Portland) called to check in, and wondered if John and I wanted to meet for lunch at Beale Street BBQ in South Portland for, uh, a strategy session (Read: beer and meat). That bowl of chili was PERFECT to warm up the insides! And yes, we did actually plan our attack for the afternoon sites.

After lunch, John and I checked Mill Creek Park (yielding a drake Northern Shoveler), Mill Creek Cove (few gulls), Joe’s Pond (another Gray Catbird), and Bug Light Park, which produced a wonderful view of a Lapland Longspur among a dozen Snow Buntings.

During the day, other birders, including a tour group from Vermont would call in good birds to Jeannette. Jeannette would then pass those along to me. At about 1:45 Jeannette called with some big news! The Vermont group has just discovered an astounding six American Avocets at Ferry Beach in Scarborough. Ugh – the bird(s) of the day were found by “outsiders”! (Even though one of the Rarity Roundup teams was from New Hampshire and only a couple of the day’s participants were life-long Mainers, we all still had home-field pride! But, we had been scooped! Egos and pride were shattered, self-esteem smashed. Someone from the rarity roundup HAD to go get those birds! Unfortunately, the Vermont group watched the birds fly up the river into Scarborough Marsh. Well, only 3,000 acres to search! Ed, Lysle and Rob, and Michael, Peter, and Luke all descended on the marsh in attempts to locate the flock. Despite their best efforts, including Ed’s unplanned dip in a waist deep pothole – he had sworn nothing would stop him from getting these birds, “even if I had to swim for them,” (what foreshadowing!) the Avocets were never seen again.

Meanwhile, now back in Portland awaiting “the call”, John and I checked a couple of feeders in the West End, and the garden of the 1st Parish Church on Congress Street in downtown. Wow! The little garden there yielded 3 Hermit Thrushes, 2 White-throated Sparrows, and a Gray Catbird. (Oh what this could produce if checked daily!!!!) 10 Black-bellied Plovers at Back Cove were our last addition to our personal day list before we made our last stop – where we began - at East End Beach, sifting through gulls flying out to roost.

But of course, a large reason for participating in such events as Rarity Roundups (or Christmas Bird Counts) is the wrap-up get-together at the end of the day! Most of the day’s participants rendezvoused at the Great Lost Bear for brews (root beer floats for the younger members of the teams) and grub. Despite our fading energy (as evidenced by what seemed like forever to figure out how to divide up the hefty bill – more apologizes to our patient waitress: we were just all exhausted from up to 12 hours of birding and we really hope our math was correct!) we shared some good stories from the day, birding highlights, vented frustrations about being “scooped,” plenty of identification discussions, beer varieties, football, social commentary, and all of the other things a bunch of friends like to talk about when gathered around with a couple of pints!