On Friday, I stuck my neck out and made some predictions about the weekend. Let’s see how I did.

Rain continued day, and into the early evening, on Friday (an impressive 3-4 inches total). The rain finally let up shortly after sunset, and a gusty northwest wind picked up. Prefect! I awoke this morning, checked the anemometer, and saw a light northwest wind was registering. To Sandy Point I go!

I arrived shortly before sunrise (now 6:52am), and took up my usual post at the bridge. As the sun cracked the horizon, I expected to see good numbers of birds overhead. I did not. Just a few Yellow-rumped Warblers, 1 Chipping Sparrow, and 4 American Pipits passed by. The bushes held a few more birds, mostly White-throated Sparrows (~20), White-crowned Sparrows (8), and Dark-eyed Juncos (17). Unfortunately, I also saw the devastation wreaked by the recent tree “trimming” done here. The entire – and often very birdy – row of White Pines at the edge of the parking lot had been completely removed. This was very sad to see, and I do think will impact the birding here in the future. But, that doesn’t explain why so few birds were overhead this morning.

Upon returning to the store, I took a look at the overnight winds and found that the winds overhead had turned to the WNW, and rapidly diminished after 9:00 or so and light westerlies continued until dawn. That explained why there were so few birds over Sandy Point this morning. However, a look at the radar images showed that there were definitely birds on the move, although in a much lower volume than I had expected. What birds were on the move last night had not been forced offshore by the light winds, and therefore there was little to reorient inland over and through Sandy Point that morning.

Here's the midnight radar, for example.

(But, check out what was happening to our south!)

I then met up with my Saturday Morning Birdwalk group at the store, and we headed over to twitch the 3 Cackling Geese on Thornhurst Farm. We soon found them, along with a Solitary Sandpiper, a tardy Killdeer, a fly-by Gadwall, and an impressive 50+ American Pipits.

Next, it was over to Old Townhouse Park, which produced a good variety of birds, including an Eastern Bluebird, 30 Rusty Blackbirds, and a peppering of assorted sparrows. (The full list is on the store’s website). We finished up the morning with an hour and a half of hawkcounting in front of the store, which yielded 15 raptors. 5 White-crowned Sparrows were under the feeders at the store – a record count for our feeding station, and a couple Yellow-rumped Warblers foraged in the bushes

Earlier, Jeannette visited Bayview Preserve, which was simply filthy with Yellow-rumped Warblers (150+) and three newly arrived Ring-necked Ducks, among a smattering of other migrants. Furthermore, some reports that trickled in during the day echoed our observations – birds were on the move, especially good numbers of sparrows.

Winds on Saturday were light and variable, but at night a westerly breeze developed as a weak low passed to our north. And birds were really on the move! A line of showers passed through between midnight and 2:00am, and this helped produce a moderate “fall-out” for the morning.

10pm radar:

12am radar:

4am radar:

The winds shifted to the WNW by dawn, and therefore I began my day in my usual spot, on the bridge at Sandy Point. And, I was not disappointed. The scrub was busy with sparrows, and shortly after sunrise, the first wave of Yellow-rumped Warblers passed overhead. Then the next. And another, and another, and so on, until my hand-clicker read “387.” Yup, that was a flight – I was just a day late on predicting when it would come! Small flocks of American Robins were passing overhead, both flavors of Kinglets were in the bushes, and I tallied 7 species of warblers – a very good total for the 14th of October.

Location: Sandy Point Beach, Cousin's Island, Yarmouth
Observation date: 10/14/07
Notes: 6:50-8:50am. Lt WNW, mostly cloudy.
Number of species: 43

Canada Goose 15
American Black Duck X
Common Eider X
Common Loon 2
Double-crested Cormorant X
Great Blue Heron X
Mourning Dove 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1 One of few ever seen crossing water.
Northern Flicker 1
Eastern Phoebe 2
Blue-headed Vireo 6
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Black-capped Chickadee X
Tufted Titmouse X
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
White-breasted Nuthatch X
Golden-crowned Kinglet 22
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 12
Hermit Thrush 9
American Robin 72
European Starling X
American Pipit 13
Nashville Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 4
Yellow-rumped Warbler 387
Black-throated Green Warbler 6
Palm Warbler 7
Blackpoll Warbler 4
Common Yellowthroat 3
Chipping Sparrow 9
Savannah Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 23
Swamp Sparrow 13
White-throated Sparrow 25
White-crowned Sparrow 17
Dark-eyed Junco 94
Rusty Blackbird 2
Purple Finch 8
Pine Siskin 3
American Goldfinch 1
passerine sp. 149 Mostly in high, tight flocks, wither directly
overhead or well to the south of the bridge. Presumably mostly YRWA.

The next stop was Portland’s Dragon Field. I’ve been struggling to finally tick my 150th species for this sparrow-rific location, and I felt like today was going to be the day. I had a “good” sparrow – like a Clay-colored – on my mind, and soon the long-sought-after #150 appeared – a White-eyed Vireo! Now, that’s “finishing” off a patch list with a bang. I’ve only seen 4 or 5 of these southern birds in the state, and this bird, an immature (and therefore a “Not-so-white-eyed” Vireo) was a real treat.

Many, many, many, many sparrows later, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo flew through, which may have been #151 for the list. While I have seen Black-bills here numerous times, I can’t recall spotting a Y.B. I’ll have to check the list when I get home, but this may have been an excellent bonus-bird. A tardy Bobolink and the plethora of sparrows were the other highlights. I know I must sound like a broken record by now, but I’m simply dumbfounded by the abundance of White-crowned Sparrows around! While it was “only” my third most-common sparrow at the D.F. today, I still estimated a whopping 100! (And there are 10 under the feeders at the store, where we usually get 1-2 a season, as I type this! And, one finally showed up in our heavily-wooded Pownal yard, which Jeannette found this morning for our 100th Home Yard Bird – a day of milestones, apparently!).

Location: Dragon Field
Observation date: 10/14/07
Notes: Extremely birdy - sparrow numbers very rough estimates.
Number of species: 31

Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Mourning Dove X
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Downy Woodpecker X
Hairy Woodpecker X
Northern Flicker 4
White-eyed Vireo 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 4
Winter Wren 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 4
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 4
Nashville Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 9
Common Yellowthroat 4
Chipping Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 125
Song Sparrow 75
Lincoln's Sparrow 8
Swamp Sparrow 150
White-throated Sparrow 35
White-crowned Sparrow 100 75-80% immature. Ridiculously large
quantities of this species continue throughout the area.
Northern Cardinal 3
Bobolink 1 late
Purple Finch 8
House Finch 40
American Goldfinch 25

Days like this are special, so I continued to bird (Jeannette and I planned on splitting the day anyway, as we often do on Sundays). I checked the woods and brush along the Commercial Street Extension in Portland (which I call “Mercy Woods”), which produced plenty more sparrows, led by 75 Song and 25 Swamp, but “only” 15 White-crowned!

A spin around downtown Portland produced some White-throated Sparrows here and there, lunch for me, and 2 Hermit Thrushes in the garden of the First Parish Church. Then, my last stop of the day, was the Eastern Promenade. By now, it was already early afternoon, and it was rather windy, so sparrowing was not easy. There were plenty of Song Sparrows, and yes, White-crowned Sparrows, but my only new addition for the day was a bit bittersweet – a single American Tree Sparrow. Yup, this late migrant signals the beginning of the end of sparrow migration – and the majority of species, actually.

But, October is only half over, and there’s lots of great birding left in this month. A weekend like this shows why October is my favorite month to bird. And, what a weekend it was – a big wave of Yellow-rumped Warblers, a massive flight of sparrows, and a couple of rarities. Hmmm, sounds a bit like my predictions from Friday! Now, if only I had predicted a Northern Wheatear . . .