At about 10:00 yesterday morning, birders on their way to the Hardy Boat ferry to Monhegan Island discovered a Calliope Hummingbird in New Harbor. The bird was feeding on Scarlet Sage in front of the Grosnold Arms Inn, along Rte 32, a just distance from the dock. The message was received in the early afternoon, and the word was spread.

I arrived at about 4:00, joining 6 other birders. The Calliope – only the second ever in Maine – was seen sporadically in the flowers. A tardy female Ruby-throated Hummingbird was also present. Each time one of the hummers would head to the salvia, a car or pedestrian would come by, and it would disappear. Each time we were able to conclusively identify the hummingbird, it would be the Ruby-throat.

Finally, at about 4:30, a small-looking hummingbird with a short (relatively speaking) bill and a tint of buff on the sides visited the salvia. It then flew to a nearby lilac bush, where we studied and photographed it for about 15 minutes. A short time later, it made one more visit to the flowers, and then departed for the evening (about 4:50).

These photos, of the perched bird, show wings that appear to fall short of the tip of the tail, the “dirty” flanks that show a hint of warm buff, the shortish, straight bill, and the dark supraloral area of this bird.

(Addendum, added 7:45pm: The above paragraph was very poorly worded, and therefore, I updated it to better reflect my thought process - I didn't mean to say that all of those "pertinent field marks" were necessarily diagnostic of Calliope - they were just noticeable in these photos . . . I make this change after correspondence with others noted some of these features do not coincide with Calliope. My complete field notes are being passed on to folks who know a lot more about this species than I do!)

Unforunately, the fading light and overcast conditions made digiscoping difficult, and these shots aren't as sharp as I'd like. But, I was able to get some very crisp video of the bird - also with my digital camera hand-held to my spotting scope. If you would like to take a look at it, let me know, and I'll attempt to send you the very large file. Meanwhile, here's a couple of other stills . . .

So, just the other day, I was commenting that I was showing symptoms of the seasonal disorder, “Rarity Fever.” Well there’s no better cure that successfully twitching a second state record! On the other hand, there’s also no better way than making the symptoms worse!

Meanwhile, the hummer was the icing on the cake to an otherwise excellent birding day. A back-door cold front late Friday night produced just enough west wind to get some birds offshore, and therefore we enjoyed a productive birdwalk to Sandy Point Beach. Highlights included 20+ White-crowned Sparrows (these are EVERYWHERE recently!) and a singing Pine Warbler. Then, 2 hours of hawkwatching in front of the store produced 26 raptors, included our first Red-shouldered Hawk and first two Peregrine Falcons of the season. 243 Canada Geese were a nice count as well.

Unfortunately, what could have been a perfect Saturday was ruined at about 11:30pm when Mike Teel through his third interception of the game to end Rutgers’ comeback attempt after they blew a lead to #20 Cincinnati. Oh, well, no Orange Bowl for us this year (but then again, the way ranked teams keep losing every week, ya never know!)

Anyway, with the overnight rain and northeasterly winds last night, very little, if anything was on the move. Jeannette ran the Maine ½ Marathon this morning, so while I was waiting to see her finish, I walked over to Deering Oaks Park. I encountered one flock of about 50 Yellow-rumped Warblers held a few Red-eyed Vireos, Blackpoll Warblers, and 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, along with a couple of small groups of Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows. American Crows were harassing the resident Red-tailed Hawk, as usual, who appeared to have just finished breakfast – squirrel no doubt.

Then, checking the marsh at Back Cove, there was a small roosting flock of shorebirds, including 29 Black-bellied Plovers, 10 Dunlin, 1 Lesser Yellowlegs, and 5 Greater Yellowlegs. Then, it was over to the finish line . . .

Upon arriving at the store, I hawkwatched for a spell. Sunday mornings aren’t usually too busy – and it wasn’t – so I took advantage of the time and the northerly wind to tally a decent hawk flight. 32 raptors of 9 species passed overhead in 2 ¼ hours of scanning, including 2 Red-shouldered Hawks and our 12th Bald Eagle of the season. Non-raptor diurnal migrants were also in the air, including a total of 163 Canada Geese and a flock of 14 Rusty Blackbirds.

The more dynamic weather pattern setting up for the next week should bring us some excellent birding. Stay tuned!