Yesterday, spent a second day guiding for Ed and Melissa from Arizona. We had a busy itinerary again, jam-packed with boat trips and life birds!

I arrived a bit early and spent a half-hour seawatching from the lighthouse. 104 Black Scoters were a good late May tally, as were the 10 Red-throated and 14 Common Loons, all still heading north. Ed, Melissa, and I then began our day together with a stroll around Pemaquid Point, checking for migrants. Not much was going on, but we were certainly surprised to already see a FLEDGLING House Finch!

We then boarded the Hardy Boat out of New Harbor and motored on over to Monhegan. Unfortunately, our seabirding wasn’t too eventful to say the least. Actually, it was really non-existent. Only a few Common Terns and the usual gulls were about.

From a Monhegan Island perspective, the birding was slow – very, very slow. However a slow day on Monhegan in the third week of May still yielded 14 species of warblers, Least and newly arrived Alder Flycatchers (a target bird for the day), a Carolina Wren, and 39 other species – in just 5 hours! Certainly the “best” birds of the trip were a total of 8 White-winged Crossbills. First, Melissa and I enjoyed tremendous views of a male near the Ice Pond, and later we spied a family group of 6. Crippling looks at Blackburnian and other warblers, however, were also more than welcome. Quite possibly our best view of any bird on the island, however, was of a female Bay-breasted Warbler feeding on flies around the rocks right next to the pier! We were soon pointing it out to an entire Elderhostel group.

Our boat trip back to New Harbor once again produced little – a few more Northern Gannets and gulls was about all, but after dinner, we got back on the Hardy Boat to head to Eastern Egg Rock.

Although it’s still early in the season, there was already a ton of activity on this important – and bustling – breeding island. At one point, I counted 217 Black Guillemots in view at once, and at least 50 were on the other side of the island. This was by far the most guillemots that I have ever seen at one time! Atlantic Puffins – Melissa’s most wanted for this leg of the journey at least – were just arriving, but were incredibly cooperative. 10-12 were seen on the water, in pairs and trios, often allowing extremely close approach. We even observed some head-tossing and bill-clicking, a sign of the mating season soon to come. About 40 Common Terns – also just beginning to arrive – were swirling above the island, while 30+ Laughing Gulls were tallied as well. 17 lingering Purple Sandpipers were joined by 2 out-of-place Dunlin and one Spotted Sandpiper. What a great finish to a great day of birding in Maine (even for someone who lives here!)