It not only feels like summer again out there, but the birding has been rather mid-August-like. The mornings have been very slow.

However, there’s a whole lot on the move. The calm, clear skies overnight are allowing for great flights. In my ten-minute sampling of nocturnal migrants calling overhead during the last three nights have resulted in 27, 25, and 18 calls respectively. Therefore, migrants are definitely on the go. However, the perfect conditions for migration are allowing them to pass us by, or at the very least, not cause any coastal or migrant-trap concentrations. What’s good for birds is not always good for birding!

There has been a distinct turnover though, with birds coming and going each morning. In the past two days, there has been a significant increase in the number of Savannah Sparrows that are around. This morning, I also spotted my first “Western” Palm Warbler of the fall.

Yesterday, Lysle, Robbie, and I birded from the Portland peninsula through Cape Elizabeth, checking rocky areas, barren wastelands, gravel piles, short-cut fields, and other less-than-heavily-vegetated areas. We checked the areas around the Commercial Street extension in Portland, Bug Light Park in South Portland, Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth, and elsewhere. Today, I birded the Eastern Promenade, Back Cove, and the Mackworth Island causeway. Why you ask? Two words - Northern Wheatear.

This charismatic, and much sought-after species has made a small irruption into the Eastern U.S. this fall, with sightings on Matinicus Rock here in Maine, two in New Hampshire, one in Vermont, one in New Jersey, and one as far as Florida. Likely a couple of strong extratropical storms, including what was once Tropical Storm Florence, that hit the maritime provinces in the past few weeks, blew these birds off course. Normally, this paleartic (Old World) species flies from its limited North American breeding areas back to the Old World for the winter. Two North American populations exist: one in northern Alaska and the Yukon, and the other in Greenland, Labrador, northernmost Quebec, and Baffin Island. The western North America population crosses the Bering Strait to reach Siberia before heading south (I saw quite a few during my time in the Pribilofs). The eastern North American birds cross the North Atlantic to Europe on their way to Africa for the winter.

Strong westerlies during and after these fall storms can fling the birds to this side of the Pond, to the delight of North American birders. This fall, we have seen quite a spurt of Wheatear sightings. Northern Wheatears like barren areas, with little or no vegetation. Mountaintops, quarries, sand pits, breakwaters, causeways, and even parking lots (in fact the wheatear in Salem, New Hampshire and Bridgewater, NJ (the latter within 5 minutes of where I used to live!) were discovered in parking lots. But no, I am not going to be walking around the Maine Mall parking lot anytime soon.