No, that wasn’t another sensationalized headline – I really did get attacked by a Mallard this morning! In was walking around Two Lights State Park, taking the trail through the woods when I stumbled upon a hen Mallard with three fuzzy chicks. When I turned the corner, I was a mere 3-5 feet from them, as they were waddling across a puddle, commuting from one pond to the other.

Normally, hen Mallards perform a distraction display to lure a potential predator away from their kids. They belly-flop onto the water and row with their wings, making lots of “I’m injured, look how easy of a meal I would be” noises. Well, I was too close for her comfort, so the distraction display wasn’t going to be good enough for this protective mother. So, after flopping into the mud – and failing to travel more than a few feet with the rowing technique, she turned around and came right at me! First, she hit me in the shins, then, the back of the knees! (And, I have the mud on my pants to prove it!) In fact, she hit me hard enough in the back of the knees that I actually stumbled a little bit (just a little bit though, if I had been taken out by a duck, I wouldn’t be admitting it here!) – although this could have been from how hard I was laughing, rather than how hard she hit me.

After trying to take me out, she then continued the more classic distraction display, belly-swimming on dry, hard ground (that couldn’t have felt good) for at least 50 yards up the hill. Finally, when she felt that I was far enough away from her family, she “miraculously” recovered from her injuries and flew back down to the puddles, and I went back to birding (which included a singing Carolina Wren).

Before surviving this near-brush with death at the wings of this dedicated mother, I had walked the loop from Kettle Cove through Crescent Beach State Park. A single Piping Plover was on the beach, there was certainly no shortage of Yellow Warblers, and a very late Blackpoll Warbler was singing from a blue spruce in a yard on Fessenden St.

But, I started the day seawatching from Dyer Point. Light easterly winds continued, but I think yesterday’s stronger breeze would have been better (but Wednesdays is a day I arrive at work rather early), but hey, what are you going to do? Excellent visibility and overcast skies would aid in the detection of anything offshore, at least.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a whole lot going on, as I scanned the sea for an hour (6:50am to 7:50am). I did pick up my first Wilson’s Storm-Petrel of the summer, however, and lots of Common Terns were feeding and commuting. Unfortunately, most of the terns were a little too far to sort through, but one Roseate Tern did pass through. One flock of 74 immature Bonaparte’s Gulls were moving north, as were over 25 Northern Gannets. I also tallied 31 northbound Common Loons, 4 Red-throated Loons, 1 Red-breasted Merganser, and 8 Double-crested Cormorants.

Over the next few weeks, I would expect the numbers of Wilson’s Storm-Petrels to begin to increase significantly, and the first Shearwaters – Great and Sooty – should be arriving any minute now. Summer seabirding is a lot of fun, and I’ll take every opportunity (some free time plus onshore winds) to seawatch from shore. Meanwhile, I am really looking forward to the 5 boat trips that we are running this summer.

The first Casco Bay Tern trip and our 6-day Windjammer Cruise trips are nearly full now. However, if you are considering joining us on our first ½ day Portland Pelagic, please sign-up soon! We need reservations by June 21st to make sure this trip will run, so please don’t delay. More information about this – and the other – boat trips this summer (dates, times, prices, expected species, etc) can be found on the “Travel Page” of our website, www.yarmouthbirds.com/travels.asp. Pelagic birding trips are really a lot of fun, and the birding can be very, very rewarding. Shearwaters, storm-petrels, gannets, jaegers, gulls, terns, and many other species can be expected, and the birds are often a heckuva lot closer than shore-based seawatching!

My final “plug” for the day will be for the landlubbers out there! This Saturday (June 16) our store’s regular free Saturday Morning Birdwalk will be a little different. We’ll still meet at the store at 8:00am, but this week we’ll be joined by the New England Forestry Foundation. As part of their “Community Forest Discovery Days” activities, we’ll be heading over to one of their Freeport properties to look for breeding birds and practice our tree identification skills (a Bird- and Tree-Walk, if you will). Hope to see you here on Saturday!