Despite the weather forecast, I headed down to Kittery this morning. I always enjoy my visits to Fort Foster and nearby environs, and I try and get there at least once a month – and the month is running out.

While the weather did not look good, I completely lucked out – the rain ended during my drive down, and didn’t begin again until my last stop for the morning. In between, the weather was pleasantly mild, and I even saw a few breaks of blue.

I was hoping my good luck with the weather would produce good luck with the birds, but birding wasn’t great. I began at Fort McClary, where there was little. My next stop was the Kittery Point Town Landing, where I enjoyed a massive feeding frenzy: 1000+ Double-crested Cormorants, 100+ Bonaparte’s Gulls, about 5 Laughing Gulls, and lots of Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls.

If you haven’t been following it, by the way, it seems that the Western Reef-Heron has finally departed, having last been seen at 6:00pm last Thursday in New Castle, NH. I had a brief day-dream of refinding the bird back on “our” side this morning, but one Great Blue Heron –and a single flyover Snowy Egret – were the only wading birds: no “Reefer” today!

But, I shouldn’t be greedy – I did get to visit with it 7 (or was it 8?) times, and I was fortunate enough to see it on both its first – within 1 ½ hours after Lysle found it – and it’s last – with a client from Seattle – days. I’ll miss it!

The next stop was Fort Foster. There were very few migrants around, but I did see a Peregrine Falcon, and adult Bald Eagle, and a few flyover American Pipits. Despite the relative lack of birdlife – except for hundreds more cormorants and gulls offshore – I always enjoy my visits here. And, so does Sasha.

The highlight from Seapoint Beach was a singing Carolina Wren, but the beach was completely devoid of shorebirds, despite tens of thousands of some type of egg washing up on shore. About ½ inch long, roughly oblong, but slightly wider at one end, with a dark blue embryo inside, they littered the beach as the tide retreated. (Anyone know what they might be?).

Just in case, I made another quick stop at the Town Landing. No Heron. I was short on time this morning, so instead of heading to Cape Neddick like I usually do when I visit the area, I decided to simply make a quick stop at a pond in Kittery to get some data for the next rare bird alert – this pond is home to a pair of Mute Swans. The swans, unfortunately, were still there, but I was more pleasantly surprised to find a plethora of ducks, lead by over 100 Mallards. A drake Northern Pintail, a pair of Wood Ducks, and a single American Coot – my first of the fall – joined the fray. I explored the area a bit, trying to get a view of the backside of the pond, and found access through some playing fields along Old Post Road. A small clearing provided a view of the back corner of the pond, producing 3 more Wood Ducks and a Blue-winged Teal. A nice way to end the morning, as the rain once again began to fall.