I firmly believe that there is NO such thing as a BAD day of birding. Any day of birding is better than just about anything else! However, there are certainly SLOW days of birding. Today was one of those days!

I began at Popham Beach State Park. The woods were dead quiet. The high tide and rough surf inundated the beach, right up to the dunes, and with little exposed sand, shorebirds and roosting gulls were absent. Furthermore, seaducks were virtually nonexistent offshore. At nearby Fort Baldwin, the woods were also very quiet (although I maintain that this location – specifically the woodland edge around the grassy bunkers atop the hill – will someday produce something very, very good. Not today though.

However, the mouth of the Kennebec River – as viewed from Fort Popham - was absolutely filthy with birds! About 75 Bonaparte’s Gulls gracefully bounded about, while multiple rafts of Common Eider floating in the river numbered at least 800, with around 100 White-winged Scoters mixed in. One Bald Eagle soared overhead – rare is the day that I don’t spot at least one eagle here! (Oh, and speaking of Bald Eagles, rumor has it one created quite a stir - and attracted quite a crowd as one fed on a seal carcass in Portland's Back Cove today; it even attracted the attention of the local news stations - I'll have to watch for it on tonight's broadcasts).

I then met Mike for a tour of Hermit Island. Mike has been telling me how good the birding has been there this fall, and he has produced a handful of very good birds here. Not today! It was as dead as a doornail, save for a few Black-capped Chickadees, Golden-crowned Kinglets, a couple of Dark-eyed Juncos, and 2 American Tree Sparrows. Oh well, maybe next time (and the habitat does look very, very good).

So, after a slow day like today, one may think that fall is over, and we should be switching gears to more winter-season birding (i.e. ducks, gulls, and other waterbirds). HOWEVER, there’s a very intriguing storm system approaching.

This was posted on NJ Birds today by Paul Lehman:

“The strong storm currently taking shape in the southern Plains and
heading generally this way through late Friday and then ushering in
colder weather behind it has the right size, strength, path, and strong
warm flow and fetch ahead of it to produce some potential rarities. The
fact that it is timed to coincide with the weekend doesn't hurt, either!
IF this weather set-up had occurred during the height of "rarity season"
during the first half of November, a number of us would probably be
fantasizing right now about triple-digit Cave Swallow numbers, etc.
(Yes, some of us are easy to please with our fantasies!) But it still
isn't too late for Cave Swallows, Ash-throated Flycatchers, Western
Kingbirds, etc., and checking out likely warm, sheltered, food-filled
spots, as well as one's favorite swallow hang-outs, on Saturday and
Sunday should really produce SOMETHING! Note that there were several
Cave and one Violet-green Swallow reported yesterday in upstate New
York, so the colder weather and W/NW winds over the weekend may well
bring on a late-season swallow push. Also, given how mild the weather
has been of late, any insectivore present won't have had any trouble
surviving up until this point. And even though it has regretfully been a
relatively "slow" November for rarities in New Jersey, there have been
good numbers of goodies in several states and provinces to our north
(especially in Massachusetts) this month.

Of course if I am wrong and this weekend fails to produce, please don't
send me any hate-mail, as I will invoke the "lateness of the season" as
my excuse. But I really do think a few things should turn up,
particularly in the swallow department.”

Here in Maine, due to our northerly latitude, we rarely, if ever see a large swallow reverse-migration, but we are likely to pick up at least a few birds this weekend. The strong cold front, and a developing storm system that will track along it is setting up to produce a wretched day tomorrow (high winds, heavy rain, maybe even a thunderstorm, and some models are predicting that it will end as some snow or ice even in the southern part of the state – with more snow to the north and west). Saturday morning might be a great time to get out, before strong westerlies pick up during the day. Those westerlies will further push things towards the coast, and concentrate them, and Sunday may be a very productive day to be out. Therefore, Paul’s suggestions for New Jersey birders would also be the recommendation for our neck of the woods.

Furthermore, if snow begins to fall to our north and west, I would expect to begin to see more American Tree Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, Snow Buntings, etc. Plus, with the cold air arriving behind the storm, lakes and ponds to our north may finally begin to freeze, increasing our duck numbers here in the south. (By the way, today’s high of 61 degrees in Portland set a new, all-time record, and I do believe that this month will be the all-time warmest November on record.)

So, what are you doing still reading this blog? Get out there and go birding!