Winter has certainly set in, and I’m loving it! It was another invigorating morning, as I began my birding day at Dragon Field in Portland. Not much there, but one Cooper’s Hawk made a nice, close pass. Very little at Evergreen Cemetery, but once again Capisic Pond park comes through with a couple of treats: a very late Swamp Sparrow and a calling Carolina Wren.

After checking Back Cove (which is much more productive at high tide at this time of year, and I hit it at dead low this morning), I worked my way up Rte 88 towards Yarmouth, checking town landings along the way. Neither the Falmouth or the Cumberland town landings produced much, but the Yarmouth Town Landing area was much more productive.

I actually viewed the Harbor from the marina area on the south side of the river to avoid looking directly into the sun. The rapidly shrinking swath of open water was full of birds this morning. The highlight was all three species of Mergansers! 17 Red-breasted, 13 Hooded (a good bird in January in Maine), and 5 Common Mergansers. 12 Common Goldeneye were also present, along with a bunch of Herring and Ring-billed Gulls loafing on the ice.

Speaking of ice, check out this amazing photo essay on Antarctic penguins.

For those looking for warmer thoughts, here’s a link to a Birding Magazine Web Extra featuring a “scrapbook” of images and letters (Part 1 and Part 2) from this summer’s American Birding Association Annual Convention in Bangor. I’m not sure if I’m all that proud of one of the shots though!