Yesterday, I led an all-day trip for Merrymeeting Audubon, entitled “The Sparrows of Greater Portland.” We began at dawn at Sandy Point Beach in Yarmouth, worked our way down through Cumberland, Portland, and into Scarborough, then back up through South Portland, before ending back in Yarmouth. We had a very good turnout, and we covered a lot of ground, checking a number of great places – and I even gave away a few of my “secret spots.”

We managed to scrounge up 9 ½ species of sparrow: Chipping, Savannah, “Ipswich” Savannah – our ½, Nelson’s Sharp-tailed, Song, Swamp, White-throated, White-crowned, Dark-eyed Junco, and Lapland Longspur.

Some of our “good” birds included a lot of blackbirds (Common Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird, and Brown-headed Cowbird), 30 Black-bellied Plovers at Sandy Point Beach, one Chipping Sparrow and a very late Bobolink at Twin Brook Recreation Area in Cumberland; 4 Hermit Thrushes along Portland’s Eastern Promenade; 1 Lapland Longspur over the Eastern Road Trail through Scarborough Marsh; 16 Bufflehead (my first of the season) at Back Cove; a color-banded “Ipswich” Savannah Sparrow at Back Cove (which I recently learned was banded this summer on its breeding grounds of Sable Island, Nova Scotia; and two Northern Pintail in one of my Yarmouth secret spots.

No rarities were found, but we had a “possible” Orange-crowned Warbler along the Eastern Promenade, and I would have liked to confirm that first plover at Back Cove to have been an American Golden. But, even though we fell short of our goal, we were happy that there were simply a lot of birds in most of the places that we stopped at. It was also a simply beautiful day to be out! (And thanks to the drivers of the carpools – it made the caravan much easier to manage, and much more environmentally-friendly!) By the way, a complete trip list will be up on Merrymeeting Audubon’s webpage shortly.

Today, on the other hand, was simply NOT a beautiful day to be out! But, with an easterly wind, I took shelter under the roof at the Lobster Shack at Dyer Point in Cape Elizabeth (I thank them for allow birders to use the shelter there – I make sure to bring them business in exchange!). While the winds weren’t perfect (northeast is best in the fall), and a little too light, and the flight wasn’t huge, it was a heckuva lot of fun this morning. The flight was very diverse, with 13 species of waterfowl among them. Lots of large, undulating lines of Double-crested Cormorants led the way, but duck numbers are really increasing. I had my first Long-tailed Ducks and Purple Sandpiper of the season as well.

The most interesting event, however, was a mini-fallout of passerines that occurred with a shift in the weather. Prior to 9:15, I had one lone unidentified passerine come in off the water. A steady east wind was blowing, with a little drizzle now and again. Then, at about 9:15, the skies really darkened. For the next half hour, I huddled in the corner of the Lobster Shack’s porch, staying dry and looking through the rain – nearly blinding at times – for what little sky and water was visible. Thunder and lightening added to the atmosphere. This storminess lasted for about a half hour. During that time, I had some more Double-crested Cormorants and Northern Gannets heading south, but what was most interesting was all of the passerines. In that half hour, or immediately after the storm passed by, I had 12 passerines come in off of the water – some even during the heaviest of rain. 7 were unidentified, but I was able to pick out 2 Dark-eyed Juncos, 1 Hermit Thrush, 1 White-throated Sparrow, and one Swamp Sparrow (the latter two identified after they landed in shoreline shrubs). Very cool!

Here’s the totals from the morning’s seawatch:

Start: 7:35am: East winds, 11.7mph, drizzle, moderate visib, 46.5F, seas 2-4 feet.
9:15-9:45 am: Heavy rains, thunder, poor visib, shifting winds, gusting to 30+mph.
End: 10:45am: North winds, 17.3mph, mostly cloudy, 47.8F, seas 4-6 feet.

Canada Goose: 40
Wood Duck: 9
American Wigeon: 5
American Black Duck: 32
Mallard: 2
Green-winged Teal: 6
Greater Scaup: 2
Common Eider: 175
Surf Scoter: 195
White-winged Scoter: 41
Black Scoter: 34
Dark-winged scoter sp: 13
Scoter sp: 6
Long-tailed Duck (first of season): 12
Red-breasted Merganser: 68
Duck sp: 5
Red-throated Loon: 8
Common Loon: 40
Red-necked Grebe: 1
Northern Gannet: 71
Double-crested Cormorant: 1508
Great Cormorant: 6
Great Blue Heron: 1
Merlin: 1
Purple Sandpiper (first of season): 1
Wilson’s Snipe: 1
Laughing Gull: 13
Bonaparte’s Gull: 10
Ring-billed, Herring, Great Black-backed Gulls.
Black Guillemot: 1