With a light southerly wind overnight, partly cloudy skies, and showers towards daybreak, I knew today was most definitely not a day to miss! I began at Bug Light Park in South Portland, with my first Lincoln’s Sparrow of the year, but very little else. Three Least Sandpipers flew over, calling, an addition to my semi-retired Bug Light Patch List. Unfortunately, the “pruning” that has occurred there has severely limited the stopover habitat there for migrants, and many birds likely move on from there at dawn.

Many of those birds that head straight inland likely drop into the more extensive cover of Hinckley Park. And that was my next destination this morning as well. And, I was not disappointed. The first bird that I put my binoculars on was a Yellow-throated Vireo – a rare migrant around here. Two hours at Hinckley produced a total of 17 species of warblers, including my first Blackpoll and Canada Warblers of the spring – later migrants that are just now beginning to arrive. There wasn’t quite the overall volume of birds that I was hoping for, but I hit multiple large pockets of activity here and there. A good percentage of the migrants were American Redstarts and Magnolia Warblers. I also briefly spotted the male of the pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers that may be setting up shop in the park.

Heading back across the Casco Bay Bridge, I picked up my first visual on a Veery this spring along West Commericial Street. It was pretty quiet there, but there were quite a few (at least 12) Gray Catbirds.

Two singing Northern Waterthrushes were my 18th warbler species of the day, singing from near the pond that is adjacent to the new Commercial Street Extension – and the future site of the new Mercy Hospital. I had 7 warbler species in the area this morning; it will be sad to see this cover bulldozed in the near future.

Finishing up at the Western Promenade (possibly one of the most under-appreciated spring birding locales in the area) and Western Cemetery, I tallied 8 warbler species, and had my first Chimney Swifts of the year overhead.

Finally, I enjoyed a most appropriate ending – for a hawk-lover such as myself - to my successful morning: a kettle of 6 immature Broad-winged Hawks and two young Bald Eagles were circling high overhead as I got into my car.