Happy New Year Everyone!

Many birders keep “Year Lists.” All of the species that they have seen within one calendar year, usually within a specific area, such as the state of Maine, or North America. One of the intrigues of “year listing” is that each year, you’re basically starting from scratch – on January 1, the slate is cleared, and you need to see a Chickadee again for the first time! Effort must be made to “clean up” all of the regular wintering birds, the passage migrants, and the localized breeders. And then there are the rarities – do you chase a spring Lark Sparrow Downeast, or do you hope for one to show up in Scarborough Marsh in October?

Year listing is a popular pursuit of many birders. Personally, I have never caught the year listing bug – I stick to my dedication of building my Patch Lists – but I tend to always have a mental list of what I have and have not seen yet in a given year. Even though beginning our new year list was not the motivation, the chance to enjoy a leisurely day off and do some birding was more than enough to convince us to bundle up and head out to the frozen tundra of Scarborough Marsh. And, it was a very rewarding outing.

The extremely high tides would hopefully force birds such as Horned Larks up to the edges of the marsh, so we began on the raised bed of Eastern Road. Robby had the same idea – he was however, beginning his new year list - and so the three of us (and Sasha as well of course) headed down the trail. 10 Horned Larks flitted about, and we tallied an additional 19 from various other non-inundated corners of the marsh throughout the day. A real treat was our prolonged observation of an actively hunting immature Northern Shrike that has been hanging out along the trail there. We watched as it made repeated short flights to hover-hunt over the marsh grasses. A few minutes later, we watched as the Shrike struggled to carry a hearty breakfast of fresh vole to the treeline – it was trying to gain altitude, but for every few feet it rose, it seemed to drop a few feet lower as it’s undulating flight finally carried the shrike and it’s meal to the cover of some pines.

Shrikes are such awesome birds! These little wanna-be raptors will sometimes take birds nearly their own size, and some small mammal foodstuffs can even weigh more than they do! They also eat large insects. Their nickname, the Butcherbird, derives from their habit of caching uneaten food items in a “larder,” usually a thorny bush or tree -but sometimes a barbed wire fence – where they will store uneaten food by impaling it on a thorn! Despite their size (smaller than a Robin) these are fierce little predators!

Another highlight of our outing was absolutely stunning views of an adult Bald Eagle that made multiple passes overhead as it scanned the marsh for an unsuspecting duck or gull. Bathed in the bright sunlight, with a backdrop of the deepest blue sky you can see, the majestic eagle effortlessly glided overhead, inspiring Robby to hum the national anthem.