I begrudgingly declined to ride down with friends to Kittery again for another “taste” of the Western Reef-Heron. Besides, Jeannette and I will be heading down tomorrow, and I may be going on Wednesday if friends from Michigan make it out to visit (the bird, not me . . . nice friends, huh?). By the way, I continue to add updates, and more links, to our store’s Bird News page.

Instead, I avoided driving by taking my 6-mile Pownal Walk. I didn’t run into anything too exciting, but it is always a pleasant trip. 24 Wild Turkeys were in a field, and juvenile Chipping Sparrows were everywhere. A few small flocks of Bobolinks were still around, and I ran into one mixed species flock that contained a few warblers, including one or two Blackburnian Warblers.

In other news . . . .

Here we go again! Cornell Lab or Ornithology has recently posted more fuzzy video clips – but this time of a mystery warbler in Cuba. Could it be the rediscovery of the presumed-to-be extinct Bachman’s Warbler, or is it just poor footage of the common “Golden” Yellow Warbler subspecies? You can check out some of the discussion on this bird on the ID-Frontiers website.

Closer to home, I invite you to join me and many others on Maine Audubon’s Fall Pelagic birding trip off of Bar Harbor on Saturday, September 23rd. We’ll leave the dock at 5:30am, and return at 12:30pm. This is a great trip, and a must for all Maine birders. Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, Greater Shearwater, Sooty Shearwater, phalaropes, terns, and jaegers are expected (but there are NEVER guarantees with pelagic birding!). We will also be hoping for exciting stuff like Northern Fulmar and maybe even Great Skua! Hope to see you on board. Email (or call) Maine Audubon at trips@maineaudubon.org for more info. As of now, there is space available, but these trips can fill up quickly, as we have a limited amount of room.