Yesterday, I spent a day guiding on Monhegan. I was hired by Chrissie, a summer resident of Chamberlain, for a day of birding on this Maine mega-hotspot. Although it is still only late August – passerine migration is just now heating up – and the weather was “too nice,” we had a fantastic day.

We began at Pemaquid Point, where the loop road produced 6 species of warblers, including a Blackpoll and a Northern Waterthrush – two species that we did not see on the island. The smattering of migrants here is usually a good sign that birds were in the air overnight, and hopefully some of them had wandered out to Monhegan.

The boat ride from New Harbor to Monhegan was not very eventful; just a few Common Loons, Northern Gannets, and Common Terns were spotted. By the time we arrived on the island, at about 10:00, the air was already quite warm, and the southerly breeze had picked up. Clearly, we would have to work harder for birds today!

And work we had to! Migrants, other than Purple Finches, and a few warblers were hard to find in the “usual” spots in and around town. Lobster Cove produced a group of 9 Least Sandpipers – any shorebird is a good bird on the island, as the habitat for them is so limited. After lunch, we headed into the woods, and out to Whitehead, and then back through the woods. Here, in the cool shade, sheltered from the winds, birds we easier to see and hear, and we rapidly added to our daylist - including a Prairie Warbler, a decent bird for the island – and a very active family group of at least 3 bitter Winter Wrens.

Our all-too-short time on the island came to an all-too-quick end, and before we knew it we were back on the boat, heading to the mainland. A diversion to the Outer Duck islands, however, to look for seals was very productive for us, as 4 Great Cormorants (3 adults, and an immature) were roosting here, along with a lone Ruddy Turnstone. We encountered a few more Northern Gannets on the ride back in, but the real excitement was the three Parasitic Jaegers that we saw, all within a few minutes. First, there was a subadult, then a full-adult with spiffy tail streamers, followed by another immature (juvenile or subadult, I couldn’t get a good look at the plumage detail due to distance and the light). Any day seeing a jaeger is a good day, so three in a row is a great day! But, for this trip, this was only the icing on the cake!

Here’s the trip list:

American Black Duck 2
Mallard 24
Common Eider X
Northern Gannet 2
Double-crested Cormorant X
Great Cormorant 4 Outer Duck islands
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Merlin 1
Spotted Sandpiper 1 Lobster Cove
Ruddy Turnstone 1 Outer Duck islands
Least Sandpiper 9 Lobster Cover
Laughing Gull X
Herring Gull X
Great Black-backed Gull X
Black Guillemot 2
Mourning Dove 8
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Warbling Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 1
American Crow X
Common Raven 2
Black-capped Chickadee 24
Red-breasted Nuthatch 16
House Wren 1
Winter Wren 3
Golden-crowned Kinglet 6
American Robin 2
Gray Catbird 1
Cedar Waxwing 100
Nashville Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 3
Magnolia Warbler 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2
Black-throated Green Warbler 12
Prairie Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 1
American Redstart 1
Common Yellowthroat 6
Canada Warbler 1
Song Sparrow 13
Northern Cardinal 1
Bobolink 2
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Purple Finch 15
House Finch 1
White-winged Crossbill 1
American Goldfinch 6

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)