The forecast last night called for light west-northwest winds to continue through the overnight hours, which would have produced another big flight at Sandy Point. However, at dawn, my weather station reported WSW, and very light. Depending on what time the wind shifted and diminished would influence whether or not there would be a good morning flight, but I decided to hit Sandy Point anyway.

There I found very little in the air, and even less in the bush. However, an Orange-crowned Warbler that I briefly saw foraging on the hillside was certainly a good bird. (Complete totals below). My next stop was the new Fels-Groves Farm Preserve on Gilman Rd. There, I tallied 209 White-throated Sparrows, and a handful of other species. Most suprisingly, I saw only 2 White-crowned Sparrows – apparently the changing of the guard is underway.

A meeting this morning would cut the day’s birding short, but as I was just about back to the car, a large, warm-brown bird with a massive beak and sharp call flushes from the weeds ahead of me and briefly alights on a young tree across the street. “Jeez o’petes!” as they say in Michigan, a Blue Grosbeak! (an immature, hence the warm brown color). A great bird (only my third ever in Maine), as Fels-Groves Farm Preserve gets on the rarity scoreboard. What was lacking in quantity today was more than made up for in quality!

Arriving at the store, I noticed that there were also far fewer birds at the feeding station. By yesterday evening, our White-crowned Sparrow flock had grown to an astounding (for our small garden) 13 birds, along with 5 White-throated Sparrows and 2 Song Sparrows. This morning, “only” 5 White-crowns, 3 White-throats, and 2 Songs remained. Clearly birds departed last night.

During our store’s hawkwatch – the last day of our mini-count - some diurnal migrants were on the move, as the wind was switching back to the northwest. A small flock of five Eastern Bluebirds passed overhead, along with a total of 19 Pine Siskins, among some other stuff. 9 raptors were also tallied, including a spiffy adult Red-shouldered Hawk and – with one minute remaining in our hour’s count – a very low second-cycle Bald Eagle, a great way to bring the season to a close.

Once inside, I checked the overnight winds and the radar images. Yup, the winds had died down to calm by 10pm, and in Portland at least, even occasionally blew – albeit ever-so-lightly - from the south. That explains the lack of birds at Sandy Point this morning.

And, a check of the radar confirmed my suspicion of a mass-exodus last night:
10pm image:

12am image:

2am image:

5am image:

I wonder how much of that echo was from JUST departing White-crowned Sparrows?!

But I leave you today with a very disturbing, and sad, article. Apparently, the unique and fascinating Spoonbill Sandpiper is in real trouble. This is one of those birds I have always wanted to see, but it looks like I’ll have to get to Siberia much sooner than later.

Location: Sandy Point Beach, Cousin's Island, Yarmouth
Observation date: 10/15/07
Notes: 650-800am. Lt WSW, mostly cloudy. Lt WNW diminished to
calm overnight, mass exodus of birds from the area.
Number of species: 32

American Black Duck X
Common Eider X
Common Loon 2
Double-crested Cormorant X
Bonaparte's Gull X
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Mourning Dove X
Belted Kingfisher X
Downy Woodpecker X
Northern Flicker 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Black-capped Chickadee 6
Golden-crowned Kinglet 4
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 5
Hermit Thrush 3
American Robin 33
European Starling X
American Pipit 15
Cedar Waxwing 1
Orange-crowned Warbler 1 Seen briefly from end of bridge,
looking down into goldenrod and brambles at base of hill at beach edge. Not
relocated.
Yellow-rumped Warbler 57
Palm Warbler 1
Blackpoll Warbler 6
Song Sparrow 2
White-throated Sparrow 6
White-crowned Sparrow 2
Dark-eyed Junco 13
American Goldfinch 1
passerine sp. 18

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